Calendars

A calendar is systematic arrangements of days and dates in a month and arrangements of months in a year. A calendar is a chart or set of pages that lists the days and months of a year, in an organised way.

The calendar is divided into 12 months of the year. In short Calender is a means to keep a count of time, building a relation of days with dates.

Here, we will learn how to read calendars and counting the number of days in a calendar.

Calendar

Reading a Calendar

To read a calendar we must know the structure of the calendar and time divided into different units. A year is divided into 12 months which goes by names:

“January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December”.

Each month is further divided into approximately 4 weeks, where each week consists of 7 days which go by name:

“Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday”.

Uses of Calendar

The calendar helps us to track the current date , day or month or even a year. It also helps to know on which day an event has fallen in the previous year or on which day a particular event is gonna occur.

We can say we use Calendar for :

1. Planning the daily activities.

2. Keeping the track of events.

3. Remembering the important dates.

4. Managing the daily routine or Schedule.

Counting Days

In the task of counting days  we must be aware of certain facts. Note that each month has 30 days or 31 days , except for the second month it has 28 days and every once in 4 years called leap year it will have 29 days.

Trick to find 30 0r 31 days in a month

The above figure shows the technique to determine which month has 30 days and which has 31 days. Start from one side of your hand, with January on top of the first mountain. February then is in the first valley, March on the second mountain, etc. When you reach the last knuckle on your hand, continue on to the first knuckle on your second hand.

Counting Number of Days

Months with 30 Days

November, April, June, and September are the months with 30 days , February has 28 days (29 days in the leap year) and all the remaining months have 31 days.

Leap Year

A leap year is the calendar year that consists of an additional day in the month of February ( February has 29 days in the leap year). It occurs every four year.  A year has 365 days and 6 hours, which is the amount of time taken by earth to complete one full orbit( rotation) around the sun.

These 6 hours are not taken into consideration as 6 hours are too small compared to 365 days and hence every 4 year (6 x 4 = 24) accounts for a day added in the month of February  and hence leap year accounts for 29 days in February.

Rules for Determining the Leap Year

First, a year has to be divisible by 4. 2004, 2008, and 2012 were all leap years because 2004, 2008, and 2012 are all divisible by 4.

Secondly, years that mark the end of a century are not leap years, except those years which are divisible by 400.  For example 1900 was not a leap year as it is not divisible by 400  but 2000 was a leap year (the number 2000 is divisible by 400).

Solved Examples

1.  Solve the following questions based on the given calendar.

Calendar of March Month

a. How many total days this month have?

Ans: This month starts on the 1st and ends on the 31st.

Calendar of March Month

So this month has 31 days in total. 

b. How many days are Saturday?

Ans: There are 5 Saturdays in this month i.e. on 2nd , 9th, 16th , 23rd and 30th.

c. 20th of March accounts for which day of the week?

Ans: 20th of March is Wednesday.

2. Solve the following questions based on the given calendar.

Calendar of September , October and November Month of the Year

a. Count the total number of days from the 15th of September until the 7th of November?

Ans: When dates span more than one month, count the number of days in each month, and then add the number of days together to get the total number of days.

Total Number of Days

It is evident from the calendar that September has 16 days, October has 31 days and November has 7 days from the 15th of September until the 7th of November. Now adding them we get  16 + 31 + 7 = 54

There are 54 days between the 15th of September until the 7th of November.

3. Solve the following questions based on the given calendar.

Calendar

a. What day is five days before Christmas?

Ans: December 25th is Christmas day. Therefore 5 days before it can be obtained by moving 5 days back on the calendar.

Calendar

This falls on a Friday!

Calendar

Five days before Christmas is a Friday.

4. Solve the following questions based on the given calendar.

Calendar

a. What is the date on the 4th Thursday?

Ans: The 4th Thursday will be the 22nd of the month.

Interesting Facts:

1. A year has 365 days and 6 hours, which is the amount of time taken by earth to complete one full orbit( rotation) around the sun.

2. These 6 hours are not taken into consideration as 6 hours are too small compared to 365 days and hence every 4 year (6 x 4 = 24) accounts for a day added in the month of February and hence leap year accounts for 29 days in February.

Summary

In this article we have discussed the Calendars in brief. We have discussed Reading a Calendar, Uses of a calendar, Counting Days, Leap year,Rules for Determining the leap year etc. We have also solved some examples via some fun activities to make kids understand about the methods of reading a calendar. Also some interesting facts are stated about the leap year and its logic. So for such beautiful and well crafted content visit vedantu website and make your kid learn concepts in the most fun way.

Learn by Doing

1. Given below is Joey's calendar. Answer the following questions based on the calendar.

Joey's Calendar

1. On what day will Joey go to the concert?

2. On what days will Joey wake up before 5 pm to deliver the question paper?

3. What will Joey do on the last Monday of the month?