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Wiktionary
lunar calendar

n. a calendar that measures the passage of the year according to the phases of the moon, as opposed to the revolution of the earth around the sun; a calendar of the lunar year

WordNet
lunar calendar

n. a calendar based on lunar cycles

Wikipedia
Lunar calendar

A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phases. This can be contrasted with the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar calendar based on the revolution of the Earth around the sun. Because there are slightly more than twelve lunations ( synodic months) in a solar year, the period of 12 lunar months (354.367 days) is sometimes referred to as a lunar year.

A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic (or Hijri Qamari) calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to 12 days. It comes back to the position it had in relation to the solar year approximately every 33 Islamic years. It is used mainly for religious purposes, but in Saudi Arabia it is the official calendar. Other lunar calendars often include extra months added occasionally to synchronize it with the solar calendar.

The oldest known lunar calendar was found in Scotland at Warren Field and dates back to around 8,000 BC. Alexander Marshack, in a controversial reading, believed that marks on a bone baton (c. 25,000 BCE) represented a lunar calendar. Similarly, Michael Rappenglueck believes that marks on a 17,000-year-old cave painting in Lascaux represent a lunar calendar.

Usage examples of "lunar calendar".

After two or three years, a lunar calendar of this sort would indicate sowing time so much earlier than it should be that it would lead to disaster.

For that reason a thirteenth month had to be added to the year every now and then if the lunar calendar was to be kept even with the seasonal cycle.

Yet if we accept as true her profound intuition, then we must also accept that she would understand that in the future her lunar calendar would not be used.

Actually, at least to my mind, the fact that she did not use a lunar calendar supports her claims.

It was a lunar calendar, and he'd charted it against the ancient solar calendar, the Gregorian.

Minor celebrations usually take place in accordance with the lunar calendar.

The dates of the festivals are fixed in the Jewish lunar calendar, and Shabbos and all of the festivals run from sunset the night before to nightfall of the final day.

Or should it be Good Friday 2030 AD as calculated by the lunar calendar?

Back in 1948 the date was May 14, but this year, by the vagaries of the Jewish lunar calendar, the anniversary falls on April 22.

Only once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, could the lovers contrive to meet -- provided it did not rain.