When is Vikram Samvat New Year?
Vikram Samvat New Year is a regional public holiday in the western coastal Indian state of Gujrat.
In Gujarat, this new year is observed on the day after Diwali, which falls on the new moon in the eighth Hindu month of Kartik.
History of Vikram Samvat New Year
Ever since the first caveman grunted that it was getting a bit chilly outside, every culture in human history has had a go at measuring the progression of time. For some it was more important than others - if you didn't need to administer large empires, you could probably get by with only a sense of the seasons passing to mark out time to help with agriculture.
If you lived at higher latitudes, you could rely on the celestial movement of the sun and stars to indicate the months and years. Closer to the equator, it was trickier as the sun doesn't seem to move as much, which is why the moon is more often used as the basis for a calendar in those cultures.
However, those who used the moon weren't lacking any astronomical skills, they knew that the 28-day cycle of the moon was at odds with the approximate 365.25 day cycle of the sun. Some like the Islamic calendar are fine with the difference. For others, such as the Vikram Samvat calendar, the solution was to add an extra month every four years.
The Vikram Samvat is named after the legendary King Vikramaditya of Ujjain, who by tradition started this calendar back in 57BC, though this is no historical evidence of the calendar being used before the 9th century.
The common new year's day in the Vikram Samvat calendar is the start of the month of Chaitra in April. It may seem odd that Gujurat celebrates the new year over six months later, but in most of Europe, April 1st used to be the New Year's Day - arguably it has only been the printing of calendars that start with January that has created the mindset that it's always been like that - it hasn't.
Vikram Samvat in Nepal
The Rana dynasty of Nepal adopted the Vikram Samvat as the official Hindu calendar in 1901, which began as Samvat.
The new year in Nepal begins with the first day of the month of Baishakh, which usually falls around April 15th in the Gregorian calendar, which is more or less the same day as the lunisolar new year celebrated in many cultures in the Indian sub-continent. In 2007, Nepal Sambat was recognised as the national calendar.
