File:Gor-calendar.png

Revision as of 14:29, 8 December 2023

Summary

The main calendar used on the planet Gor in John Norman's series of science-fiction novels. Few things are uniformly standardized across the whole of Gor, but this is the predominant calendar in the "northern civilized cities of known Gor". There are twelve months in the calendar, and each month contains five "hands" (i.e. 5-day weeks), and is followed by its "passage hand" (which is technically outside the month). The twelfth and last month of the year (shown at bottom right) is followed not only by its passage hand, but also by another 5-day period, the ill-omened "waiting hand". The start of a new year is at the vernal equinox. The four months which start at or a little before the equinoxes and solstices -- the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th months -- have the standard short names En'Kara, En'Var, Se'Kara, and Se'Var (where En is translated "first", Se "second", Kara "standing" or "resting", and Var as "turning"). On Gor, the Sardar fairs are held during those months. The names of the other months vary between different cities, or are simply numbered (as done in the graphic). The passage hands are generally numbered (so the "first passage hand" follows the month of En'Kara, etc). Often each city has its own year-numbering system, but the era of years since the founding of the city of Ar is widely known. A leap day is inserted "at the end of the waiting hand". Calculations on Gor of when to insert a leap day can apparently be rather convoluted, but on earth it makes sense to always add the leap day about three 7-day weeks after Feb. 29th in the Gregorian calendar, so that there will be a fixed Gregorian-Gorean calendar correspondence for most days in a year (only the last two hands of the 12th month, the 12th passage hand, and the waiting hand will have their Gregorian dates shifted by one during leap years).

If the 1st day of En'Kara is March 21st Gregorian, then the First Passage Hand starts on April 15th, the Second Month on April 20th, the Second Passage Hand on May 15th, the Third Month on May 20th, the Third Passage Hand on June 14th, En'Var on June 19th, the Fourth Passage Hand on July 14th, the Fifth Month on July 19th, the Fifth Passage Hand on August 13th, the Sixth Month on August 18th, the Sixth Passage Hand on September 12th, Se'Kara on September 17th, the Seventh Passage Hand on October 12th, the Eighth Month on October 17th, the Eighth Passage Hand on November 11th, the Ninth Month on November 16th, the Nineth Passage Hand on December 11th, Se'Var on December 16th, the Tenth Passage Hand on January 10th, the Eleventh Month on January 15th, the Eleventh Passage Hand on February 9th, the Twelfth Month on February 14th, the Twelfth Passage Hand on March 11th (March 10th in leap years), and the Waiting Hand on March 16th (March 15th in leap years). Under this scheme, the Gorean leap day (6th day of the Waiting Hand) would be on March 20th, while the Gregorian leap day on February 29th would be on the 16th day of the Twelfth Month in the Gorean calendar. Dates outside this range (from March 21st to February 28th Gregorian, or from En'Kara 1 to Twelfth Month 15 Gorean) would always show the same Gregorian-Gorean equivalence relation (undisturbed by leap years).

Created by User:AnonMoos and declared to have public domain copyright status.

Licensing

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