[misc.wanted] Islamic and Chinese New Year

adam@MATH.UCLA.EDU (02/17/88)

Does anyone know of a formula to find the Islamic New Year
and the Chinese New Year?   Thanks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Adam H. Lewenberg  
UCLA-Mathnet; 3921 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA 90024-1555
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leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (02/24/88)

In article <9485@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> adam@MATH.UCLA.EDU (Adam H. Lewenberg) writes:
<Does anyone know of a formula to find the Islamic New Year
<and the Chinese New Year?   Thanks.

I have some *very* bad news for you. The Islamic calendar determines the start
of the month by when the new moon is first seen. This means that no matter
*how* you calculate it, you are liable to be plus or minus one day in the 
real world. 

Check the Brittanica. I seem to recall an article there (under "calendars")
that gave the pattern of years and the like. As you can see from the above
comment, the months are *strictly* lunar (so get a "phase of moon" program)
and the years are 12 and 13 months long following a 19(?) year cycle....

If you get anything for either, let me know! I once planned to write some
code for converting various calendars, but never finished it.   
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
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