Do you celebrate char. birthdays?

[Angela Christine]

You don't see a lot of calendars, but that doesn't mean that calendars do not exist.  Because of the simplicity of the Zalanthan Calendar, it would be very simple to have permanent calendar painted or engraved on the wall.

To review:

A summary of the organization of Zalanthan time might be as follows:

          Days of the Week (11)         Hours in the Day (9)
              Ocandra                       before dawn
              Terrin                        dawn
              Abid                          early morning
              Cingel                        late morning
              Nekrete                       high sun
              Waleuk                        early afternoon
              Yochem                        late afternoon
              Huegel                        dusk
              Dzeda                         late at night
              Barani
              Detal
     
          Months in the Year (3)
              Descending Sun
              Low Sun
              Ascending Sun

http://www.armageddon.org/HyperNews/get/general-archive2002/539/3.html

Here's a listing of the Years in an Age, beginning with 1 and ending with 77:
Jihae's Anger
Drov's Peace
Desert's Vengeance
Ruk's Slumber
Whira's Defiance
Dragon's Reverance
Vivadu's Agitation
King's Anger
Silt's Peace
Suk-krath's Vengeance
Lirathu's Slumber
Jihae's Defiance
Drov's Reverance
Desert's Agitation
Ruk's Anger
Whira's Peace
Dragon's Vengeance
Vivadu's Slumber
King's Defiance
Silt's Reverance
Suk-krath's Agitation
Lirathu's Anger
Jihae's Peace
Drov's Vengeance
Desert's Slumber
Ruk's Defiance
Whira's Reverance
Dragon's Agitation
Vivadu's Anger
King's Peace
Silt's Vengeance
Suk-krath's Slumber
Lirathu's Defiance
Jihae's Reverance
Drov's Agitation
Desert's Anger
Ruk's Peace
Whira's Vengeance
Dragon's Slumber
Vivadu's Defiance
King's Reverance
Silt's Agitation
Suk-krath's Anger
Lirathu's Peace
Jihae's Vengeance
Drov's Slumber
Desert's Defiance
Ruk's Reverance
Whira's Agitation
Dragon's Anger
Vivadu's Peace
King's Vengeance
Silt's Slumber
Suk-krath's Defiance
Lirathu's Reverance
Jihae's Agitation
Drov's Anger
Desert's Peace
Ruk's Vengeance
Whira's Slumber
Dragon's Defiance
Vivadu's Reverance
King's Agitation
Silt's Anger
Suk-krath's Peace
Lirathu's Vengeance
Jihae's Slumber
Drov's Defiance
Desert's Reverance
Ruk's Agitation
Whira's Anger
Dragon's Peace
Vivadu's Vengeance
King's Slumber
Silt's Defiance
Suk-krath's Reverance
Lirathu's Agitation

Previous discussion of calendars: http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,1953.0.html


The named years of a King's age would be fairly easy to remember because of the simple repeating pattern, and easy to record without words as pictographs or pictures.   An angry red moon, a peaceful darkness, a vengeful desert, a sleeping stone, and so on.  It might be weirdly abstract to us, but in a primitive society it is easy to personify the wind as angry or the sun as defiant.  While some of the pictures representing years would probably need to be pretty abstract, it would still be easy to figure out what a muddled picture was supposed to be because the first word is repeated every 11 years, and the second word is repeated every 7 years.  If you can't figure on out, go down 11 years to find another example of the actor, and 7 years to find another example of the emotion.  If you are able to use runes, and runes do seem to exist at least for the elements, then it would be even easier to record the tally of years.

Remembering that your kid was born in the year of "Desert's Defiance" might be easier than remembering that your kid was born in "year 47 of the 21st Age" or "1587" if you are not used to memorizing strings of numbers.  All three would be valid and understood by scholars, but the named years seem like they would be easier for commoners to memorize.  When you are only a few years old it is easy for the adults around you to remember, or guess, what year you must have been born in, and once you know the name of your birth year it is easy for you to remember it yourself.  Remembering your year of birth isn't that hard.

The accounting of the months (seasons?) is easy to visualize, even without formal education people shouldn't have trouble with it.  Common people might be more likely to use "rising" and "falling" than "ascending" and "descending" but since they aren't really speaking English I suppose it doesn't matter.

Descending Sun              Low Sun             Ascending Sun

It certainly isn't outrageous for people to remember at least the year and season of birth.  There is no handy way to remember the days of the month, and you hardly ever hear someone refer to them.  The 128th day of Low Sun?  I don't know, that doesn't trip off the tongue for me.  They might remember the exact date, or they might not.  Remembering that it was the second week of Low Sun, or early in Low Sun, or around the middle of Low Sun, or towards the end of Low Sun sounds reasonable though. 


It is quite likely that at least some people believe in a sort of off hand astrology based on the name of your birth year.  Since it is year based, it is obviously more like Chinese astrology than western astrology, where you wind up with a sign like "water rat" or "fire snake".   It would be fairly easy for superstition to arise about people born in "defiant" years, darkness(drov), windy(whiran) years, or what have you.  Folks that are really into it might even expand it to include the month.  You were born in the Rising of Whira's Agitation, or the Falling of Dragon's Slumber.  While most people work hard all the time, that work is often not intellectually challenging, so they have plenty of time to think up new and exciting superstitions.  That would give folks another reason to bother remembering when you born.

"Did you hear that Malik boy storm out of the building this morning?  I thought he was going to tear the hinges clear off the door.  Tut tut tut.  Still, what can you expect from a boy born in the rising of suk-krath's anger?  He's bound to be trouble."

Birthdays? I don't know.  Some people might celebrate them, some people might not.

[tortall]

Wow. AC, you rock. ~reads the post again~

Can this be stickied so that we can see the list of the years easily? Because I think that is awesome.