Calendars

 

The Unified Calendar

 

The Unified Calendar is the work of the Empire.  As it grew and spread, it became necessary for its member nations to use the same system in measuring the passage of time.  After the calendar itself was designed in 87 IE (Imperial Era), it was quickly adopted by the Empire then slowly came into use among the other nations as well for ease in trade and national relations.  It essentially combined the previous timekeeping methods of the Dayoi and Shaozhe, and as a result tracks a great deal of information.

 

The hours are counted by the birds of the Shaozhe zodiac, each repeated twice as Younger and Elder to give a twenty-four hour day.  However, as the new day is said to truly start at the sixth hour, it is that hour which is given the name of the Younger Hour of the Nightingale, though Nightingale is the first of the signs in the zodiac.

 

Days of the week are given the names of the five elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood, in that very order.  It is the order of the Creation Cycle in elemental philosophy, and just as one element leads to the next, so does a day lead to the one after it.  Also, just as the cycle of creation starts over again with the last element giving birth to the first, so the cycle of days starts over again at that point.

 

Lunar months are simply given numbers and have no formal names, just as the days within them are counted by ordinals.  There are eleven months in a lunar year, varying from twenty-nine to thirty-one days in each for a total of three hundred and thirty-one days per lunar year.

 

It is in counting years that the nations have retained their own systems.  Many continue to track the years of eras, reigns, dynasties, or other grand events side by side with the Imperial Era year.  The Imperial Era year tracks the count of years since the original formation of the Empire.

 

The Almanac

 

The lunar year, used to mark the passage of time, is five days shorter than the solar year.  As a result, over many years the two can diverge greatly.  This phenomenon has led to a separate counting of time side by side with the calendar, known as the Almanac.

 

By the Almanac, there are twenty-four seasons, each fourteen days long.  Within these are four or five day secondary seasons, derived from the original Shaozhe almanac.  These focus on natural cycles and the activity of plants and animals, leaving human life unmentioned.  Beyond this, there are larger outside time periods often given names that do correspond to human tradition, derived from the Dayoi.