NanakShahi Calendar (ਨਾਨਕਸ਼ਾਹੀ

The Nanakshahi (Punjabi: ਨਾਨਕਸ਼ਾਹੀ, nānakashāhī) calendar is a tropical solar calendar that was adopted by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee to determine the dates for important Sikh events.It was designed by Pal Singh Purewal (a Canadian Sikh) to replace the Saka calendar and has been in use since 1998. The epoch of this calendar is the birth of the first Sikh Guru, Nanak Dev in 1469.New Year's Day falls annually on what is March 14 in the Gregorian Western calendar.

Some of its salient features include:

- a solar calendar - based on the time it takes for the earth to rotate around the sun

- called Nanakshahi after Guru Nanak (founder of Sikhism) - year one is the year of Guru Nanak's birth (1469 CE)

- is scientifically design and keeps in precise tune with the sun's position; seasons do not slip from year to year.

- is based on Gurbani - Months taken directly from Guru Granth sahib

- year length is same as Western calendar (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 45 seconds)

- contains 5 months of 31 days followed by 6 months of 30 days; last month is either 30 or 31 in leap years.

- leap year every 4 years in which the last month (Phagun) has an extra day

- Fixed dates for start of each month when compared to common era calendar