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Astrology
Adhik Mas and the Blue Moon
by Jagdish C. Maheshri
 Calendar “date” that we
are so familiar with in our daily life is based on solar calendar. English
calendar is a solar calendar. The
basis for solar calendar is the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. It takes earth approximately 365 ¼ days to complete its rotation
around the Sun. The English calendar that most of us use today divides the
365 days of earth’s period of rotation around the Sun in twelve months. The leap year, which occurs once every four years, accounts
for ¼ day per year.
Similar to solar calendar
lunar calendar is also popular and widely used in the Asian countries such
as China, Pacific-rim countries, Middle East countries, and India. Lunar calendar, which is believed to have originated in India, has
been around for a very long time, even long before the solar calendar.
The lunar calendar is based on
the moon’s rotation around the Earth. The lunar month corresponds to one complete rotation of Moon around
the Earth. Since this period of rotation of moon around the earth
varies, the duration of lunar month also varies. On average, the lunar month has about 29 ½ days. In addition to moon’s rotation around the earth, the lunar year
is based on earth’s rotation around the Sun. In general, the lunar year has twelve lunar months of approximately
354 days, thus making it shorter by about 11 days than the solar year. However, the lunar calendar accounts for this difference by adding
an extra lunar month about once every 2½ years. This extra lunar month is known as the “Adhik
Mas” in India ("Adhik" means extra and the "Mas" means month).
The concept of placing of the extra month, meaning why and when should it
be inserted between certain lunar months is as follow.
According to sidereal zodiac
system 1 Sun enters the first zodiac sign Aries ("Mesh")
on about April 15 of every year. And about 15th of every month
Sun enters the next sidereal zodiac sign. For example, as we know, every
year on "MakarSankranti" the Sun
enters the sidereal zodiac sign Capricorn on about January 14. While Sun remains in a zodiac sign for approximately one
month, the Moon travels through all twelve zodiac signs in about 27 ½
days. As a result, on
average, once about every two and half years, the entry of the Moon in the
same zodiac sign occurs twice while the Sun remains in the same sign. In other words, when the Sun is traveling through the same zodiac
sign, the month during which two new moons occur, happens once about every
2 ½ years. The lunar month
corresponding to the period between these two new moons is treated as the
extra month or the "Adhik Mas".
Thus, if the "Adhik Mas" occurs at
the beginning of the lunar month "Chaitra" 2,
then it’s called as "Adhik Chaitra",
and the following lunar month would be then the regular or "Neej" lunar month
"Chaitra".
The concept of the "Adhik
mas" (the extra month) is similar to the “Blue Moon” in the West,
which occurs almost with the same frequency of 2 ½ years. Blue moon is
the second full moon when two full moons occur in the same month. Naturally the blue moon must occur towards the end of month (some
where between 29th,30th,or 31st of the
month).
Recall that the entry of Sun
in a sidereal zodiac sign occurs around the middle of the calendar (solar)
month (near 15th of the month), thus, sun stays in a sidereal
zodiac sign from about 15th of a month to about 15th
of the next month. Since for "Adhik Mas" to occur, two new moons must occur during when sun remains
in the same zodiac sign. Consequently, those new moons must occur near 15th
of the successive months. As
a result, around the time of "Adhik
Mas", the successive full moons are very likely to occur near the
beginning and the end of the same month. Indeed, the occurrence of the
blue moon usually precedes the "Adhik
Mas."
October 5, 2000
1. This system of zodiac is popular in India
2. The Indian lunar year begins on the new moon day, which usually occurs near
the beginning of the Spring season. The twelve lunar months are: Chaitra,
Waishakh, Jeshta, Ashadh, Shrawan (Sawan), Bhadrapad (Bhado), Ashwin,
Kartik, Margshirsh, Paush, Magha, Falgoon (Fagan)
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
Courtesy Astroinsight
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