Pan-African Calendar

Ancient Africa had calendar systems centuries and centuries ago. Egypt had a calendar which was based on a 360 day year, composed of three seasons of four months apiece and thirty days per month. Although the calendar officially was 360 days, there was a separate period at the beginning of each year of five days. The Africans who used this calendar dedicated these year-opening days to feasts, celebrations and for the performance of sacred rites. It was in fact an extended New Years celebration and commemoration.

As one source reports, the calendar worked in this way:

"The seasons of the Egyptians corresponded with the cycles of the Nile, and were known as Inundation (pronounced akhet which lasted from June 21st to October 21st), Emergence (pronounced proyet which lasted from October 21st to February 21st), and Summer (pronounced shomu which lasted from February 21st to June 21st)."

Egyptian astronomer priests tracked the star sepdet (today known as Sirius) because it was an indicator of the commencement of the very important Nile flood. It was this tracking of sepdet that led to the development of the calendar, the first in the world, more than 5000 years ago, as it provided a dependable yearly occurrence.

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