The Seuna calendar: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:10, 7 January 2009

In the Seuna calendar, the cycle of the moon is completely ignored. The year is divided into 5 parts which I have called "months" all through the following article but which might just as well be designated "seasons".

Also I have been calling the 4 year period that the Seuna CULTURE observe a "calendar". This is quite accurate in that the SEUNA word for "calendar" involves everything we mean by calendar. But it also has the meaning "a 4 year period of time", and this is the sense that is meant most of the times that you come across the word.

The 128 year period of time, consisting of 32 "calendars" is called a towa.ku. I suppose the nearest English translation is "century". Since the human lifespan seems to assymptote as it approaches 128, towa.ku can sometimes be translated into English as "generation", particularly in poetic writings.

Actually each locality in the SEUNA world breaks down the year into various "arc"s ("earth.arc"s in full). This is best translated as season. The timing, length and names of these "arc"s depend on local weather, local growing seasons, local cultural activities etc. For example acorn.arc might follow rain.arc and be followed by salmon.arc.

Building up from days to a century

There are 8 days in a week. They are;-

so	gwe-	gum	-i	ad	dom	-om	=swe
sun.day	leaf.day	river.day	sea.day	star.day	moon.day	tree.day	cloud.day

There are 8 weeks in a month. They are;-

ai.no	geu.no	suna.no	nela.no	ki'o.no	nelau.no	hia.no	hau.no
white.week	green.week	orange.week	skyblue.week	yellow.week	blue.week	red.week	black.week

Below is the first sheet of the Seuna calendar (there are 20 sheets in all).

The first week is the top row, the last week is the bottom row.

The first day of the week is the first column, the last day of the week is the last column.

The "not completely enclosed space" at the end of the week is for the week.span (always referred to as simply week.span and never week.span.day). The week.span is not considered part of the week.

The space beneath the grid is for the month.span (always referred to as simply month.span and never month.span.day). The month.span is not considered part of the month.

At the end of the calendar we have the calendar.span (always referred to as simply calendar.span and never calendar.span.day). This day is not considered part of the calendar and is not given any space on the calendar.

There are 5 months in a year. They are;-

jupiter.month, venus.month, mercury.month, mars.month, and saturn.month

There are 4 years in a calendar.

There are 32 calenders in a towa.ku.

Each of the 128 years in the century has an animal associated with it. I have only (as yet) given a name to every second year. The calendars are named according to the animal of their first year. So the first one is weasel.calendar, the second capibara. calendar, the third badger.calendar etc. etc.

weasel/ermine/stoat/mink	whale	ngu/wildebeest	wolf
capibara	opossum	beautiful armadillo	bullfinch
honey badger	lynx	rhino	house fly
vulture	springbok	kookabura	dove
spider	reindeer	seagull	gorilla
horse	scorpion	lobster	python
gecko	eagle	koala	porqupine
swan	polar bear	zebra	cuckoo?
hedgehog	albatross	hornbil	raccoon
bee	wolverine	manta-ray	pelican
yak	warthog	bear	crocodile/alligator
Stellar's sea cow	raven/crow	seahorse?	hawk
puffin	moray eel	bat	moa
musk ox	peacock	walrus	cheetah
anteater?	lizard with a ruff?	toucan	okapi
ant	aardvark	ostridg	ass/donkey
dolphin	hyena	duck	driprotodon(wombat)
giant beaver	cobra	frog	mosquito?
goat	crane/stork/heron	cricket/grasshopper/locust	chimpanzee
turtle/tortoise	N.A. bison	megatherium	fox
chameleon	jaguar	kangaroo	water buffalo
rabbit	woodpecker	giant squid	doedicurus (glyptodon)
beetle	shark	crab	lion
seal	woolly mammoth	owl	baboon
hummingbird	orang utan?	mole	black skimmer
penguin	gecko	mongoose/meerkat	kingfisher
lemur	parrot	octopus	elk/moose
gemsbok	swordfish	flamengo	auroch
giraffe	tiger	blue bird of paradise	iguana
mouse	swift	elephant	grouse
butterfly	falcon	dragonfly	mantis
snail?	smilodon	camel	cormorant/shag

Each of these animals above is a towa, which can be translated as "token", "icon" or "totem ". ku means a circle or cycle. So you can see where the name for the 128 year period comes from.

The towa.ku are numbered.

The naming of days, weeks, months and years

There is a seperate name for every day within a towa.ku. For example hippo.mercury.green.leaf.day refers to one day within the towa.ku. However rarely would you come across a day defined with such precision. Normally leaf.day or green.leaf.day would be heard in conversation. Seldom would you hear mercury.green.leaf.day and outside of ceremonies and official documents you would never hear hippo.mercury.green.leaf.day.

As with days, so with weeks. There is a seperate name for every week within a towa.ku. For example hippo.mercury.green.week refers to one week within the towa.ku. But you would hardly hear anything but green.week in conversation.

And the same with months. There is a seperate name for every month within a towa.ku. hippo.mercury.month refers to one month within the towa.ku but you would hear mercury.month talked about oftener.

And of course the years are referred to as hippo.year, monkey.year, etc. etc.

The spandays

We also have span.days

A month has 8 span.days.

A year has 5 span.days outside of its months.

A calendar has 1 span.day outside of its years.

Every century one span.day is dropped.

The spanday to drop in a particular year is chosen by the keeper of the rites, about half way through the fourth month of the previous year.

The naming of spandays

When talking weekly one would just say span.day

When talking monthly one would just say;-

white.span.day, green.span.day, orange.span.day, skyblue.span.day, yellow.span.day, blue.span.day, red.span.day, and black.span.day

When talking yearly one would just say;-

Jupiter.span.day, Venus.span.day, Mercury.span.day., Mars.span.day, and Saturn.span.day.

(of course you would also have Venus.green.span.day, Mercury.yellow.span.day etc. etc. as well)

When talking in terms of calendars one would just say;- calendar.span.day

Time keeping

Year 2000 had 365.242,192,65 days

Every year is shorter than the last by 0.000,000,061,4 days

By adding one day every calendar we get a 365.25 day year

If we then drop one day every towa.ku we get a 365.242,187,5 day year (very close to the actual year length)

Before 2084, the actual year will be bigger than the calendar year – after 2084 the actual year will be smaller than the calendar year

For this reason midnight, 22 Dec 2083 is designated the fulcrum of the whole system. That day will be sun.day in the white.week in the jupiter.month in the ???.year of towa.ku 1.

Month/Planet/Shape association

You will have noticed that the months share their names with the five visible planets. That is Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (in order of distance from the sun).

In order of occurence in the year ... Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn

They also share their name (@???, m???, y???, j???, f???)with the five platonic solids.

Mercury ... tetrahedron (4 sides)4₈

Mars ... hexahedron (6 sides)6₈

Venus ... octahedron (8 sides)10₈

Saturn ... dodecahedron (12 sides)14₈

Jupiter ... icosahedron (20 sides)24₈

Festivals

The months each has a different festival associated with them. Which festival falls on which month depends upon which part of the world you live in. The following is the festival calendar for Northern Europe. The festivals occur at the begining of every month : always starting in the first week and sometimes extending into the following week. They all start on different days of the week.

The jupiter.festival

In the middle of winter (the 22nd of December), jupiters.month starts. The jupiter.festival is the most important one of the year. Officially it is about the passage of time and religeon.

Even though eating and drinking are involved in all the five festivals, the jupiter.festival has the most looked-forward-to parties and feasts. It usually lasts for 4 days.

The venus.festival

venus.month starts on the 5th of March. The venus.festival themes are music and poetry. People gather at various regional centres to compete and spectate in various music and poetry competitions.

The mercury.festival

mercury.month starts on the 17th of May. Officially it is about indoor sports and boardgames. This festival often involves getting together with old friends again and can entail quite a bit of partying. Often journeys are undertaken to meet old acquainances. Also there is a big exchange of letters. Everybody that is condidered a friend should be sent a letter with the last years news (only friends that don't live close by of course). People gather at various regional centres to compete and spectate in various events.

The mars.festival

mars.month starts on the 28th of July. The mars.festival is all about outdoor competitions and sporting events. It is a little like a cross between the Olympics games and the highland games. People gather at various regional centres to compete and spectate in various team and individual competitions. However care is taken that no regional centre becomes too popular and people are discouraged from competing at centres other than their local one.

The saturn.festival

saturn.month starts on the 10th of October. The saturn.festival is all about the family and relations. The preparation of good food is especially important during this festival. Often journeys are undertaken for family visits and ancestors ashboxes are visited if convenient. This is the second most important festival of the year. People tend to take a quite some time of work if travelling, three days if receiving guests and two days if not receiving any guests.

The passage ceremony

A few days before the jupiter.festival, rites are held mark and celebrate various milestones in the life of an individual. In particular people who have attained the ages of 4, 20 and 64 during the past year, publicly celebrate that fact now. Among the customs followed is the gift of new clothes to the celebrant.

Time reckoning through the day

The unit of time is equal to 24 hours. The day begins at six o'clock in the morning. To make appointments, people say "I will meet you at .544" or just "I will meet you at 544"(acailaula). Note that between .544 and .545 is 2.8 minutes so to say "I will meet you at 544" is accurate enough for arranging most human affairs.

For describing approximately when something happened during the day, we have eight periods : "pre"abai, abain, again, adain, alain, acain, asain and akain. Each of these time periods is equivalent to three hours. They can be further defind by the prefix "early", "mid" and "late". So "mid"adain defines a time from 4 o'clock in the afternoon to five o'clock at night.

The word for midday is simply agai. The word for midnight is simply asai. These can be given the prefixes "pre" and "post" to divide the day into four periods. 6 o'clock in the morning is called ??. There are also terms for sunup/dawn and sundown as these vary with time of year and with latitude.

The name for the period that the sun is up is ai"day" The name for the period that the sun is down is hau"day" The name for the period 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. is hai"day" The name for the period 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. is au"day"

The clock

At midnight the ‘hour’ hand stands at the bottom and procedes anti-clockwise (at least in the northern hemishere). The ‘hour’ hand only sweeps out one revolution in 24 hours. Both the red and the black arms do not move incrementally but both move one slot (1/64 th of a revolution) at a time. The black arm moves every 22.5 minutes and the red arm moves every 21 seconds.

Every town has a clocktower and the clocktower will have four faces at the top, each face displaying a clock similar to the one below. The clocktower is surmounted by a green conic roof. Backlighting and lighting from under the roof is provided for each face. There should never be any numbering.

Old Stuff

towa = token or totem or icon

ku = a circle or cycle or round

sai = colour

towaŋko = token-cycle

saiŋko = colour.round

Index