Making a calendar in a fantasy world.

How are calendars and years usually set? I'm pretty much only familiar with the calendar based on Jesus. But how would one set years in a world with no Jesus? How were years counted before Christianity?

Calendars tend to above all be seasonal in a way relevant to the society...a calendars actually tell the observer a surprising amount about the cultures who made them. As far as I know agricultural societies, for instance, have always rooted everything in seasons corresponding to the seeding, growing, and harvesting of crops.

In addition, if your society is focused on the stars (star charts, astrology, etc.) then you should look into the Mayan, Aztec, or Babylonian/ancient Mesopotamian calendars for precedent.

Hope this helps

edited 7th Jan '15 6:51:57 AM by ZalDastan

Different cultures around the world use and have used different events to mark the beginning of their calendars.

The Julian and Gregorian calendars (also known as the Christian calendar) uses the date of the birth of Christ as its starting point. That is why we use A.D. (Anno Domini (In the Year of the Lord)) when writing down a date.

The Jewish calendar uses a different system. Their calendar is based on biblical accounts of the Creation of the World, which is why they use A.M. (Anno Mundi (Year After Creation)).

The Japanese use a system of eras based on their reigning emperor. For example, they are currently on the Heisei period which started in 1989 AD. That period began shortly after the death of Emperor Hirohito. Once Crown Prince Naruhito, son of Emperor Akihito, ascends the throne, a new era will begin for the Japanese.

For other systems, the Romans started counting their years since the founding of Rome (of course), and I think the ancient Greeks counted the Olympic games (starting in 776 BC) instead of each individual year.

I understand that the main question is about year numbers, but also think about how the year itself is measured. Is it in Moons? Seasons? Positions of the sun in the sky at different points in our journey around it? Something to do with the stars? Arbitrary divisions? Does the culture measure smaller divisions like weeks? How is a day measured?

For example, the Islamic and Jewish calendars use lunar months.

The Romans had a solar calendar and they had big festivals at the solstices (most or least amount of sunlight in a year) and the equinoxes (midpoints — day and night are the same length).

Hunter-gatherers, pastoral farmers, and some pagan groups measure in seasons — "winters," "summers," "growing seasons," etc.

The whole "seven days in a week" part is a European thing, and some of the names we use — Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... — are after Norse gods: Odin/Wotan, Thor, Freya...

In Jewish culture, a day starts at sunset. It's not hard to imagine that some would measure it in sunrises. In our modern world we use "midnight," which is actually pretty weird because there's nothing to indicate that the date is changing — it's all just bluish-black night-sky-stuff.

And this is all just from a European point of view — I haven't said anything about timekeeping from Africa, Asia, or the Americas (partly because my body of knowledge is smaller, there).

Is this for like a sci-fi world, or fantasy, or is it basically just the real world with that particular difference? For the former, I find that big-deal events like the destruction of Earth or the Death Star are used a bunch.

edited 9th Jan '15 1:24:33 PM by nman

Random question that might still be useful to the topic:

In the real world, is the moon at its zenith at midnight like the sun usually is at noon?

Back on topic, the calendar for my own fantasy series tracks the dynasties of the Imperial ruling family, too. It's an act of rebellion when the peasants insist upon sticking with a measure of seasons that is more practical to peasants.

I think A Song of Ice and Fire did something sort of in-between in Westeros where the years are measured in A.L. (After Aegon the Conqueror's Landing in Westeros) even after the dynasty of that family went down like a lead balloon, and even though there were some colonists before that event.

In a fantasy world, I guess you could also take into account whether the planets are round, if they spin on an axis, and/or orbit other heavenly bodies...or is it a flat world with Aslan seeing to the movement of the lights in the sky, or like Discworld where sunlight travels at the speed of plot because of all the magic in the air and the star signs keep changing and astrologists just make it all up? The order of events in Discworld are more an opportunity for Pratchett to make up funny-sounding year names and star signs.

The Chinese calendar sort of runs by a cycle of elements and animals, so every 60 years a new cycle begins. 2012 (minus a few weeks of Gregorian, plus a few weeks for lunar) was the Year of the Water Dragon. Thiscoming February 4th 2015 begins the Year of the Wood Sheep.

No, not always. The speed of the orbit of the moon is different than the speed of the rotation of the earth. The moon can rise early in the evening, well before dusk; or not late at night.