Maatlan's Calendar Maatla runs on a 336-day year, according to astrological calibrations of the planet's orbit around the sun. This number of days means that they can break the year down evenly into twelve 28-day months with a static numbering for each month:
The month is broken down into four 7-day weeks, with the first of the week--the Sundays, as it were--are used as official days of worship and rest, where most businesses are closed. The months are based on the signs of the Maatlan Zodiac, which is a variation of the Chinese Zodiac and a listing of the twelve basic branches of sentient animals found in Maatla. The main difference is that Snake is replaced with Bear. This is because a) there are no sentient snakes in Maatla, and b) if they were sentient snakes, they would be considered part of the Dragon group of species.
The year number is counted from the birth year of a religious prophet named Donnovan, the founder of the United Church of Gaia. While holidays differers from kingdom to kingdom, the two days of Pig 28 and Rat 1 of the following day, is considered to be their version of the Yule season, with a variety of traditions not unlike Christmas, Hannaka, Ramadan, Kuanzaa, and other such holidays. Officially it celebrates the end of winter and the official start of a brand new year, for in Maatlan minds, years are born when the snows melt. |