In recent days, social media has been “buzzing” with posts sharing how to view the lunar calendar on an iPhone without needing to install any third-party software.
These posts guide users on using the Hebrew calendar as an alternative calendar on the iPhone, requiring only a few setup steps in the Calendar app.
The Hebrew calendar is offset from the Vietnamese lunar calendar.
However, using the Hebrew calendar to view the Vietnamese lunar calendar is not accurate. Although these two calendars share similarities in their cyclical nature and the positions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, they differ in actual dates.
For example, according to the Hebrew calendar, the first day of the lunar month in 2024 corresponds to February 11, 2024; but according to the Vietnamese lunar calendar, the first day of the Lunar New Year 2024 is February 10, 2024.
Regarding the Hebrew calendar, according to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, this is a lunisolar calendar system primarily used to determine the religious holidays of the Jewish people. This system defines Jewish holidays such as Torah readings, yahrzeits, daily Psalms readings, and many other ritual applications. In Israel, this calendar is the official calendar for civil purposes and serves as a timeline for agricultural activities.
Each year, the Hebrew calendar contains exactly 12 lunar months. The characteristic of a pure lunar calendar, as in this case, lies in the continuity of the lunar cycle, which is not tied to the seasons. Therefore, the Hebrew lunar year is typically shorter than the solar year by about 11 to 12 days, and it only aligns with the solar year after every 33 or 34 years of the Islamic calendar.
