2066 BS must have 11 months’

Kathmandu, January 14:

A body formed by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to revise the national calendar has recommended the government to remove the month of Chaitra from the calendar of the year 2066 BS to make the Bikram Sambat calendar error-free.

If the committee has its way, 2066 BS will comprise 11 months.

The precession of the equinoxes completes a full circle in 25,800 years. Because of this, seasons move a month ahead every 2,150 years.

“Dates of festivals have moved ahead by 24 days,” member-secretary of the committee Hari Narayan Malla said at a function organised at the ministry yesterday.

But the correction should be made without violating norms of astrology and the existing religious practices, the committee has said in a report. “Therefore, the committee has proposed that the month of Chaitra be struck off referred to as Baishakh of 2067 BS. Let 2067 BS be the year of correction,” Malla said.

Experts participating in the function, however, said India had introduced the tropical (related with the seasons) system from 1957, but the Hindus have not accepted the change. That is why, it is very difficult to implement the changes here. Traditional fortune tellers will not accept these changes, the experts said.

Publishing a notice, the committee has requested experts and public to come up with suggestions within January 29. According to the report of the committee the existing calendar is 24 days ahead of its real track as one whole day exceeds in every 70.6 years.

Even after the correction, the committee has admitted that the calendar will be ahead by six days. The committee has recommended many other corrections on the timing of festivals observed by Nepalis.

The committee plans to organise an international seminar and four seminars at each development regions to implement the correction right from 2067 BS.

Meanwhile, the committee members and other participants engaged in a heated debate

during the interaction after reporters left. They expressed dissatisfaction claiming that

the committee was trying to correct the calendar in haste, saying this could cause disaster in the future.