Calendar of Harptos

[Dachshund]

[guest]

CALENDAR OF THE REALMS



How It Works
There are 365 days in the year, split up into 12 months of 30 days each with 5 holidays that fall between some months. The names of the months are given in both the formal names and the common ones (that's in parenthesis). The seasons run like they do for us; Hammer is like January and Flamerule is like July.


(1) Hammer (Deepwinter)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30


-Midwinter Holiday-

(2) Alturiak (The Claw of the Cold)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30


(3) Ches (The Claw Of Sunsets)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



(4) Tarsakh (The Claw Of Storms)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



-Greengrass Holiday-

(5) Mirtul (The Melting)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



(6) Kythorn (The Time Of Flowers)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



(7) Flamerule (Summertide)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



-Midsummer Holiday-

-Shieldmeet Holiday-

(8) Eleasias (Highsun)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



(9) Eleint (The Fading)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



-Higharvestide Holiday-

(10) Marpenoth (Leafall)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



(11) Uktar (The Rotting)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30



-The Feast Of The Moon -

(12) Nightal (The Drawing Down)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30

[guest]

Special Calendar Days

Midwinter:
Midwinter is known officially in Cormyr as the High Festival of Winter. It is a feast where, traditionally, the local lords of the land plan the year ahead, make and renew alliances, and send gifts of goodwill. To the common folk throughout the Realms, this is Deadwinter Day, the midpoint of the worst of the cold.

Greengrass:
Greengrass is the official beginning of spring, a day of relaxation. Flowers that have been carefully grown in the inner rooms of the keeps and temples during the winter are blessed and cast out upon the snow to bring rich growth in the season ahead.

Midsummer:
Midsummer, called Midsummer Night or the Long Night, is a time of feasting and music and love. In a ceremony performed in some lands, unwed maidens are set free in the woods and "hunted" by their would-be suitors through the night. Betrothals are traditionally made upon this night. It is very rare indeed for the weather to be bad during this night - such is considered a very bad omen, usually thought to foretell famine or plague.

Higharvestide:
Higharvestide heralds the coming of fall and the harvest. It is a feast that often continues for the length of the harvest so that food is always on hand for those coming in from the fields. There is much traveling about on the heels of the feast, as merchants, court emissaries, and pilgrims make speed before the worst of the mud arrives and the rain freezes in the snow.

The Feast of the Moon:
This festival, also called Moonfest, is the last great festival of the year. It marks the arrival of winter and is also the day when the dead are honored. Graves are blessed, the Ritual of Remembrance is performed, and tales of the doings of those now gone are told far into the night. Much is said of heroes and treasure and lost cities underground.

Wars, by the way, are often but not always fought after the harvest is done, continuing as late as the weather permits. The bulk of the fighting takes place in t nnhe month of Uktar, and the ironic practicality of the Feast of the Moon is readily apparent.

Shieldmeet:
Once every four years, another day is added to the year in the manner of February 29 in the Gregorian calendar. This day is part of no month and follows Midsummer Night. It is known as Shieldmeet. It is a day of open council between nobles and people, a day for the making and renewing of pacts, oaths, and agreements. It is a day for tournaments, tests and trials for those wishing to advance in battle fame or clerical standing, for entertainment of all types, particularly theatrical, and for dueling. The last shieldmeet was in 1368DR.




Marking of the Years

Years (winters) are referred to by names, each name consistent across the Realms. Each kingdom or city-state numbers years differently, usually to measure the reign of a dynasty or the current monarch, or since the founding of the country. The result is a hodgepodge of overlapping numbers that serve to confuse the ordinary person and frustrate the sage. The widespread differing year dates include the following.

Dalereckoning (DR):
Dalereckoning is taken from the year that humans were first permitted by the Elven Court to settle in the more open regions of the forests. In some texts, primarily those which do not have direct ties to Dales history, Dalereckoning is called Freeman's Reckoning (FR).

Cormyr Reckoning (CR):
Cormyr Reckoning begins at the foundation of the House Obarskyr, the dynasty that still rules that land.The 25-year gap between Cormyr Reckoning and Dalereckoning has caused much of the confusion regarding elder days. Timelines and calendars of the period often use DR designators, but place the founding of Cormyr at 1DR instead of 26DR. This is understandable, given that the two reckonings are from two nearby parties and spread by a third (the merchants of Sembia), but it causes learned sages to slam their heads violently against their desks trying to figure things out.

Northreckoning (NR):
Used in the City of Waterdeep, Northreckoning dates from the year Ahghairon become the first Lord of Waterdeep. A more archaic system called Waterdeep Years (WY) dates from the supposed first use of Waterdeep as a trading post. Now largely abandoned except in ancient texts.

Dragon Years (DY):
The use of Dragon Years is an ancient form of counting in dragon generations of 200 years each. There are 10 cycles of 200 years to a color, and each two-millennium color is named after a type of dragon. This reckoning is long-since abandoned.

Mulhorand Calendar (MC):
One of the oldest calendars in use in the Realms, this ancient scheme of record-keeping dates from the founding of Skuld, the City of Shadows, reputedly by a Mulhorandi god.

Present Reckoning (PR):
In an attempt to get a handle on the various number systems in use, a new type of reckoning has been implemented with the approval of such worthies as Khelben Arunsun of Waterdeep and Vangerdahast of Cormyr and carried abroad by the Harpers. All year-dates trace back to the Time of Troubles as Year 0. Times before the Time of Troubles are listed with a negative number (the founding of the Standing Stone in 1DR would be -1358 PR, the creation of Cormyr -1333 PR). Whether this nascent system of timekeeping becomes popular in the Realms is unknown, though Elminster has noted "You have to give a new system a generation or two to hash itself out. At least let it get into double digits."

[ashaffer]

Calendar of Harptos


There are 365 days in the year, split up into twelve months of thirty days each with five holidays that fall between some months. The names of the months are given in both the formal names and the common ones. The seasons run like they do for the northern hemisphere; Hammer is like January and Flamerule is like July. Each week consists of ten days, called a tenday.







The holidays are Midwinter, Greengrass, Midsummer, Highharvestide and The Feast of the Moon. Midwinter falls between Hammer and Alturiak, Greengrass between Tarsakh and Mirtul, Midsummer is between Flamerule and Eleasis, Highharvestide is between Elient and Marpenoth, and The Feast of the Moon is between Uktar and Nightal.

Note: The holidays do not fall on the actual day the season changes. The 19th of Ches is the Spring Equinox, the 20th of Kythorn is the Summer Solstice, the 21st of Elient is the Autumn Equinox and the 20th of Nightal is the Winter Solstice.

Every four years, another holiday called Shieldmeet is added as a leap day immediately following the Midsummer holiday.

[Munroe]

So January 1, 2010 was 1st Hammer 1374 DR. I'm posting this on January 20, 2010, which is also 20th Hammer 1374 DR for in-game purposes.

NOTE: This will NOT affect the in-game clock. Mechanically, hours in-game will still last 10 minutes, meaning multiple day/night cycles may pass in a single calendar day. Roleplay-wise, an in-game day will be 24 hours long. An in-game month will be a RL month long.

More Information/Specifics:

January is 31 days while Hammer is only 30 days, but Hammer is followed by an annual festival day named Midwinter which will fall on January 31st. There are twelve months in the Calendar of Harptos and all months are 30 days. If that doesn't coincide with the length of the RL month, the last day of the shorter month can be considered to include any extra days that follow that month, so the beginning of the month will always coincide with the beginning of the Real-Life month. There are five annual holidays in the Calendar of Harptos that do not fall within months. Midwinter falls on January 31st, which is an extra day after the 30 in Hammer. Greengrass doesn't have an extra day it can fit so it shares April 30th with 30 Tarsakh (the last day in the month of Tarsakh). Midsummer falls on July 31st. July is 31 days while Flamerule is only 30 days so 30 Flamerule is 30 July and Midsummer follows. On leap years (2012, 2016, etc.), July 31st will also serve as Shieldmeet. Higharvestide doesn't have an extra day it can fit so it shares September 30th with 30 Eleint (the last day in the month of Eleint). The Feast of the Moon doesn't have an extra day it can fit so it shares November 30th with 30 Uktar (the last day in the month of Uktar). February 28th (29th on leap years, as appropriate) will also serve as the 29th and 30th of Alturiak.

This information also appears in (and is copied from) the Time Moves thread in the Server Rules and Information forum.

[ancientempathy]

Good idea at compiling that in here