Best wishes to you and yours for the coming year!
Much of the Arabic world follows the Hijri calendar. While the Gregorian calendar is based on the phases of the sun, the Muslim calendar, like the Jewish calendar, is based on the cycles moon. This end of the Gregorian year 2010 corresponds to Al Hijri 1432. The Hijri calendar only has 354-355 days, which moves holidays up and down the seasons. For example, Ramadan was in the middle of summer this year, while Lent is always in the spring.
Also, since Friday is the Muslim holy day, in the countries which follow Hijri most people work on Saturday and Sunday. So when I worked in Abu Dhabi, I had Thursday and Friday off. However, in Turkey, society follows the Gregorian calendar and work days. The change was part of the extensive reforms proposed by Ataturk and his Westernization of the country.
As for the Mayan calendar... I just hope it's wrong because I still have a book to publish!
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