The lunar calendar, similar to that used in parts of India, is based upon phases of the moon. Each 30-day lunar month (sasih) begins on the day after a new moon (tilem), with the full moon (purnama) occurring in the middle. Every nine weeks a day is lost.
Twelve lunar sasih months comprise a normal year, with an intercalary 13th month added every 30 months to keep it synchronized with the longer solar year. The years are numbered from the founding of the Indian Saka Dynasty in a.d. 78, so that the year 1900 in Bali began in 1979.
The 210-day pawukon cycle, on the other hand, is indigenous to Bali and Java; its repetitions are not numbered or recorded as years. It may have had its roots in the growing period for rice, but the following Oedipal myth is associated with it as well:
A woman discovers that her husband is in fact her own son, who ran away as a child. Vain with power, he challenges the gods but is defeated - 27 children by his mother and aunt are sacrificed. The 30 weeks (wuku) of the calendar are named after these characters.
The 210 days of the pawukon are divided into many shorter cycles which run concurrently. The most important of these are the 3(Pasah, Beteng/Tegeh, Kajeng), 5- (Umanis, Paing, Pon, Wage, Kliwon) and 7- day 11 weeks," whose conjunctions determine most holy days. Each day has its own deity, constellation and omen that indicate good or bad times for a variety of activities.
The pawukon is also sub-divided into 35day "months" (bulan) determined by a complete cycle of 5- and 7-day weeks. Each date in the pawukon calendar is referred to according to the combination of days in the various weeks, for example: Kajeng Kliwon Menail, Anggarkasih Dukut, Buda Cemeng Mir. The passage of six bulan, a full Pawukon year, marks a birthday (otonan) or anniversary (rahinan, odalan).
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