Dragon Valley - Calendar
CALENDAR
There are two calendars in common use in Dragon Valley ; the solar, or seasonal, calendar and the lunar calendar.
The solar calendar is divided into 8 parts by the celebration of four Quarterdays and four Cross-quarters. The Quarter days, the days on which quarterly rents and accounts are due and when legal contracts begin or end, are the solstices and equinoces. - Midwinter (winter solstice)
- Ostara (spring equinox)
- Midsummer (summer solstice)
- Harvest (autumn equinox)
The Cross-quarters, which divide each season into two parts, are important celebrations in the Celtic Christian tradition and in Faerie faith practices. These are : - 1 Feb - Imbolg - the start of spring (Groundhog's Day, Candlemas, St. Brigid's Day)
- 1 May - Beltane - the start of summer (May Day)
- 1 Aug - Lughnasa - the start of harvest (aka Lammas)
- 1 Nov - Samhain - the start of winter (aka Halloween)
The solar calendar begins the day after the winter solstice, on Callainn, which is also known as Hogmanay and New Year's Day. It is a day that does not legally exist, when rules can be broken with impunity and it does not appear on the calendar. (Watchmen HATE New Year's Day.)
The solar calendar is used by the legal system. The names for the 8 periods of division of the year are :--Ion-gheamradh (yon-yefra) (22 Dec - 31 Jan) - late Winter
Moch-earrach (moc-eric) (1 Feb - 20 Mar) - early Spring
Ion-earrach (yon-eric) (21 Mar - 30 Apr) - late Spring
Moch-shamhradh (moc-afra) (1 May - 21 June) - early Summer
Ion-shamhradh (yon-afra) (22 June - 31 July) - late Summer
Moch-fhoghar (moc-ogha) (1 Aug - 21 Sept) - early Harvest
Ion-fhoghar (yon-ogha) (22 Sept - 31 Oct) - late Harvest
Moch-gheamhradh (moc-yefra) (1 Nov - 21 Dec) early Winter
The legal system counts the Harvest Quarterday as the beginning of the legal calendar. On that day, a new session of Parliament opens, new judges are seated, new lawyers are welcomed to the bar.
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SCHOOL YEAR
Since students sign what is essentially a contract with the school administration, the school year for most colleges and many secondary schools begins on or around Harvest Quarterday. The school year typically runs from Harvest to Midsummer. Each school year contains three terms.
The terms are set with regard to quarterly incomes and fee payment. Local and secondary schools may start and/or end their school years earlier. Although the terms start and end on the dates given, classes and lectures usually don't begin for a week after the start of term.- Harvest Term runs from Harvest until a fortnight before Midwinter. (1st Ion-fhoghar to 31st Moch-gheamhradh)
- Winter Term runs from a fortnight past Midwinter until a week before Ostara (14th Ion-gheamhradh to 38th Moch-earrach)
- Spring Term runs from 1 week after Beltane until a fortnight before Midsummer (7th Ion-earrach to 31st Moch-shamhradh)
- The Long Vacation lasts from a fortnight before Midsummer until Harvest (31st Moch-shamhradh to 45th Moch-fhoghar)
Some schools offer summer classes during the long vacation, intense courses of study in which a full term of work is compressed into four to eight weeks.
~~*~~
While the solar calendar dictates legal periods, most people use the lunar calendar that to mark the passage of days. There are thirteen moons to the year and each moon rules from new to dark (the first sliver of the new moon to the total disappearance of the old) - 28 days. The day is counted from sunset to sunset. Traditionally the lunar year began with the new moon prior to the spring equinox but now it roughly coincides with the solar calendar, with Winter, the first new moon after Midwinter.
In Dragon Valley, the moons are called :--Winter (new moon after the winter solstice) *
Wolf
Snow
Wyrm (or Worm)
Spring (new moon after the spring equinox)
Flower
Thunder
Summer (new moon after the summer solstice)
Lightning
Blood
Harvest (new moon after the autumn equinox)
Hunter
Frost **
* Some people celebrate New Year as beginning on the first day of Winter.
** Because the lunar cycle only roughly coincides with the solar, sometimes the Frost moon will fall after the Winter moon instead of before.
There are seven days per week; Sunday, Moonday, Starday, Earthday, Stormday, Fastday and Sabbath or Restday.
There is another calendar that is used by some radical sects of Roman Christians. This is based on the archaic 12 month Latin calendar. Few use this calendar and even the members of the sect only use it for official church records.
TIME OF DAY
The day is divided into 8 periods based on the canonical hours of the Christian tradition. Vespers (6 pm, ~sunset)
Compline (9 pm)
Midnight
Matins (3 am)
Prime (6 am, ~ dawn)
Terce (9 am)
Sext (noon)
Nones (3 pm)
Theologically, the new day begins at sunset, or Vespers; this is only observed for holy days ... a celebration begins at sunset the day before. Practically and commonly, the new day is considered to begin at midnight. Time may be referred to by the canonical hours or it may be counted in bells followed by the word 'matin' or 'fesker' to indicate before or after noon respectively.1st bell matin = 1 o'clock am
6th bell matin = 6 o'clock am
4th bell fesker = 4 o'clock pm
9th bell fesker = 9 o'clock pm
Some people will use both canonical hours and bells to indicate a time such as ...2nd midnight bell = 2 o'clock am
Matins = 3 o'clock am (with a capital 'M')
Vespers = 6 o'clock pm
1st compline bell = 10 pm
The term "bells" comes from the ringing of town or church bells to mark the time. For divisions of time smaller than a bell, people speak of quarters of glasses. The "glass" in question refers to the use of sand- or hour-glasses to measure time between bells. For that reason, it is considered incorrect to refer to an entire glass; one could say say "one bell past Compline" for 10 pm, for example (although it would be considered a bit odd), but never "one glass after Compline". Additionally, a "bell" is always entire; one would NEVER say "half a bell" or "a quarter a bell". That's just plain wrong.
quarter glass past Vespers = 6:15 pm
half a glass past Compline = 9:30 pm
quarter glass till Sext = 11:45 am
half a glass past 4th bell = 4:30
quarter glass till 9th bell = 8:45
If one wanted to indicate a time between quarters, one would say something like 'a bit less than a quarter glass' or 'a bit more than half a glass'. When greater precision is required, one would use sands and sweeps. Such precision is seldom called for, however.
Clocks have been around for centuries, large town clocks on clock towers; and wrist watches have become commonplace. These have circular faces quartered into four sections, representing half of the canonical hours; each canonical hour contains 3 bells or glasses, each glass is divided into four quarter glasses and each quarter glass divided into 20 smaller divisions. These smaller divisions are called 'sands'.
Some modern watches provide an even smaller unit of time than the sand, the 'sweep' - called so for the 'sweep hand'. There are 80 sweeps per sand.
To recap; there are 80 sweeps per sand; 80 sands per glass (or bell), 3 bells per hour, 8 hours per day, 7 days per week, four weeks per month, 13 months per year.