Lunar station

Somali 'god'

In traditional Somali astronomy and weather-lore, the lunar calendar was divided into 28 "stations of the moon" known as god, which were used to track weather and seasonal changes across the Somali Peninsula.^[5] According to Galaal, the Somali peninsula itself was traditionally divided into seven distinct weather districts, each with regional variations in the names and interpretation of these stations.^[5]

Chinese 宿 xiù

The 28 Lunar Mansions, or more precisely lodgings (Chinese: 二十八宿; pinyin: èrshí bā xiù) are the Chinese and East Asian form of the lunar stations. They can be considered as the equivalent to the Western zodiac, although the 28 stations reflect the movement of the Moon through a sidereal month rather than the Sun in a tropical year; (cf. Solar term). In their final form, they embodied the astral forms of the Four Symbols: two real and two legendary animals important in traditional Chinese culture, such as feng shui.

Indian nakshatra

The nakshatras (or more precisely nákṣatra, lit. "stars") are the Indian form of lunar stations. They usually number 27 but sometimes 28 and their names are related to the most prominent constellations in each sector. In modern practice they start from a point on the ecliptic precisely opposite the star Spica (Sanskrit: Chitrā) and develop eastwards but the oldest traditional method was to use the Vernal Equinox point as the starting point of Ashvini Nakshatra. In classical Hindu mythology, the creation of the nakshatras is attributed to Daksha. The nakshatras were wives of Chandra, the moon god. The nakshatras of traditional Hindu astronomy are based on a list of 28 asterisms found in the Atharvaveda (AVŚ 19.7) and also in the Shatapatha Brahmana. The first astronomical text that lists them is the Vedanga Jyotisha. The stations are important parts of Indian astrology.

Arabic manzil

In the traditional Arabic astrological system,^[6] the new moon was seen to move through 28 distinct manāzil (singular: manzil "house") during the normal solar year, each manzil lasting, therefore, for about 13 days. One or more manazil were then grouped into a nawaa (plural anwaa) which were tied to a given weather pattern. In other words, the yearly pattern was divided in the following manner:^[7] A year was divided into anwaa, each of which was made up of one more manazil, which were associated with a dominant star or constellation. These stars and constellations were sometimes, but not always, connected in some way to constellations in the Zodiac. Moreover, as the anwaa repeat on a regular, solar cycle, they can be correlated to fixed points on the Gregorian calendar.

The following table is a list of the 28 manāzil.^[8]

The dates above are approximate; notice that there are 2 days missing from a solar year in the table above.