Calendars

The year on Tjarral is 360 days long, each day slightly longer than a day on Earth. Every ten years, an extra day is added, bringing the total up to 361.

The lunar cycle on Tjarral is almost exactly 21 local days long.

The Cycles

The Cycles (Kshamakaraktha Dhaśoki) are used alongside the more traditional sidereal calendar (culminating in the Final Feast every twenty years), but do not line up with it. Over the centuries, they have drifted somewhat, as they do not account for leap years.

In short:

• An aeon is twenty ages, or 160,000 years, or 57,600,000 days—or 159,955.57 solar years.

• An age is twenty periods, or 8,000 years, or 2,880,000 days—or 7,997.78 solar years.

• A period is twenty vicennia, or 400 years, 144,000 days—or 399.89 solar years.

• A vicennium is twenty years, or 7,200 days—or 19.99 solar years.

• A year is eighteen months, or 360 days—a little under a solar year.

• A month is twenty days.

• A day is a day.

As measured by the Nyarawanyigara, the Narragundi, the Eya, the Gomirna, the Nio, the Dhunir, and the Kuzhek, the current era began on the northern hemisphere spring equinox of the year 3014 BC. When the story begins, two days after the autumn equinox in 1058 AB, the date is listed as 0-3-9-2-12-10-8—that is, the ninth day of the eleventh month of the thirteenth year of the third vicennium of the tenth period of the fourth age of the first aeon. (The typical reading of the Cycles treats 0 as its own number, first in the sequence.) The end of the current period is not due for some time yet.

Bidjohr's Reckoning

In Arumandjee, and indeed along the Copper Coast as well, the year is divided into six equal "seasons" roughly corresponding to the existing times of year. Each season is further subdivided by four days, spaced at fifteen-day intervals: the "rise", the "high", the "fall", and the "end". Days are then marked by time until one of these end-points. The calendar starts at the autumn equinox in the Southern Hemisphere; an extra day extends it every ten years, and is considered a lengthening of the Equinox itself.

The current chronology begins on the Southern Hemisphere Autumn Equinox of the year 150 BC. As of two days after the Southern Hemisphere Spring Equinox of 1058 AB, the date is given as Thirteen before Bloom's Rise, in the year 1208 of the Calendar by Bidjohr's Reckoning (CR; Arrahng Bidjohr-um Akidju-hirr, Djoolaman Angidjudj Bidjorurr).

The Lunar Calendar

The Lunar Calendar uses alternating years of seventeen and eighteen months, each 21 days long. The eighteen-month years come every seven years, except on the fifth iteration when they come on every sixth. Thus the years with eighteen months are: 7, 14, 21, 28, and 34; 41, 48, and 55; 61, 68, and 75; and 81, 88, 95, 102, 109, 116, 123, and 130. After this, the cycle begins again.

Typically, the period of 130 years here included is deemed something similar to a saeculum or "generation"—as in, there is little to no chance of anyone having lived from one cycle to the next. The period is also used to define the local "century", of some importance to the Cerementi.

There are seven days of the week, whose names in most languages translate roughly to Monday, Truthsday, Windsday, Turnsday, Fireday, Setterday, and Sunday.

The current lunar calendar dates back to the new moon on the day before the Northern Hemisphere Spring Equinox in the year 116 BC. As of now, it is the twelfth day of the first month of the fifth year of the tenth cycle (or else the 1,175th lunar year) in the Time of the Mandate (TM).

A separate lunar calendar, with slightly less accuracy (seventeen months long regardless), is used by the Malehinese peoples. In the calendar used on Akuliha, for example, it is the twelfth day of the 943rd month in the era begun by Vāmonaia; or the twelfth day of the 25th month of the reign of Vahi'aho, Emperor of the Isles (who has been ruling for just over a year now).

The Solar Calendar

Weeks remain seven days long, but the length of a month is changed to thirty days instead of twenty-one. There are thus twelve months in the year, each given the name of an action associated with a particular season. The calendar had its beginnings with the Tarviye, who used it for harvest purposes in conjunction with the lunar calendar (which was used for religious ones); it has since become the standard calendar in Oma.

The Solar Calendar started on the Northern Hemisphere Spring Equinox in the year 1 AB, though the inciting event for the new caeldnar happened some months later. As of the date of the story, it is Fireday the Third Day of Rest, in the 1,058th Year of the Pact, the Blessed Year (anno beato or AB; the equivalent in Phaeroian is noa agrakta), or the Common Era to the people of the rest of the north. (The abbreviation BC is used for dates prior, meaning "before the Count"—Phaeroian Zadil-i Noai Agraktai apai, sometimes just Zadir apar.)

A second solar calendar remains in use, based on the date of accession of King Xaza I of the Yashdar Basin in 1350 BC, during whose reign the Ayyal was compiled. By that reckoning, it is still Fireday the Third Day of Rest, but the year is 2408 AL (anno lucis, Year of the Light—Qariyyu Khad Aymim).

The Sidereal Calendar

The calendar in most use across Sayintha, an equatorial archipelago, in conjunction with the Cycles, depends not so much on the movement of the sun as on the movement of the stars. It is true that the year does begin on the northern hemisphere's spring equinox, but other than that the year can be safely divided up into the constellations in full display at the time.

In accordance with the calendar as currently used in Durnhão, it is the third day of the seventh month of the year 617 After the Union (AU; Eralca mê Surecu), when the prophet Vedra began to speak of cara, vuxa, and the needlessness of worship of the gods. In Verna, most of Svidhuni, and Inakku, they prefer to up the calendar by a few years, to mark the birth of Pregachka; thus by this reckoning the year is 1631 in the Age of Healing (AH; Kshamakaraktha Dhavaśur).

The Reaper's Count

This calendar uses the movement of the Reaper, the largest and furthest planet from the sun, to count years. As it happens, the Reaper takes ten local years to complete its orbit, and as such is perfectly-timed for decadal chronology. The ten constellations of the Reaper's zodiac are used in a cycle of their own.

The Market Turns

The regions of Suru and Ezedla in southwestern Mocueyoh prefer a forty-five week calendar, with each week eight days long. There are three seasons, each about fifteen weeks long: cool-and-wet (halfway through Peace to halfway through halfway through Awakening), warm-and-medium (halfway through Awakening to halfway through Harvest), and hot-and-dry (halfway through Harvest to halfway through Peace). The calendar is so named because each of the days serves as a market day in one of eight villages, a custom that has been upheld regardless of culture or nation for centuries. Each day also has eight word-roots associated with it, from which are drawn the names of people.