All we needed was to fix one date, which was the date for Baisakhi. There were many suggestions but what we finally agreed upon was to use the Baisakhi date of 1999, the 300th year of the Khalsa, as the pivotal date.
All the Gurpurbs and seasonal festivals will continue to fall on the same day from now on according to the Nanakshahi calendar, and hence, since the Common Era calendar is also based on the tropical year, the dates will be fixed in the calendar as well.
The calendar [year] commences on the first day of Chet, March 14. The first five months have 31 days [each] and the remaining months have 30 days [each]. This like all aspects of the calendar is based on scientific principles. Summer months are longer than those in winter, as the number of days from the spring equinox to the autumn equinox is greater than the number of days from the autumn equinox to the spring equinox. In a leap year, the month of Phagan will have an extra day.