A magic number called Twelve

We welcomed another new year on Jan.1st, 2025 – Solar new year to be exact – celebrating our planet Earth completing its full rotation around sun. Twelve months is what it took. The concept of a month originated from Moon’s phases – a lunation cycle – one new moon to another. The Gregorian calendar we follow as international dating system was proclaimed by Pope Gregory VIII in 1582, an improvised version of the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar was a result of Roman improvisations since 850BC, starting with King Romulus borrowing the Greek calendar, King Numa Pompilius adding January and February, thereby increasing the months from ten to twelve. Julius Ceasar finally aligned it with solar year and replaced the original fifth and sixth months (Quintilis and Sextilis) to July and August – named after Julius Ceasar and his successor Augustus. In the eastern world, unaligned with the solar movement, the Lunar New year is still celebrated – Chinese New Year in China and others part of Asia. Lunar or solar year, there are twelve magical months that constitute a whole year!

The year, in the western world, is further divided into twelve zodiac signs – each period defined based on the earth’s location with respect to the sun. Hence, we mostly call it our sun-sign. Aries, the first zodiac, begins at the equinox. During my younger days, I loved reading the personality traits and daily horoscope for my sun-sign Taurus, and for some reasons it matched very well; or at least I thought so. I normally attributed mine and other personalities to the sun-sign, only to realize later that there is more to people than just sun signs. In contrast to the western zodiac, the Chinese zodiac formalizes a twelve-year cycle, each year symbolizing a particular animal – again defining some personality traits. Apparently, a race was conducted during Han dynasty to pick the animals that would represent the years. Rat won the race, and it got the first year, and so on. Each sign also has an associated element to it; I turn out to be a Rooster with metal as the element. It’s hard to believe that everyone born in the same year (in case of Chinese zodiac) or everyone born in the same lunar cycle (in case of western zodiac) have similar personality and life, but it sure is fun to read about!

At home, in India, we have multiple celebrations done every 12 years. Kumbh Mela is a popular Hindu festival celebrated every 3 years at 4 sites: Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain. “Maha Kumbh Mela” is celebrated only at Prayagraj every 12 years, to celebrate a complete revolution of Brihaspati (Jupiter) around the sun. In Jain tradition, Māhāmastakābhiṣeka (“Grand Consecration”) refers to the abhiseka (“anointment”) of the Jain idols when held on a large scale. This happens every 12 years, although I haven’t found the exact reason why the 12-year period was chosen. Nabakalebara (“New Body”), an important festival celebrated at Jagannath temple in Puri, is a ritualistic recreation of wooden formed deities is performed every 12th or 19th year – during the Adhikmasa (“A year with extra month”). Well, our lives on earth are so much influenced by the cosmos – the positions of sun, moon, the other planets and stars, so this heavy reliance on the Lunar and Solar cycles is easily understood.

Apart from astrology, there are several other places of significance for number 12; the time of the day is represented in a 12-hour format: 12 hours of daytime, 12 hours of nighttime. The EU flag contains 12 golden stars – symbolizing perfection and unity. The twelfth month, December, is quite special for almost everyone, a time to unwind, usually filled with festive atmosphere especially in the western part of our globe. There are plenty of lucky folks born in this month (my wife included) and it sure is a great time to celebrate birthdays. Do let me know in the comments section, if you are aware of other interesting facts about this magical number 12, I would surely love to know, thanks!