The Almost Inevitable Wrangling Over How The Imperial Calendar Should Look

[Terry Mixon]

I saw this on the interwebz and felt it was time to drop this here.

It needs Holiday to work, but it would be so much cleaner than twelve months. It could be called 13 maintenance periods.

 

[rinku]

The meme is incorrect about the moon, whose period is about 29.5 days, not 28 days. Changing to 13 28 day months has its points, but better aligning to the moon is NOT one of those.

However, who cares about the natural cycle of Luna when not living on Terra or Luna? Even Martians are going to say "eh."

So, yes. If you even want to bother with months at all, that is. It would make a deal of sense to define required maintenance in a 2 week cycle, or tie it to jumps made. I would certainly think a ship making two jumps in two weeks is going to need a lot more work done than one that was docked in port for that fortnight.

Edit:
It may be worth noting that before aligning with the Sumerian/Babylonian derived western calendar (whose 7 day week only derives from there being 7 bright objects in the sky that move, anyway), China used a 10 day week, 3 to a 30 day calendar month (early, middle and late weeks). Various strategies were used at various times to keep things lined up (they were very much aware of the 365.25 day length of the solar year and 29.5 day lunar month).

And for that matter... 24 hour days? How many planets have that? Madness!

The Third Imperium already had two major competing cultural calendars - Terran and Vilani - to deal with when it was set up. Honestly, it's a wonder they didn't just go with a decimal calendar and be done with it. Or maybe a duodecimal one... 20 hours to the day, 20 days to a month, 20 months to a year. 400 day years, but 333 old terran days in length. Or something.

100 seconds to a minute (1.66 old minutes)
100 minutes to an hour (2.77 old hours)
100 hours to a week (1.6 old weeks)
100 weeks to a year (3.17 old years)

It SEEMS weird, but it probably makes a lot of sense in the Far Future, and certainly makes for easier time calculations...

 

[Condottiere]

The Shire Calendar was used by the Hobbits of the Shire. It was different from that used by the Men, Dwarves and Elves. Use of this calendar in Middle-earth is referred to as Shire-reckoning.

The calendar featured 12 months, all 30 days long, plus 5 or 6 named days added to round out 365 days (or 366 for leap years). Two of the named days were Yuledays; one was the first day of the year and the other was the last day of the year. Between June and July were the Lithedays. In common years (not leap years) there were three: 1 Lithe, Mid-year's Day, and 2 Lithe. In leap years (every fourth year except in the last year of a century) an extra Overlithe Day was added after Mid-year's Day. All of the named days were major holidays (and a reason for feasting) with Overlithe being a day of special merrymaking.[1][2] The two Yuledays were actually a portion of Yuletide, which included the last three and first three days of each year.[2]

In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the names of months and days are given in modern equivalents. For instance, Afteryule is called January and Sterday is called Saturday.[2]

 

[FreeTrav]

Freelance Traveller - Kurishdam - Lecture Hall and Library - Calendars in Charted Space

 

[MongooseBella]

The Shire Calendar was used by the Hobbits of the Shire. It was different from that used by the Men, Dwarves and Elves. Use of this calendar in Middle-earth is referred to as Shire-reckoning.

The calendar featured 12 months, all 30 days long, plus 5 or 6 named days added to round out 365 days (or 366 for leap years). Two of the named days were Yuledays; one was the first day of the year and the other was the last day of the year. Between June and July were the Lithedays. In common years (not leap years) there were three: 1 Lithe, Mid-year's Day, and 2 Lithe. In leap years (every fourth year except in the last year of a century) an extra Overlithe Day was added after Mid-year's Day. All of the named days were major holidays (and a reason for feasting) with Overlithe being a day of special merrymaking.[1][2] The two Yuledays were actually a portion of Yuletide, which included the last three and first three days of each year.[2]

In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the names of months and days are given in modern equivalents. For instance, Afteryule is called January and Sterday is called Saturday.[2]

Is this like how Frodo's real name was Maura?

 

[Condottiere]

You need a professorial chair to keep track of the entire Tolkien lore.

Though, I do vaguely recall coming across a reference to that, somewhere.

A pop psychologist might say it's an oblique reference to Freud.