Why are there 12 months in a Year?
• Month (mo or mon) [1] a unit of time marked by the revolution of the Moon around the Earth. In many traditional societies the appearance of the first tiny crescent moon after the New Moon signaled the start of the month. This start of the month, based on the first appearance of the Moon, is still proclaimed from mosques in Islamic countries. Thus the lunar month is defined as the average interval between two successive moments of New Moon. Astronomers call this period the synodic month. Its length is 29.53059 days. • Month (mo or mon) [2] a civil unit of time equal to approximately 1/12 year, but varying from 28 to 31 days. The Sun and the Moon are our traditional time keepers, but they are badly out of step with each other. A solar year equals approximately 12.368 lunar months. The large fraction in this number makes it difficult to design a calendar with a whole number of months in each year. There are at least three solutions to the problem: • [i] Use leap months. In the tradition
