Egeriac Calendar
The Egeriac Calendar is a lunisolar calendar used today predominantly in the Federal Republic Of Notzel for dating.
Components
Day and hours
Traditional Egeriac timekeeping practices required the use of unequal time units: 12 daytime units from local sunrise to local sunset, and 12 night-time units from sunset to sunrise. The 12 daytime units and the 12 night-time units are further divided into two subgroups for the sake of naming. A day begins and ends at the midnight.
The practices of determining the length of daytime hours and night-time hours based on sunrise and sunset was abandoned in the 19th century when clocks became widespread and the need of standardized units of time became important due to the industrialization of Notzel.
Weeks
In general, the Egeriac week is a cycle of seven days; but the last week of every 52 weeks has 8 days, the 8th day of a week is inserted between Oxxi Komos and Oxxi Per; besides, sometimes the 8th day might be inserted into some weeks, to make sure that the day for every winter solstice is Oxxi Gnul.
Below is the name of each day in a week:
Name in Egeriac | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
1st day | Oxxi Gnul | Day of Beginning | |
2nd day | Oxxi Nov | Day of Ground | |
3rd day | Oxxi Mer | Day of Water | |
4th day | Ox Komos | Middle Day | The name is changed to "Ox han heKomos" in weeks with 8 days |
Ox han heKomos | Day before the middle | only used in weeks with 8 days | |
8th day | Oxxi haf heKomos | Day after the middle | only used in weeks with 8 days |
5th day | Oxxi Per | Day of Fire | |
6th day | Oxxi Pech | Day of Air | |
7th day | Oxxi Kun | Day of End |
Usually Oxxi Kun is the rest day in Notzel, traditionally it was also they day for worshipping Hosha.
Months
The mean period of the lunar month (precisely, the synodic month) is very close to 29.5 days. Accordingly, the basic Egeriac calendar year is one of twelve lunar months alternating between 29 and 30 days:
Egeriac Month | Length | Gregorian | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
Teth | 30 | Sep–Oct | Head, first |
Veder | 29 | Oct–Nov | Flower |
Mogdath | 30 | Nov–Dec | Joy |
Daxtoch | 29 | Dec–Jan | Harvest |
Meif | 30 | Jan–Feb | Heat |
Deven | 29 | Feb–Mar | Fruit |
Bod | 30 | Mar–Apr | Wood |
Hem | 29 | Apr–May | Fog |
Gmuch | 30 | May–Jun | Frost |
Remech | 29/30 | Jun–Jul | Snow |
Mrich | 30/29 | Jul–Aug | Rain |
Vanol | 29 | Aug–Sep | Tail, end |
In leap years an additional month, Deven Nannan (30 days) is added after Shevat, while the regular Adar is referred to as Deven Napan.
Years
The years are not recorded in numbers, but in terms of 76-year cycles. Within each cycle, the name of the year is determined by the combination of the four traditional elements(Ground, Water, Fire and Air) and the 19 objects. This practice is comparable to the way of naming years in the Tibetan calendar.
New year
Leap years
The Egeriac calendar is based on the Metonic cycle of 19 years, of which 12 are common (non-leap) years of 12 months and 7 are leap years of 13 months. To determine whether a Egeriac year is a leap year, one must find its position in the 19-year Metonic cycle. Within a metonic cycle, there is one leap year for every three years, and there are two leap years for every 5 years.
However, the Metonic cycle is just a rough rule, actual observations may change the positioning of leap years, creating further exceptions. The actual position of the leap year is determined by the government.