In which countries is the Gregorian calendar not used?

Time is one of the most important and interesting concepts in human life. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, in short, everything about time and time is one of the most defining elements of our daily life. Just like time, history has a great impact on human life. So what is the time and date literally? What do these two concepts, which play a very important role in our life, really mean? Answering these questions is not easy. However, it may be worth taking a closer look at calendars, especially the Gregorian calendar, to get the answer. Although the Gregorian calendar is the dominant calendar in the world, it is not valid everywhere, at least it is not valid on its own! Today, some human societies around the world still calculate the date according to different calendars. In fact, some cultures use more than one calendar at the same time, so these cultures live on more than one date at the same time! Why and how is the Gregorian calendar the dominant calendar? Let’s look at the differences in humanity’s perception of date and time and the evolution of the Gregorian calendar together…

What is the Gregorian calendar?

The Gregorian calendar, or better known as the Gregorian calendar, was adopted by Pope XIII in 1582. A calendar commissioned by Gregory to replace the Julian calendar and accept the Earth’s rotation around the sun in 365 days and 6 hours as a year. The calendar accepts the year of Christ’s birth as a milestone and the date starts from here.

It is also designed to correct the shift between the Catholic calendar and the solar year, which are arranged according to the Julian calendar. Compared to the Julian calendar, it was more successful and practical. But for the calendar to become widespread, it wasn’t enough to just be technically successful. The world was not yet ready to radically change the concept of time …

For the first time in 1582, Pope XIII. The calendar prepared under Gregory was a product of Christian doctrine and Renaissance science.

Moreover, it was more efficient than the Julian calendar, which was the common calendar before it. He was able to reduce the 10-day mismatch between seasons to 26 seconds. However, it was a Catholic calendar drawn up by the Pope. For this reason, the Orthodox and Protestants refused to use the Gregorian calendar.

It was only in the seventeenth century that the Gregorian calendar became popular only among Catholic communities. Orthodox countries such as Russia, Romania, and Greece were by no means inclined to use the Gregorian calendar. So much so that the calendar was not an agreed tool in Europe until the twentieth century!

How did the Gregorian calendar become the dominant calendar?

Although the Gregorian calendar is not accepted among the Protestants and the Orthodox, it is more easily accepted in different geographical areas of the world. For example, the Gregorian calendar was used in Beirut in the 1880s and in Japan in 1872. The biggest reason for this situation was European imperialism, which affected the whole world in the 19th century.

During the colonial period, nearly 80 percent of the world was under the administration of European countries. That is why the Gregorian calendar has spread all over the world. In the following period, the adoption of the Gregorian calendar as an international standard in many different fields from economics to science was another factor that increased the popularity of the calendar.

Globalization has caused the Gregorian calendar to become more popular.

For example, Saudi Arabia shifted the salary calendar of government employees from the Hijri calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 2016. In addition, technological and cultural imperialism allowed the transfer of the Gregorian calendar to geographic areas that even colonialism could not reach.

The concepts of date and time were a more cultural thing in the past.

Accordingly, many ancient societies in the past used more than one calendar at the same time. For example, in ancient Egypt and the Maya civilization, there were two different calendars, one religious and the other administrative. The Gregorian calendar was one of the four calendars in use in Beirut in the 1880s! In the fourteenth century AD, the Chinese and Arabic calendars were used in Korea. In short, many societies in the past used more than one calendar for cultural or artistic reasons.

Although the Gregorian calendar has become the standard calendar over the years, the perception of time and date can vary between countries even today.

Because today, societies that continue to perceive time and date differently and therefore use different calendars together continue to exist… For example, most of the world just met in the year 2023, but Ethiopia only has 8 years to enter the year 2023! Myanmar in 1384, Thailand in 2566! Nepal is living in the year 2079 according to one calendar and 1143 according to another. And officially!

In South Korea, you can celebrate more than one birthday a year! Because even today, the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar are used together in South Korea. In Japan, various calendars showing imperial dates, happy days, and seasonal changes are used along with the Gregorian calendar. In short, history and time continue to progress in different ways in different parts of the world.