Xref: utzoo misc.wanted:1823 comp.misc:1989
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: misc.wanted,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Islamic and Chinese New Year
Message-ID: <781@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 88 03:21:22 GMT
References: <9485@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 21

In article <9485@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> adam@MATH.UCLA.EDU (Adam H. Lewenberg) writes:
<Does anyone know of a formula to find the Islamic New Year
<and the Chinese New Year?   Thanks.

I have some *very* bad news for you. The Islamic calendar determines the start
of the month by when the new moon is first seen. This means that no matter
*how* you calculate it, you are liable to be plus or minus one day in the 
real world. 

Check the Brittanica. I seem to recall an article there (under "calendars")
that gave the pattern of years and the like. As you can see from the above
comment, the months are *strictly* lunar (so get a "phase of moon" program)
and the years are 12 and 13 months long following a 19(?) year cycle....

If you get anything for either, let me know! I once planned to write some
code for converting various calendars, but never finished it.   
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."