Setting Calanders---How does your world keep time?

[LordVreeg]

So one thing my players have really gotten into is the calenders of my setting.  Almost obsessively.
And later on, this started to really work in my favor as a GM, to the point now I'm wondering how I can add to it.  I'e started to mark all my holy days, etc, but I'm trying to see what other GM's have done.
I'm not talking about the years, I'm talking about the day-to-day way that the days and months are measured.  I use an eight day week (called the Hawaak) and the 60 day month (the Goesi), and a day in betweeen each month, called the Wuod.
 celtrician calender

So I'm wondering what has worked well for other setting creators to immerse their players in their worlds.  What kind of calenders do you use, what other time and chronology tricks have you tried, what has failed that you want to warn us about (like my old really complicated astrological system my Gotipan monks used...my head is still spinning)
and if you haven't really built a setting specific way to mark your days, read and learn.  When players know the days of your week, and what month and year it is, you've won another little victory.


(And how does your world spell calender?)

[Xeviat]

It is difficult to come up with the calender for my setting, since my setting is merely Earth several million years in the future. Thus, it is difficult to get away from the standard conventions:

Many cultures name the days of the week after the visible stellar objects. Sunday (day of the sun), Monday (day of the moon) ... In Japanese, the days of the week translate to Sun Day (sunday), Moon Day (monday), Fire Day (tuesday), Water Day (wednesday), Wood Day (thursday), Gold Day (friday), and Earth (the element, not the planet) Day (saturday).

The days of the week are references to the visible stellar objects, usually in order of visibility/importance: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, , Jupiter, Saturn; as you can see, Sunday, Monday, and Saturday fit this; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are named after Norse gods: Tyr's Day, Woden's Day (or Odin's Day), Thor's Day, and Freyja's Day (or Frige's Day). Before that, tuesday is associated with mars, wednesday with Mercury, thursday with Jupitor, and friday with Venus. Tyr was likened to Mars, Oden was likened to Mercury (why the king of the gods was likened to the messenger of the gods, I don't know), Thor with Jupiter (thunder association), and Freyja with Venus, so that's where our germanic names for the days came from.

It also seems that india named the days of the week after the same planets, and unless I'm mistaken, so did the Chinese. This points to shared human origins, or at least that we're all sheep and think alike.

(After researching, the order of the days of the week in china, based on the planets, are sun, moon, mars, mercury, jupiter, venus, and saturn; the same as ours. It is the same in India as well. Thus, it seems, I can't really escape this order, but I do get to give them different elemental associations).

Since my world has 7 elements and will still see the same 7 celestial bodies, there's no way I can get away from the 7 day week.

As for the months, again, I probably can't get away from a 12 or 13 month calender; month refers to the cycle of moons. I do have some leeway here, since time can slow the moon's rotation, but I will definitely have the months ending with the full moon (and I'll cheat and have everything fit together perfectly). I think the earth's rotation around the sun could change in time, but I think it would get slower, so I might have to alter the days of the week as well.

I'm thinking that I'll have irregular months with irregular weeks. A week is 7 days, but the month will be 31 days; 4 weeks, with the three days of the full moon as monthly holidays at the end of each month. This means the year will need to be 372 days long, only 6.75 days longer than the current year; I think I have enough leeway to make that change.

I'll keep the planetary order of days the same, but reorder the elemental associations. The Sun is Life, and the Moon is Death, Mercury is Air (its the fastest), Venus is Earth (its the brightest, and thus thought to be made of gold, a metal, which is tied to Earth), Mars to Fire (its red), Jupiter to Water (I'll need a justification), and Saturn to Void (it's the slowest, and thus furthest planet, so it is the gate keeper of the beyond; the Stars themselves are also tied to Void). Actually, Saturn will not be thought of as a "planet", but as a wandering star. Due to the associations, I actually need to have the week end on "moon" day, but that's only really a switch of sun and moon.

So my week will be "life" day, "fire" day, "air" day, "water" day, "earth" day, "void" day, and "death" day. I may put "void" day between "life" and "death", but this is quibbling over the weekend at this point.

Each week will end with the start of the phase of a the moon, which will always fall on "death" day. The Moon's tie to death ties in with Lycanthropes. Because the Moon is "death", the time of the full moon will be days of rest, where people don't work and celebrations aren't held.

This has gotten me thinking about a lot of things. Thanks for the motivation!

[Polycarp]

Well, I hadn't given the topic in general any thought until my most recent "for fun" design project, the Clockwork Jungle.  There, the calendar is derived from the fraction 22/7, as that's the local approximation of pi; the Clockwork Jungle is a vast forest in which all compasses point to a central mountain "pole," so its residents think of distance in terms of degrees and distance from the center, not in terms of a North/south/etc. grid (as there are no such directions).  Their choice of a calendar is informed by that world view, since both 7 and 22 are considered holy numbers and the circle is the holiest shape.

The 'True Calendar' or 'Rainbow Calendar' is based on these numbers. In this calendar, there are 7 'movements' (about half an hour) in each 'period' (about 3.5 hours), 7 'periods' in each day, 7 days in each week, 7 weeks in each 'season,' and 6 and 2/7 seasons in a year (corresponding to 44/7 or 2Ï', the number of radians in a circle). The six seasons (and one 'partial season,' which lasts only 2/7 as long) correspond to the seven (there's that number again!) colors of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Purple. The 'Red season' at the start of the new year is also the short one, lasting only for two weeks, but it is typically a time of celebration or worship in most civilized cultures.  The "Orange season" is considered unlucky, not because of numerical anomalies but because that color is associated with a very dangerous enemy.

Other calendars exist, but they are usually used alongside the True Calendar, and are usually more localized and aimed towards certain ritual or commemorative dates. Only the Iskites (one of the more advanced races) actually use an astronomical calendar as well '" because they clear their settlements of trees, only they see the sky on a regular basis.

It's sort of like real earth history backwards - in ancient Babylonia, they came up with the idea of 360 degrees in a circle because they noticed that that's about the angle stars turned (one degree) in a day (they used a 360 day calendar).  In my world, because angles are so important, the calendar was derived from the measure of angles, not the other way around.

I'm not sure if this is actually a "true" calendar - that is, if it accurately represents a solar year - but 1) I'm not sure if there even is a solar year, as I haven't decided on the greater cosmology and 2) even if there is, it won't matter if the calendar is inaccurate because there are no seasons to measure years by (it's a tropical zone).

Of course, I wouldn't involve players with the math - but even if you don't know the reason behind the calendar, it does re-emphasize important themes (holy numbers, angles, etc.) and is quite easy to remember (the color associations).  I think it's a good idea to have things that are both simple and memorable and also logical if a player or character is interested.  It's simple without being arbitrarily so.

[limetom]

So I'm wondering what has worked well for other setting creators to immerse their players in their worlds. What kind of calenders do you use, what other time and chronology tricks have you tried, what has failed that you want to warn us about (like my old really complicated astrological system my Gotipan monks used...my head is still spinning)
and if you haven't really built a setting specific way to mark your days, read and learn. When players know the days of your week, and what month and year it is, you've won another little victory.

When Languages Die[/i] by linguist K. David Harrison, who spends an entire chapter on cultures and time-keeping, which had me seriously thinking about how time-keeping is handled in a game world.

What is really surprising is how diverse time-keeping is.  Some cultures, like ours, has days, weeks, months, and years, not to mention many larger and smaller divisions.  In the Tuvan culture of Siberia, Harrison says, you don't ask "What day is it?"  You ask "Today is how many?" and your answer is strictly in lunar phases; the Tuvan culture doesn't have days of the week or months.  He further added that Tuvans are so aware of lunar cycles that they don't even need it in the sky to tell you what today is.

Harrison also goes over naming schemes, citing the Tofa people, also from Siberia.  They had, until displaced by the modern Russian system (which is almost the same as in English), 2 separate calenders; one was based off of hunting, another off of gathering:

[tr][td]Month[/td][td]Tofa 'hunting' calender[/td][td]Tofa 'gathering' calender[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]January[/td][td]great white month[/td][td]empty month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]February[/td][td]small white month[/td][td]big log month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]March[/td][td]hunting with dogs month[/td][td]tree bud month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]April[/td][td]tree bud month[/td][td]good birch bark collecting month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]May[/td][td]hunting in the taiga month[/td][td]digging saranki root month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]June[/td][td](forgotten)[/td][td]bad birch bark collecting month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]July[/td][td]hay cutting month[/td][td]hay cutting month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]August[/td][td](forgotten)[/td][td]collecting saranki month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]September[/td][td]preparing skins month[/td][td]preparing skins month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]October[/td][td]rounding up male deer month[/td][td]move Autumn capsite month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]November[/td][td]sable hunting month[/td][td]hunting month[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]December[/td][td]cold month[/td][td]braiding (rope making) month[/td][/tr][/table]

Note: Although this would have been a 13 month lunar cycle, common to all Siberian peoples, it was now remembered only as a 12-month cycle due to the influence of the Russian calender.

n.b.[/i] - Both the Tuvan and Tofa language are nearly extinct, with almost all of their speakers being quite old and with their children and grandchildren being almost exclusively monolingual Russian speakers.

So keep in mind that the various cultures don't have to, and in my opinion shouldn't, just be your own concept of the world (such as days of the week) shoved into some strange sounding names.

Works Cited:
Harrison, K. David. When Languages Die. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

[LordVreeg]

I love the Tofa months in how descriptive they are.
One thing about history I always found interesting is how many reforms calenders have had.  

By the way, some great, great answers so far.  Our players don't deserve us.

[Ghost]

On Ifpherion, there are four moons and two suns, all with regular, but unique cycles, so I can't really use an Earth-like system. I had the idea to tie the most popular calendar to the seasons, but upon consideration, that seems like a quite troublesome system. Hmm...I'm going to have to think about it some more.

As to how the notion is represented...

Well, in the common tongue of the world, it would be 'Kelndray'. Which is similar to 'Kaondray' (destiny), and 'Kuladron' (contract). I wanted it to be slightly obvious that the world was settled by Human colonists, and a tiny little bit of their language has survived, even after 100,000 years.

[Wensleydale]

(And how does your world spell calender?)

Calendar. :P

As to how I represent actual days, it tends to be different for each culture. The Duer calendar, which is the one that is in mainstream use in Wonders, is rather complicated. The world takes ten years to go around the sun, which affects its climate rather dramatically, and this time is measured in 'Cycles'. One cycle is roughly equal to ten of our years, and consists of fourteen seasons. There are two seasons which occur once, and six that occur twice. The unique seasons mark the hottest and coldest parts of the year, and the others mark the stages in between those points, and are thus repeated between them. The calendar goes from Raksh'aan (the hottest point of the year) all the way through Daksh'aan, Zek'aal, Maksh'aan, Rekza'aan, Manda'aan and Gulz'aan to Hammaz, the coldest part of the Cycle. Hammaz then returns to Gulz'aan, which then goes on to Manda'aan, and so on. Although this can be confusing, in chronicles they are often recorded either in Half-Cycles or with a Mez' (lit. Two or Second) prefixed to the month.

Each season consists of four 'months', Yaash'mah, Duun, Raakza'mah and Za'diin'mah. These are mostly there for historical accuracy and for discussing birth dates and so on, and are the largest unit of time above days. Days themselves are almost identical to our own - roughly the length of time taken for the world to rotate on its axis. These are marked by the suitably inflected number suffixiated with a 'ne, translating as Day. Duer do possess rudimentary clocks, which measure time in Twelfthdays (i.e. two hours). These clocks are based on water, however, and are not the most efficient of devices.

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote-Wensleydale]The Duer calendar, which is the one that is in mainstream use in Wonders, is rather complicated. The world takes ten years to go around the sun, which affects its climate rather dramatically, and this time is measured in 'Cycles'[/blockquote]
Macro-cycles, especially climate based ones, are just such a fantastic way to mark a setting as 'alien'.  And I'm sure it is not so confusing once the players hear every date that way.

[Wensleydale]

Yeah, exactly. Date doesn't usually come into Wonders all that much, but the point in the cycle that it is DOES - because the climate changes so dramatically from near jungle-like temperatures to arctic. This obviously in turn has effects on architecture, wildlife, flora etc.

[LordVreeg]

Celtricia is a polytheistic society, where no one wants to piss off a specific church, so there are pretty constant holy days.  
But I love how your calender is intertwined with the climate. That really makes the players feel it.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

An expert from my website on the Calendar:

Almost all of Kishar uses a lunisolar calendar developed by the encarans almost 16,000 years ago, though few realize the calendar's origins. The year begins near the vernal equinox (of the northern hemisphere). The year is made up of twelve months, each consisting of 29 or 30 in direct alternation, keeping the new moon around the first of each month. Every third year adds a thirteenth month to the year keeping the calendar aligned with the tropical year.
Month    Days
Hoinomasa    29
Duwmasa    30
Tremasa    29
Ketormasa    30
Penkemasa    29
Swekmasa    30
Septmasa    29
Oktomasa    30
Newmasa    29
Dekmasa    30
Hoindekmasa    29
Duwdekmasa    30
Treidekmasa*    29
*occurs once every 3 years

A day is roughly 24 hours long, with the respective length of day and night varying based on location and season. Names for days of the week tend to vary, but most cultures translate the original encaran names: Moonday (on which the new moon should land), Windday, Earthday, Fireday, Waterday, Lifeday, Sunday. The names from the sun and moon pay tribute to the celestial bodies, while the other names are derived from early classical thought about the composition of reality.

The encaran calendar assumes the year 1 Encaran Calendar (EC) begins with the founding of the Encaran Empire (in 14,970 BCE). This would make the current year 15,999 EC.

While most of the world uses the calendar system, the years used vary based on the location. Most of western Midgard uses a calendar that begins with the last year of the Great War as year 1 Common Era (CE). Prior years are are considered Before Common Era (BCE). Under this system, the current year is 1029 CE. Dates listed are in CE unless otherwise noted.

I am not really happy with the names of the days of the week, as they sound forced. Actually, Xeviat may have given me some other ideas.

The names of the months are derived from proto-Indo-European numbers, with "masa" at the end (I think I adapted a Sanskrit word for month, but I'm no longer positive where I got it).

[Moniker]

I use a 28 day, 12 month model. We use the normal month names, but not the actual day of the month names. Most time is tracked by fortnights and new moon/full moon phases.

[Elemental_Elf]

The Calendar for a setting my friends and I are creating is, sadly, sorta typical. Its a 322.525 day Calendar. The Calendar is separated into 4 Seasons which are each composed of 2 Months. Each Month is 42 days long and are divided into five 8-day weeks.  There are a total of 4 intercalary days, 2 of which are permanent, 1 that occurs every second year and the last that occurs every 4th year. Each of these days are not accounted for in the normal day-to-date scheme. Each of the 4 Greater Gods are associated with a particular season; each Month is thus named after a combination of a Greater God's name and the name of either the first or current Emperor. The Emperor's names are added because each is considered to be living aspects of divine force given human form, the most important of which are the first and current. Also their addition demonstrates that life is cyclical as well as putting the Current Emperor on a par with the near mythic First Emperor, as well as the Greater Gods. Finally, each of the days are named after one of the 8 lesser Gods.

My friends and I are still in the development phase but here's what the basic calendar looks like (note: Philip and Conrad are the place-holder names of the first and current Emperor, respectively).Also, we're still trying to find a way of combining the God's names with the Emperor's name... Like I said, we're still in the development phase, lol.

[spoiler=Very quick picture of the Calendar I just made]

[/spoiler]

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=PHOENIX]I am not really happy with the names of the days of the week, as they sound forced. Actually, Xeviat may have given me some other ideas.

The names of the months are derived from proto-Indo-European numbers, with "masa" at the end (I think I adapted a Sanskrit word for month, but I'm no longer positive where I got it). [/blockquote]
Hey, this is why we do these things.  Xeviat is always helping people with good ideas.

Something that I did was to make older names and later generational names....normally people contract names and form colloquialisms that later become the names people use.

[limetom]

Another point I forgot to bring up before: weeks are a silly little invention.  They aren't really tied to any kind of phenomenon found in nature; they're just a somewhat useful construction in our modern world.  In other societies, weeks are meaningless and pointless.  Many cultures base the week as a 5-9 day period based around today.  Others ignore it as unessecary.  Our monoculture pins it as 7 days based either on Sunday or Monday, with the former being more common.

Other divisions also have silly little things to them, as well.  Months, for example, don't really need to be "months;" instead, they can be lunar cycles, which begin on a certain phase of the moon (the new moon, in the English version, but it could be any, seen as it is an arbitrary assignment.)

The Tuvan culture, a group related to the Tofa I mentioned above, doesn't really use "days."  They go off of the exact lunar phase; Harrison recounts that it could be the middle of the day, or even after the moon has set, and the Tuvans who have retained their traditional ways (which are being largely supplanted by the Russian culture) could tell you the exact phase of the moon.

On the one hand, time systems don't actually mean that much.  They are simply