An abacus calendar is a kind of calendar that makes use of an abacus to characterize the times, months, and years. Abacus calendars had been first developed in China in the course of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), and so they had been used for hundreds of years to maintain monitor of time. In contrast to fashionable calendars, that are based mostly on the photo voltaic 12 months, abacus calendars are based mostly on the lunisolar 12 months, which is the time it takes for the moon to orbit the Earth 12 instances. Due to this fact, the size of every month in an abacus calendar can fluctuate between 29 and 30 days.
Abacus calendars are nonetheless used right this moment in some components of the world, significantly in East Asia. They’re usually used for non secular functions, resembling figuring out the dates of festivals and holidays, and so they can be used for sensible functions, resembling holding monitor of appointments and occasions. Abacus calendars are a worthwhile device for anybody who’s taken with studying extra about Chinese language tradition and historical past, and so they can be a enjoyable and academic strategy to study concerning the fundamentals of astronomy.
