The Cham calendar (

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albania ...

: ꨧꨆꨥꨪ ''sakawi'') is a lunisolar calendar used by the

Cham people The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territor ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

since ancient times. Its origins is based on ''Saka Raja'' calendar which was influenced by the

Shaka era The Shaka era ( IAST: Śaka, Śāka) is a historical Hindu calendar era (year numbering), the epoch (its year zero) of which corresponds to Julian year 78. The era has been widely used in different regions of India as well as in SE Asia. His ...

(78 CE) Indian

Hindu calendar The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a ...

, with the current standard called ''Sakawi Cham'' likely instituted during the reign of

Po Rome Po Rome (?–1651), also spelled Po Romê, Po Romé or Po Ramo, was the king of Panduranga Champa, reigning from 1627 to 1651. Po Rome was a Churu chief, originally from present-day Đơn Dương District, Lâm Đồng Province. Prior to hi ...

of the Champa kingdom.

Features

The Cham calendar has a system of a set of revolving cycles of days, weeks, months ad years. The Cham month consists of two lunar phases of 15 days each. The 1st half denotes the full moon phase called ''Bingun'', while the new moon phase is called ''Kanam''. The 12 year cycle similar to Chinese zodiac is referred to as ''Nâthak''. The Cham calendar known as Sakawi Cham is a term used to encompass two calendar variants. *''Sakawi Ahier'': This is used by Balamon Hindu

Chams The Cham ( Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people ( Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territ ...

and is lunisolar in nature. *''Sakawi Awal'': This is used by Bani Muslim Chams and is lunar in nature. The calendar is used as an agricultural almanac to ascertain the time of cultivation. The biggest Cham festival known as ''Kate festival'' falls on the 1st day of the seven Cham month.

Sakawi Ahier

System

The names of the days of the Cham week were derived from their

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

names used in the traditional

. The length of the month: the full month (balan tapăk) has 30 days and the hollow month (balan u) has 29 days. Balan Mak āgha

Cham zodiac

The Cham zodiac is similar to the

Vietnamese zodiac The Vietnamese zodiac ( Vietnamese: ''Mười hai con giáp'') is the traditional Vietnamese classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating 12-year cycle. Instead of ...

in its usage and arrangement of animals, but replaces the Monkey with the turtle (''kra''); the cat with the rabbit (Tapay).

Sakawi Awal

This variant is influenced by of 12 Arabic lunar months system consisting of 29-30 days. It uses an 8 year cycle called ''Ikessarak''. This variant is used for certain Islamic festivals observed by the Bani Chams.

Festivals

Important festivals in the Cham calendar: *Rija Nukan- Cham New Year(Mar/Apr) *Katê- Harvest festival(Sep)

Features

Sakawi Ahier

System

Cham zodiac

Sakawi Awal

Festivals

See also

References

Further reading