The year is 2023… or is it? Depending on
where you are, you may be living in the past or the future. In much of North Africa,
that year is 1444. In two different countries, the year is 112. And in Israel, it’s the year
5,783 due to the belief that that God created existence around that many years ago. To be
clear, Earth is much older than 5,783 years, and the universe is much, much older than Earth.
However, how time is measured and recorded is a human construct, which means mistakes are
made, and different cultures have their own way of doing things. Come with us as we go on
a journey through time without leaving 2023. The year is Reiwa 5. The place is
present-day Japan. Does this mean Japan is living 2,018 years in the past?
Obviously, not, but the way the Japanese calendar works means that it’s only the 5th
year since this era began. How can this be? The Gregorian calendar is used in many parts
of the world, which is how most of us track the current date. However, not everyone uses this
Christian calendar, nor should they. Most cultures have their own unique way of keeping track
of the date, and depending on where you live, you might have several different calendars to
keep track of. However, due to colonization and the globalization of our planet, many traditional
calendars have been lost or forgotten. In fact, out of the 195 countries on the planet, at least
168 use the Gregorian calendar in some fashion. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Let’s go back to Japan and find out why they are living in the year 5. Japan itself
is made up of around 14,125 islands; however, people only live on 260 or so of them. A single
government hasn’t always ruled the archipelago, but after signing the San Francisco Peace
Treaty with the Allied Powers in 1952, the Japanese islands officially became
a single nation under one government. In the Japanese calendar system, the word
Reiwa refers to the current era of Japan’s official calendar. The country
also uses the Gregorian calendar, but the Japanese Calendar is important for
cultural and official purposes. China brought the system that the Japanese calendar is
founded on to the island nation around 700 CE. The era name is chosen by the Emperor of
Japan when he rises to the throne. In the past, the Emperor could change the era at any
point to commemorate a significant event. Every time the era changes, the year count
goes back to 1. In 1912 Emperor Taishō set the precedent of having one era for the entire reign
of an emperor. The Reiwa era started on May 1, 2019, when Emperor Naruhito, the eldest
son of the previous ruler, Emporer Akihito, took the throne. Emperor Akihito is still
alive at 89 years old but abdicated his throne for his son to replace him. The term
Reiwa means “Beautiful Harmony” and is the first era name that uses characters from a
Japanese root source instead of a Chinese one. The Japanese calendar is used to date most
official documents along with government forms, private business communications,
and personal letters. The use of the Japanese calendar today means
that if you were to visit Japan, you would travel from the year
2023 to the year 5 when you landed. Moving forward in calendar time, we are traveling
to the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan. Here the Minguo calendar is used, and
the year is 112. The calendar is also known as the Republic of China calendar
and is also utilized in Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. This calendar began in 1912,
the year that the Republic of China was established in Nanjing. Although, like most
aspects of Taiwan, China does not recognize the calendar as Beijing’s official stance is
the island never separated from China itself, so they can’t possibly have an
independent calendar system. The Minguo calendar is used on some official
documents, but most of the country follows the Gregorian calendar for day-to-day
operations. This makes sense as Taiwan does business with much of the world, most of
which uses the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, adopting the Gregorian system seemed
like a logical move. Taiwan’s main industry is semiconductor manufacturing.
In fact, this small island produces over 50% of all semiconductors bringing
in around $115 billion annually. Interestingly, if you traveled to North
Korea, which we would not recommend doing, the year is also 112. But this is for
very different reasons than Taiwan. In North Korea, the Juche calendar is used. It
began with the birth of the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung. The year Kim Il-sung
was born is considered Juche 1, but the calendar itself wasn’t adopted until 1997, three
years after the death of the founding dictator. The calendar combines the traditional Korean
calendar system with the Gregorian calendar. When the Juche calendar was officially adopted,
newspapers, news agencies, radio stations, public transport, and birth certificates all switched
over to this new system. Therefore, the 25.97 million people currently living in the country
also follow the Juche calendar. If you ever do find yourself in North Korea, it is the year 112,
and due to the oppressive regime that controls the country, it actually feels like you’ve been
transported almost 2,000 years into the past. In Nepal, the year is 1143. The Nepal Sambat is a lunisolar calendar
that has been used for literally thousands of years. Its dates have been found on coins,
inscriptions, Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts, and legal documents of the past. The beginning
of this calendar has a very interesting story attached to it. Most calendars link year zero
with the birth of a savior or the independence of a people. However, legend has it the
Nepal Sambat starts on the day when the Nepali people were able to pay back all of
their debts to the King. This seems like an odd thing to commemorate as the epoch of
a calendar, but there is more to the story. According to ancient Nepalese tradition, long
ago, an astrologer prophesied that the sands where the Bhacha Khushi and Bishnumati Rivers
in Kathmandu meet would turn to gold. The King sent his men to collect the sand so that when
it turned to gold, his wealth would increase exponentially. He had been collecting enormous
amounts of tribute from the people of Nepal, showing his greed knew no bounds. Many Nepalese
people were deeply in debt to the King. However, he did not care about the suffering
of the people; the king just wanted more riches. One day a local merchant named
Sankhadhar Sakhwa noticed the odd behavior of the king's men and he convinced them
to let him take the sand off their hands. The next day when Sankhadhar Sakhwa opened the
bags, they were full of gold instead of sand. Sankhadhar took the gold to the King and paid
off the debts of every person in Nepal. The Nepalese people were finally free. This event is
year 0 in the Nepal Sambat, corresponding to 879 AD in the Gregorian calendar. To be clear,
the Nepalese people and government of today still have debt. Nepal is ranked 99th out of
all major economies, with a GDP of just over 36 million dollars, and the UN estimates that
around 20% of the population lives in poverty. In Myanmar, the current year is 1384. This is because they use the
Burmese calendar alongside the Gregorian calendar. As with many other
calendars discussed in this video, the Burmese calendar is a lunisolar calendar
where the months are based on the lunar cycle and the years on the revolution of Earth
around the Sun. The calendar itself is founded on the Hindu calendar and incorporates
a Metonic cycle as a part of its dating system. The Metonic cycle is when the phases of
the moon recur at the same time of year as they previously had. This takes
approximately 19 years to happen. For example, if a full moon occurred on
January 1st, another full moon wouldn’t happen on January 1st for another 19 years.
This poses problems when creating a calendar that combines a lunar year and a solar year. To
fix this problem, the Burmese calendar needs to incorporate leap years and a number of days at
random intervals to maintain its consistency. The Burmese calendar is used in Myanmar to
mark traditional holidays and festivals, such as the Burmese New Year. A lot of these
celebrations are connected to Burmese Buddhist practices. When King Popa Saweahan recalibrated
the entire system, the calendar’s start date became March 22, 638 CE. From there, the
new era of Kawza Thekkarit began, and the people of Myanmar have been progressing through
time to the current year of 1384 ever since. The year is 1401 in Iran, as this country
uses one of the two Hijri calendars. More specifically, Iran uses the Solar
Hijri, which, as the name suggests, uses the Earth’s revolution around the sun
as a basis for its year. This is either 365 or 366 days long, depending on if a correction
is needed. Just to be clear, the actual length of one revolution of Earth around the sun is
365.2422 days. This is why every four years, solar calendars that break the days into
24 hours need to include an extra day to account for the .2422 extra days that
accumulate at the end of each revolution. The Solar Hijri is one of the world's oldest and
most accurate calendars. This is unsurprising as many of the basic scientific principles and
advancements in mathematics were developed thousands of years ago in the Arabic world. That
being said, highly precise mathematical practices also developed independently around the world in
places like Latin America and East Asia as well. The creators of the Hijri Solar calendar used astronomical observations and calculations
to determine the vernal or spring equinox, which is the start of the calendar. Year zero
of the Solar Hijri calendar is marked by the year that the Islamic prophet Muhammad
and his followers traveled from Mecca to Medina in the year 622. There is also a Lunar
Hijiri calendar that was developed after the solar calendar that much of the Muslim world
uses, but Iran has stuck with the original. Since the Solar Hijiri is based on the Earth’s
movement around the sun and the Lunar calendar is based on the movement of the moon around the
Earth, the year is different in Iran than in the rest of the countries that use the alternate
Hijri calendar. In fact, the two calendars drift apart by a little more than 11 days
each year, meaning that between Mohammad's journey in 622 CE and the present day, the two
calendars are approximately 43 years apart. In the Bengal region of the Indian
subcontinent, the year is 1429. It is here that the Bengali Calendar is used.
It’s the official calendar of Bangladesh and has its roots in an ancient Sanskrit astronomical
text called the Surya Siddhanta. The Bengali calendar has a start date between the 12th
and 14th of April, 594 CE. Unfortunately, this calendar was later modified for the purpose
of tax collection. It’s not entirely clear why this particular start year was chosen. Some
scholars think it coincides with the reign of King Shashanka while Mughal emperor Akbar
was credited with modifying it. However, the exact reason for a beginning
year of 594 is still not agreed upon. In Northern Africa and much of the
Middle East, the year is 1444 AH. It’s in these countries that the Lunar Hijri
calendar is used. Unlike its solar counterpart, this calendar has 12 lunar months in a year,
which consists of 354 or 355 days. This is because the moon takes 27.3 days to complete one
revolution and 29.5 days to complete a cycle of its phases. Like the Solar Hijri Calendar used
in Iran, the Lunar Hijri is used to determine Islamic holidays and rituals. This includes
when fasting should occur and the season for the great pilgrimage. As mentioned before,
the start date of both Hijri is the year 622, but the reason that the current year is
different between these two calendars is because of the discrepancies between the
length of a lunar year and a solar year. The event that marks the beginning
of the Hijri calendar is also where it got its name. The journey Mohammad
took from Mecca to Medina was called the Hijrah. It’s also why the year
is termed 1444 AH or Anno Hegirae. We are now getting closer to the year 2023. The
Indian National calendar marks this year as 1944, which also happens to be the year
that India became the most populous country on the planet. In 2023—1944 on the
Indian National Calendar—the population of India reached over 1.426 billion people,
exceeding China’s 1.425 billion citizens. This calendar is also known as the Śaka
calendar and is used in Indian media and official communications by the government.
The calendar started with the ascension of King Shalivaahan to the throne in 78 AD. He was
said to be a legendary emperor of ancient India, although some believe that Shalivaahan
was actually another name attributed to Vikramaditya of Ujjain or may have also
been an enemy of Vikramaditya. Regardless of exactly who the calendar is based on, the
year 78 AD marks the beginning of the Saka era. The Indian National calendar wasn’t officially
adopted until 1957. This was done to ensure all Indians were using the same dating system.
However, many regions still continue to use their own traditional calendars, such
as the Bengali Calendar in Bangladesh. In Ethiopia, the year is
2015, so if you travel there, you will only need to adjust
your daily calendar by 8 years. The Ethiopian Calendar, also known as the Coptic
Calendar, is different than the Gregorian calendar because of a dispute over when Jesus was born.
Year zero for the Gregorian calendar is the year that religious scholars and clergymen believe that
the Christian savior Jesus Christ miraculously came into this world, which was 2,023 years ago.
The Ethiopian government bases its calendar on the teachings of the Coptic Orthodox Church
of Alexandria and Coptic Catholic Church, which puts the date of the Annunciation
8 years after the Catholic Church. This discrepancy in when exactly Jesus
was born has led to Ethiopia being in a different year than the rest of the countries
that use the Gregorian calendar. However, this is not the only difference. The dates of
the years that important religious events occur differ between the two calendars as well.
Again this isn’t based on anything other than varying interpretations of the Bible
between the two branches of Christianity. We are now about to go into
the future. That’s right, for people who use the Vikram Samvat in India
and Nepal, the year is 2079. This calendar is used alongside the Nepal Samvat in Nepal and
the Indian National calendar in India. However, both countries also use the Gregorian calendar as
well. This is why trying to determine the exact date can be very different depending on who
you talk to and which calendar they’re using. The Vikram Samvat is lunisolar, so,
like other calendars of this type, an extra month needs to be added every three years
or 7 times in the 19-year Metonic cycle. This is done so that important festivals and events fall
within the right season. Returning to the legend of how the Indian National Calendar or Śakas
Calendar started, the Vikram Samvat is said to have gotten its origins when King Vikramaditya
of Ujjain established the Vikrama Samvat era after defeating the Śakas. However, the legend
about how this happened is especially intriguing. It’s said that Gandharvasena, the then-king
of Ujjain, abducted the sister of a monk who was a nun herself. Because of this
egregious misstep by the Ujjain king, the monk decided to help the Śaka King
Sahi defeat him. Sahi’s forces attacked Ujjain but were greatly outnumbered. However,
thanks to the miracles enacted by the monk, the Śaka defeated Gandharvasena. The monk's sister
was returned to him, and Gandharvasena was forced into exile. While in the dense forests of the
region, he was slain by a tiger. The king’s son, Vikramaditya, who had been raised in the
forest when the Śaka seized their kingdom, gathered a force and returned to Ujjain
to reclaim it from the Śaka. He succeeded, and this reclaiming of the Ujjain kingdom by
Vikramaditya marks the beginning of the “Vikrama era.” This is why the Vikram Samvat has a starting
year of 56 BCE, and the current year is 2079. However, if you want to go
even further forward in time, you can go to Thailand, where
the current year is 2566. Thailand actually uses two different calendar
systems alongside one another. One is a solar calendar based on the Gregorian calendar, which
is used for most day-to-day activities. However, there is also a lunar calendar based on the
Buddhist calendar that has a starting date of March 11, 543 BCE. On this date, Gautama Buddha
died and broke free from the cycle of rebirth to attain nirvana. Over 400 million people practice
Buddhism across the world today. In Thailand, the year is 2566 BE, which stands for Buddhist
Era. However, this lunar calendar is mostly used for Buddhist religious practices and
events and not for everyday purposes. This brings us to the calendar with the
oldest starting date in the world. In fact, the Hebrew calendar claims to have
begun at the inception of everything, when God declared: “Let there be light.” The Hebrew calendar used in Israel puts the
current year at Anno Mundi 5783. Anno Mundi translates to “year after creation.” The Hebrew
calendar is used to track Jewish religious dates and which portions of the Torah should be
read at specific times of the year. The Hebrew Calendar follows the lunar year, so it needs to be
reconciled every 19 years. However, even with this correction, the Hebrew calendar year ends up being
6 minutes and 40 seconds longer than a solar year. This means every 216 years, the Hebrew calendar
falls a day behind the Gregorian calendar. Now, to be clear, the universe did not start
5,783 years ago. Evidence suggests that the Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago when
gas, dust, and debris orbiting the sun were pulled together by gravity. The universe
as a whole is estimated to be around 13.7 billion years old. So, if we used a calendar
going back to the beginning of the universe, the year would be 13,700,002,023, give
or take a couple of million years. However, Jewish scholars made calculations based
on the writings of the Torah and have determined that God brought everything into existence on a
September sunrise 5,783 years ago. This is why the year in the Hebrew calendar is seemingly so
much further in the future than the year 2023. This brings us to the current time and place.
As we said, much of the world either uses the Gregorian calendar or a different calendar
alongside the Gregorian calendar. That is why most places you travel to tend to be in
the same year as the country you left. So, where did the Gregorian calendar
come from, and why is it so popular? The Gregorian calendar got its start in 1582
when Pope Gregory XIII set out to reform the Julian calendar, which had been in use
for several centuries. The problem was that the Julian calendar was falling behind
by about a day per century due to the fact that it estimated a solar year was 365
days and 6 hours long when in reality, a solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45.25 seconds. This small inconsistency
had lasting effects over time. By the time Pope Gregory was head of the Catholic church,
the calendar was off by approximately 14 days. In order to fix the issue and realign the
calendar, Pope Gregory XIII declared that on October 4, 1582, the calendar would jump
ahead ten days, making the next day October 15, 1582. The Gregorian calendar also declared that
no century year could be a leap year unless it is divisible by 400, such as the year 1600, the year
2000, the year 2400, and so on and so forth. This keeps the Gregorian calendar accurate to within
1 day every 20,000 years and makes it much more sustainable than the Julian calendar, which would
have continued to lose a day every 100 years. Not everyone was convinced about the
necessity to change their calendar system, even back in 1582. Deeply Roman Catholic nations
such as the Italian states, Portugal, Spain, and Roman Catholic Germany immediately
adopted the Gregorian calendar within a year. Then realizing that it solved the
inaccuracy problems of the Julian calendar, other rulers followed. Protestant Germany
adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1699. Great Britain and its colonies, including
what would become the United States, adopted it in 1752. This meant that as the
British Empire expanded and London controlled around a quarter of the Earth’s surface at its
peak, its territories were forced to adopt the Gregorian calendar for practical reasons. The
same was also true of other European colonies, such as those of Spain in Latin America and
colonies in Africa controlled by Britain, France, Germany, Belgium,
Spain, Portugal, and Italy. So, many parts of the world didn’t so much
choose to follow the Gregorian calendar as they were forced to do so by their oppressors.
Then as nations gained their sovereignty, they either kept the Gregorian calendar to
maintain consistency or as a necessity for doing business with Western powers. However,
as we’ve shown, many people also held onto their own calendar systems, which is why it
actually isn’t 2023 in some parts of the world, and depending on where you physically travel to,
you can also do a little time traveling as well. Now watch “How England Managed To Invade 90% Of The World.” Or check out “Real Reason
Why America Didn't Colonize Africa.”
