Nyepi, and a Calendar Still Kept by Governments

In India the Saka calendar was formally reformed and adopted in 1957 as the National Calendar of India, used by the Indian government alongside the Gregorian calendar for official purposes, so Saka dates still appear today on the Gazette of India and in All India Radio broadcasts even though the Gregorian calendar dominates ordinary civil life. This is a live administrative role rather than a ceremonial gesture, and it distinguishes the Saka calendar from purely religious reckonings that have no formal government standing at all.

In Bali, where the Saka era arrived centuries ago along with Hindu and Buddhist influence from India, the calendar built on it governs one of the island's two parallel ritual calendars, the other being the pawukon. The Balinese Saka new year opens with Nyepi, the Day of Silence, on which the entire island observes a twenty four hour halt to travel, work, entertainment and, traditionally, even cooking fires, a single day of enforced stillness meant to convince malevolent spirits that Bali is uninhabited. The calendar's reach, from a disputed ancient Indian epoch to a modern Indian government's official use and a Balinese island-wide fast, makes it one of the longest-lived and most widely adapted year counts to survive from the ancient world into daily use today.