Priya Sharma
Cultural Historian
Priya Sharma studied History and Anthropology before completing a research fellowship focused on calendar systems. Her work focuses on how societies across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe have structured their calendars, tracked lunar cycles, and decided which days to celebrate. She is the author of 'Many Moons: How Cultures Count Time' and regularly contributes to publications on heritage and cultural studies.
Areas of Expertise
Credentials
- ✓MA History & Anthropology
- ✓Author of 'Many Moons: How Cultures Count Time'
Biography
Priya's interest in calendars began during fieldwork for her master's degree, when she spent three months in rural Rajasthan documenting how farming communities used the Hindu panchang (almanac) alongside the Gregorian calendar to schedule everything from planting seasons to wedding dates. She watched a village elder consult a hand-printed panchang to determine the most auspicious muhurat for a well-digging ceremony — and realized that for billions of people, the question "what's today's date?" has no single answer. It depends on which calendar you're asking about.
That insight shaped her entire career. Her research fellowship focused on comparative calendar systems: how the Islamic Hijri calendar's purely lunar structure causes Ramadan to drift through the seasons over a 33-year cycle; how the Hebrew calendar uses a 19-year Metonic cycle to keep lunar months roughly aligned with solar seasons; how the Chinese agricultural calendar layers solar terms onto a lunisolar framework; and how the Gregorian calendar itself was a political project — pushed through by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, resisted by Protestant nations for over a century, and not adopted by some countries until the 1920s.
She is the author of Many Moons: How Cultures Count Time, a book that traces how different civilizations have answered the same fundamental question — "how do we divide the year?" — and arrived at wildly different answers. The book covers everything from the Babylonian invention of the seven-day week to the French Revolutionary calendar's failed attempt to decimalize time. It was shortlisted for a cultural studies award and has been translated into three languages.
Priya brings a perspective that most time-and-date resources miss entirely: the human side. Calendars aren't just mathematical systems — they encode religious beliefs, agricultural knowledge, political power, and cultural identity. A public holiday isn't just a day off work; it's a statement about what a society considers worth remembering. Her writing explores these layers without losing sight of the practical question most readers actually have: "when is it, and why?"
What Priya Writes About
At TimeandTool, Priya writes about calendar systems, public holidays, and the cultural history behind how we organize time. Her articles cover topics like why Easter moves every year, how public holidays are determined (and why it's messier than you'd think), the differences between lunar and solar calendars, the history of the Gregorian calendar, and how to calculate age across different cultural systems. She also writes the ISO week number explainers, since week numbering turns out to be surprisingly culturally dependent — the US, Europe, and the Middle East all start their weeks on different days.
Articles by Priya Sharma (9)
How to Calculate Your Exact Age: Years, Months, and Days
Learn the exact method to calculate your age in years, months, and days. Understand how age calculators work, cultural differences in age counting, and why birthdays can shift across time zones.
The Gregorian Calendar: How a 1582 Reform Became the World's Default
How an 11-minute annual error in the Julian calendar led Pope Gregory XIII to skip 10 days, and the surprisingly slow 340-year global adoption that followed.
Lunar vs Solar vs Lunisolar: How Different Cultures Track the Year
Why the Islamic calendar loses 11 days each year, how the Chinese calendar adds leap months, and what makes the Gregorian calendar 'solar' — a comparison of the world's major calendar systems.
Who Decides Public Holidays? The Messy Politics Behind Your Day Off
Public holidays seem straightforward, but behind them lies a tangled web of politics, religion, regional autonomy, and lunar calendars. Here's how the sausage gets made.
52 or 53 Weeks? How ISO Week Numbers Actually Work
Most years have 52 weeks. Some have 53. The rules behind ISO week numbering are surprisingly specific, and businesses rely on them more than you'd think.
Good Friday 2026: Date, History, and Global Observance
Good Friday 2026 falls on April 3. Here's when it is, why the date changes every year, which countries observe it as a public holiday, and what the day means across Christian traditions.
Moon Phase Today: What Each of the 8 Lunar Phases Means
The moon moves through 8 distinct phases every 29.5 days. Here's what each phase looks like, when to see it, how it affects tides, and what it means across cultures.
12 Strangest Time Zone Quirks Around the World (2026)
From China's single time zone spanning 5 geographic zones to Nepal's unique 15-minute offset — the most surprising timezone anomalies and the political stories behind them.
Good Friday 2027: Date, Country-by-Country Holiday Guide (50+ Countries)
Good Friday 2027 falls on April 2. Find out which countries observe it as a public holiday, which don't, and how Easter 2027 dates vary by Christian tradition.