Every now and again events conspire to make one realise that what is taken for granted is actually not so stable or certain. I frequently have encounters with time that make this real for me. My most recent experience occurred on a trip I took to Tunisia, where the certainty of the calendar and what constitutes the start of a year was called into question. The Georgian calendar (the one used as the global civil calendar) will for many of us be taken for granted as the way to structure time, yet it does not map onto the cultures and traditions of the majority of the world’s population, and upon reflection I realise only has partial influence upon how I consider my own year.
Through the experience of a collision of calendars one can sometimes also be afforded the chance to consider and reflect on the gifts of serendipitous circumstance, as I was when my personal calendar, the muslim calendar, and assumptions I made based on the Georgian calendar all came together.
Time is structured by a whole variety of different calendar cycles. The Georgian calendar (the one that starts on the first of January each year) fits most comfortably against the holidays of Christianity and is based upon the rising and setting of the sun and its position in relation to the earth. Other cultures have calendars based upon the cycles of the moon. Such as the Chinese calendar with its related celebrations and the Muslim calendar. Despite this significant difference, there are similarities between the three.
For example, all three calendars include within their cycles a period of reflection, contemplation, and anticipation for the forthcoming year. The period of Advent (prior to Christmas is such a time for Christianity), the Spring Festival (or lunar New Year or Chinese New Year), and Ramadan are all such times and all have quite particular food rituals that incorporate both feasting and fasting as a way to reinforce the lessons of the end of a cycle and the beginning of the next.
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