Turkmenistan back to Gregorian names of months, Hijri names of days

ASHGABAT, July 2 (Itar-Tass) -- Turkmenistan is back to the Gregorian names of months and the Hijri names of days. The names were valid all through the Soviet period of the Turkmen history.

Tuesday newspapers were dated with July rather than Gorkut, the name
Turkmenistan had been using since 2002.

First president of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov changed the names
of months in August 2002. The year started from the month called
Turkmenbashi; April was named after Niyazov's mother Gurbansoltan; June
was named Oguz - the ancient tribe of Turkmens; November was named after
military commander Sandzhar, and February was called Baidag (flag).

Niyazov also renamed days of the week, and called Saturday 'ruhgyun',
which meant the day for reading his book, Ruhnama. The name Ruhnama was
also given to September.

Incumbent Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow ordered the
parliament in April to draft a law, which would rename months and days of
the week by request of Turkmen citizens.

"This decision complies with our reforms, which aim at Turkmenistan's
integration with the international community," the president said.

The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world.
It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed
by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 by
papal bull Inter gravissimas. It is a reform of the Julian calendar.

Years in the reformed calendar continue the numbering system of the
Julian calendar, which are numbered from the traditional Incarnation year
of Jesus, which has been labeled the "anno Domini" (AD) era, and is
sometimes labeled the "common era" (CE), otherwise known as the "Christian
Era".

The changes made by Gregory corrected the drift in the civil calendar
which arose because the mean Julian calendar year (exactly 365 1/4 days)
was slightly too long, causing the vernal equinox, and consequently the
date on which Easter was being celebrated, to drift slowly forward in
relation to the civil calendar and the seasons.

The Gregorian calendar system dropped 10 days to bring the calendar
back into synchronization with the seasons and, to keep it there, adopted
the following leap year rule:

Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except
for years that are exactly divisible by 100; the centurial years that are
exactly divisible by 400 are still leap years

The Islamic week is similar to the Jewish week, as was the medieval
Christian week, all of which have numbered weekdays in common. The "first
day" of the Islamic week corresponds with Sunday of the planetary week.
The Islamic and Jewish weekdays begin at sunset, whereas the medieval
Christian and planetary weekdays begin at the following midnight. Muslims
gather for worship at a mosque at noon on "gathering day", which
corresponds to the sixth day of the Jewish and medieval Christian weeks,
and to Friday of the planetary week.
1. yaum al-ahad (first day - Sunday)
2. yaum al-ithnayn (second day - Monday)
3. yaum ath-thulaathaa (third day - Tuesday)
4. yaum al-arbia`aa' (fourth day - Wednesday)
5. yaum al-khamis (fifth day - Thursday)
6. yaum al-jumu`a (gathering day - Friday)
7. yaum as-sabt (sabbath day - Saturday)