MARILYN CORNWELL: mount albert

There are a few different calendars to consider - lunisolar, solar, lunar and seasonal. And then there's the standard calendar - with years of fixed length, and various public/religious holidays specific to our country/region. It is called a civil calendar - used within a country for civil, official and administrative purposes.

Don't you wonder sometimes about the holidays that are represented? There are two St. Patrick's Day celebrations this year - on March the 14th and the 17th. And how is it that St. George's Day is acknowledged in our calendar as a celebration in Canada? Someone somewhere in Canada must be celebrating it as a day off.

I realized that we don't think about the calendar because of "western" orientation of the Gregorian calendar. It is considered the de facto international standard.

168 of the 195 countries in the world use the Gregorian calendar.

Four countries have not adopted the Gregorian calendar at all. Afghanistan and Iran use the Solar Hirjri calendar, Ethiopia the Ethiopian calendar and Nepal the Vikram Samvat and Nepal Sambat calendars. There are other variations of calendar standards - most common are Gregorian, Islamic, and Chinese calendars in current use around the world.

Are we all in a new year now? Whatever its number? Not at all. Some countries use calendars that begin the year on dates in entirely different seasons, and some countries celebrate both Jan. 1 and a traditional new year.

Iran and Afghanistan have used similar versions of the solar hejrī calendar for nearly a century, according to Encyclopedia Iranica. Next March, both countries will enter the year 1401. Their new year begins on the first day of spring — March 21 in most years — on the first day of the month Farvardin in Iran, according to the Iranian government.

That would be strange to me to be in a different calendar compared to other places. The global village isn't quite complete somehow.

This is an evening and then day image of the Mount Albert Brewery on Gerry's model layout. His friend, Jeff, took these pictures yesterday, preparing for an overview presentation of Gerry's layout.