On August 10, 2002, the government of Turkmenistan adopted a law to rename all the months and most of the days of week. The names were chosen according to Turkmen national symbols, as described in the ''

Ruhnama The Ruhnama, or Rukhnama, translated in English as Book of the Soul, is a two volume work written by Saparmurat Niyazov, the President of Turkmenistan from 1990 to 2006. It was intended to serve as a tool of state propaganda, emphasizing the bas ...

'', a book written by

Saparmurat Niyazov Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov; tk, Saparmyrat Ataýewiç Nyýazow, in Cyrillic: Сапармырат Атаевич Ныязов (19 February 1940 – 21 December 2006), also known as Turkmenbashi, was a Turkmen politician who rule ...

, Turkmenistan's first and only President for Life. According to Arto Halonen's documentary film ''The Shadow of the Holy Book'', Turkish businessman

Ahmet Çalık Ahmet Çalık is a Turkish businessman who is the chairman of Çalık Holding. He was made a government minister in Turkmenistan by Saparmurat Niyazov. He is married with four children and lives in Istanbul. According to '' Forbes'', his for ...

came up with the idea to rename the months, as he was trying to befriend Niyazov in order to expand his business in the country. After the law was passed the new names were used in all Turkmen state-owned media. Publications in languages other than Turkmen often use the new names too, especially those that were targeted at Russian-speaking citizens of Turkmenistan, with the old name sometimes written in brackets. The old month names were still used in popular speech, however.Туркменам вернули прежний календарь, Lenta.ru, July 1, 2008
/ref> Four years after the change, Niyazov died in 2006. On April 23, 2008 it was reported that the cabinet of ministers of Turkmenistan discussed restoring the old names of the months and days of week. The old names were finally restored in July 2008. The original

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and some ...

month names were borrowed from Russian. The adopted Turkmen month names were as follows: The original names of the days of the week come from Persian. The adopted names were as follows:

References

External links

The months of the Gregorian (Christian) calendar in various languages

Бердымухамедов велел вернуть старый календарь, Аркадий Дубнов, gundogar.org, 2008-04-25
{{calendars Turkmenistan culture Languages of Turkmenistan Specific calendars Saparmurat Niyazov Names of units of time Renaming of Turkmen months and days of week Months Days of the week

See also

References

External links