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Let’s talk about calendars! If you’re newer to international credentials evaluation or conduct most of your evaluation work from documents translated into your own language, you may be unaware of the importance of understanding and reading dates as they appear on academic records in the local language and calendar system.
Dates–from birth dates to enrollment dates to graduation dates–are important for a number of reasons. They help us get a better feel for the applicant’s age at start and end dates, they set our expectations for the duration of a program, and they give us a quick understand of where the credential should fit within the educational system. Sometimes dates set off our subconscious alert system when things don’t make sense, though we have to keep in mind there are always people who do things very earlier than the norm and others who take a more colorful path to their end result. If we’re researching institutional or programmatic accreditation, dates are also critical.
Regardless of the reason, it’s important to read dates, but that’s not always as easy as it seems because not every country uses the same calendar. Some countries have multiple calendars used within the country for different purposes (civil, religious, ceremonial, etc.), and others use their own local calendar in conjunction with another.
This is the first post in a short series about calendars. Today’s blog post is about the Gregorian calendar and countries that follow a modified version of it. In the next post, we’ll explore some countries that do their own thing. This series will not include every country with its own calendar, but I have tried to include all the different variation types of which I am aware so you’ll hopefully be able to extrapolate from there if you receive documents from countries not listed here whose graduation or enrollment dates don’t match the dates on the translation.
If you’re in an English-speaking country, chances are, you don’t really think about dates unless you’re trying to figure out which number is the month and which is the date. The vast majority of the countries of the world use the Gregorian calendar, which consists of 12 months of 28-31 days, 365 days a year, and a leap year every fourth year.
Likewise, most countries following the Gregorian calendar will write their dates as DD/MM/YYYY, which is spelled out as 28 September 2019 or written 28/09/19. Some countries like the US list dates in MM/DD/YYYY (month/day/year) order, such as 12/31/2024 or December 31, 2024.
Regardless of exactly how the dates themselves are written, 150+ countries use the Gregorian calendar, which has been in place for centuries and has been widely accepted as the international standard. ISO 8601 is the international standard, maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), for communicating date- and time-related information. How cool is that? I never thought about how or why most of the globe would agree on something as important as dates.
In some countries, another calendar system is used alongside the Gregorian calendar. This includes countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco. Other countries, like Japan and Taiwan have adopted a modified version of the Gregorian calendar to reflect important events in their history.
And still other countries have done their own thing entirely. Countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal, Ethiopia, and Israel follow their own unique calendars but sometimes also include the Gregorian year on academic records. We’ll talk more about those next time.
Obviously, dates on academic credentials are important. They help us compare against the applicant’s age at the time of enrollment and graduation to better identify the level of study for new-to-us credentials. Dates may be used to identify missing terms or years for incomplete documents or students who’ve been admitted into further progression but didn’t mention transfer work. The dates on the documents can also help identify potential red flags.
Let’s first look at calendars used alongside or in conjunction with the Gregorian calendar. In many countries whose dominant religion is Islam, the countries may also use the Islamic Lunar calendar, also known as the Hijri calendar. It has 12 lunar months and 354-355 days. The religious calendar is the Hijri calendar, while the Gregorian calendar is used for business.
Morocco uses the Islamic or Hijri calendar. The Islamic calendar is also based on a year of 12 months like the Gregorian calendar, but each month begins approximately at the time of the new moon and mostly lasts for 29-30 days. The starting year, or reckoning year, begins with the date of the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina.
For a general estimate of the date on the Gregorian calendar, add 579 or 580 to the Islamic year on the documents once you’ve transliterated from Arabic script digits (١, ۲, ٣, etc) them to the Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc), also sometimes known as Western digits, Hindu-Arabic numerals, or Western Arabic numerals.
In Saudi Arabia, however, the lunar calendar Umm al-Qura calendar is different than other Islamic countries, meaning that their overall system is similar, but their dates are often off by one or two days in comparison to the other countries following the Islamic calendar.
But you’re better off using a date converter. I’ve linked a few in the resources, including some for both the standard Islamic calendar and the Saudi Umm al-Qura calendar, including a beta version affiliated with several Saudi ministries and the Saudi Press Agency. Like many other date converters, you can toggle between the calendar your documents are written in and the Gregorian calendar, or vice versa, for most of these options, though some only work from the Gregorian date and show you what the date would be on the particular calendar.
Not every country where Islam is the domination religion uses the Islamic Lunar calendar, however. Egypt uses the Gregorian calendar and a mix of Western Arabic numbers and Arabic script digits. I’m sure it’s not just to keep us on our toes, but it’s worth mentioning so you don’t make assumptions about possible fraud by being unaware.
On an interesting side note, it’s not uncommon for foreign-born Egyptians to have different birthdays on their academic records compared to passports or other official documents. Historically, the Egyptian government would register the date of filing for Egyptian citizenship as the official date of birth rather than the actual birth date. In fact, some native Egyptians would assign the registration date for their own children for the official date of birth, too, as long as it’s within the 15 day registration period.
As mentioned above, several countries have modified the Gregorian calendar to suit their needs. The Republic of China calendar, also known as the ROC calendar or Minguo calendar, starts in Gregorian 1912. Months and dates follow the same pattern of the Gregorian calendar; only the year differs.
The ROC calendar has been officially used in Taiwan since 1945 and was used in Mainland China until the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. The Minguo calendar is the standard calendar for official documents and is common on educational records. Periodically, the government considers dropping it in favor of the Gregorian calendar, but so far, it has not happened.
Since the Minguo calendar was implemented on January 1, 1912, the months and dates align, but the 2- or 3-year digit years on the documents can be a surprise for the unprepared. Minguo 1 refers to 1912 since that was the first year of implementation. Minguo 99 is Gregorian year 2010, while Gregorian year 2025 corresponds with Minguo 114. To convert the year to the Gregorian year, simply add 1911 to the Minguo year on the documents. I’ve added some converters to the Resources, too.
Similarly, the พุทธศักราช, พ.ศ, Buddhist Era, B.E., is a renumbered Gregorian calendar. It’s the official calendar of Thailand. Unlike with the previous example, the years on the Thai calendar are larger than the Gregorian calendar. In Thailand, the Buddhist Era began (year zero) the year the Buddha attained final nirvana, or parinirvana, and reached enlightenment, which was 543 year before the implementation of the Gregorian calendar.
Actually, Thailand has two major calendars: the Thai solar calendar, which we’re discussing because it’s used for official documents like academic records, and the Thai lunar calendar, which is a version of the Buddhist calendar for religious and traditional events. In 1941, the first of the year was changed from April to January, aligning it with the Gregorian calendar for months and days.
To convert from the Buddhist Era to the Gregorian calendar, also known as the Common Era, simply subtract 543. Of course, I’ve added some converters and other resources at the end of this blog post.
In Japan, there are three main calendars used in the last century: the Showa Era / 昭和 (1926-1989), the Heisei Era / 平成 (1989-2019), and the Reiwa Era /令和 (2019-present) for the three emperors who reigned during these periods.
What does this mean? It means Japan uses the Gregorian calendar together with the designation stating the reign of the current Emperor. Traditional Japanese numbers are often used for the month and day, though some documents will use the Arabic numbers. The year is where things can be more complicated. The year might be listed with the Gregorian calendar, or it might be the Japanese calendar, which depends on which emperor was alive during the time period, or it might have both listed.
We likely won’t see many documents issued in 1926, but we’ll start there to explain the process since this period lasted until 1989. 1926 wast the first year of the reign of Emperor Hirohito (posthumously renamed Emperor Showa), so the year is Showa 1, essentially: 昭和 1. His reign ended with his death in early January of the Gregorian year 1989, which is Showa 64, or 昭和64.
However, this reign was succeeded by the Heisei era, also in 1989 until Emperor Akihito of the Heisei era abdicated in 2019. As a result, 1989 is both Showa 64 and Hesei 1 for parts of January, depending on the specific date. The Hesei era lasted through April 2019 on the Gregorian calendar, or part of 31 calendar years. So the Hesei period is from January 1989 through April 2019, or 平成1 through平成31. As a result, documents issued during these three decades may have the Gregorian year or the Heisei year, which sometimes looks like the documents have been misprinted, reissued, or otherwise don’t seem to match expectations.
The current era, the Reiwa era, 令和, began May 1 2019, when Emperor Akihito’s son, Nuruhito, ascended to the throne after his father’s abdication. Obviously, Gregorian year 2019 includes both a Heisei year and a Reiwa year, just like the previous eras since the change in monarchs did not correspond with the calendar year’s end. In May 2019, the Japanese calendar shifted to 令和 1, Reiwa, 2020 corresponds to 令和 2, 2021 to 令和 3, through 2025, which is令和 7. As before, I’ve included links to some calendar converters to help you out.
With very few exceptions, the date or calendar converters I’ve listed are not officially sponsored by any government, so please proceed with caution. I often find myself using two different online date converters to lessen the chance that it’s wrong. Plus, links break and websites go away, so I’ve included several options for each calendar type.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post on calendars modeled on the Gregorian calendar. Next time, we’ll explore a handful of countries who do things a little—or a lot—differently.
Resources:
Arabic Numeral. The American Heritage Dictionary. https://web.archive.org/web/20211121235943/https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?id=A5414100
Calendar Converter. Fourmilab. https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/
Calendar Converter: Coptic, Ethiopian, Gregorian, Iranian, Islamic, Jewish/Hebrew, Julian, Maya, Minguo, Thai Solar. Calendar-Converter.com. https://www.calendar-converter.com/minguo/
Calendar Converter for Near East Historians: Hebrew, Islamic, and Persian. https://www.muqawwim.com/
Calendar History. The Japanese Calendar, National Diet Library. https://www.ndl.go.jp/koyomi/e/history/calendar.html
Calendar Systems and Their Role in Patent Documentation. European Patent Office, 2022. https://www.epo.org/en/searching-for-patents/helpful-resources/patent-knowledge-news/calendar-systems-and-their-role-0
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Thailand Year Converter: https://thailandformats.com/year-converter
Umm Al Qura Calendar: Date Converter. Umm Al Qura Calendar: The Official Calendar of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. https://ummulqura.org.sa/index.aspx?tab=dateConversion
Umm al-Qura Calendar of Saudi Arabia. Utrecht University, Department of Mathematics. https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/islam/ummalqura_converter.htm and https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/islam/ummalqura.htm