The Kara-Turan calendar was the calendar by which the civilized lands of Kara-Tur measured the months of the year.[2]
History[]
The modern calendar was devised by an emperor of Shou Lung in ancient times, in order to fix the dates of various annual festivals and holidays. In this, it was very successful and was widely adopted by all the civilized cultures of Kara-Tur by the mid–14th century DR.[2]
Months[]
The calendar was arranged according to the movements of the Moon and the constellations in the Celestial Heavens, which were maintained and steered by the Moon Women.[4] The standard calendar comprised twelve months, four with 29 days and eight with 30 days, with a total of 356 days in a year. The months, their numbers of days, and the events held during them are as follows:[2]
- Tsou (30 days)
- New Year's Festival; holy day of the God of Heaven; Feast of Lanterns; holy day of the God of Spring; holy day of the God of Wealth; Fertility Festival; holy day of the God of Happiness; holy day of the God of Learning.[2]
- Ju (30 days)
- Holy day of the God of North; holy day of the Goddess of Mercy.[2]
- Yu (30 days)
- Holy day of the God of Central Mound; holy day of the Queen of Heaven; Cherry Blossom Festival;[2] Festival to Welcome the Ethers in T'u Lung on 5th day.[5]
- Kao (30 days)
- Birthday of Saizu, the great teacher who founded the Path of Enlightenment in Wa;[6] holy day of the God of Medicine; holy day of the God of South.[2] The first day of a period called Shiang began in this month.[1]
- Kao II (29 days)
- Holy day of the Thunder God; Dragon Boat Festival; holy day of the God of War.[2]
- Chu (30 days)
- Hsiang (29 days)
- Holy day of the God of Fire; Purification Festival.[2]
- Chuang (30 days)
- Moon Feast Festival; holy day of the God of Land and Grain; holy day of the God of Furnace; Great Sage's Birthday.[2]
- Hsuan (30 days)
- Holy day of the Wine God; Yang Feast; holy day of the Polar Gods; holy day of the God of Wealth.[2]
- Yang (29 days)
- Holy day of the God of Disease.[2]
- Ku (30 days)
- Tu (29 days)
- King's Festival.[2]
Other months were also recorded:
- Lotan
- The first day of a period called Matu began in this month.[3]
- Maki
- A cold winter month observed in Tabot.[7]
Events[]
The calendar included many special feasts, festivals, and holidays celebrated by the many cultures of Kara-Tur. Feasts were causes to gather in numbers and enjoy a grand banquet, or at least an affordable one. Festivals were celebrations that could run for several days, and even weeks. Holy days were dedicated to one or more gods; whether or not they were observed in a community depended on its culture and dominant faith. Where they were observed, they were simple affairs, and were typically a reason for a feast.[2]
Years[]
The years sometimes had names: Shou Year 2607 (1357 DR) was known as the Year of the Great Sky Serpent,[1] and Shou Year 581 (−669 DR) was known as the year of the Ding Hai.[3]
Appendix[]
Notes[]
Oriental Adventures, page 107, says that the first day of the year coincides with some time in modern-day February or March. These correspond to the months of Alturiak and Ches in Faerûn's Calendar of Harptos.
Strangely, the Kara-Turan calendar has 356 days, whereas the Calendar of Harptos and Earth's Gregorian calendar have 365.25 days, with a leap day added every four years. (It should be noted that Oriental Adventures was printed before the setting was attached to the Forgotten Realms, and this smaller year may have initially applied to a different planet, such as Oerth, which has a 364-day year.) This suggests the Kara-Turan calendar lags behind the Faerûnian calendar 9.25 days each year. How this discrepancy is resolved is unknown; not enough information is given about the calendar in the sourcebooks. It may be the case that the calendar was kept deliberately vague as an aid to game-play. A possible solution is that one or more of the festivals are outside the months and fill up the remaining time, as in the Calendar of Harptos.
However, the more likely possibility is that the Kara-Turan calendar is intended to be a lunisolar calendar functioning like the Chinese calendar, which also has 29- and 30-day lunar months and a shorter 354- or 355-day year, with a leap month added approximately every three years, determined based on the solar calendar. This is supported by the description of the Kara-Turan calendar being "derived from the actions of Heaven" in Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms, page 25, and by the uncertain date given for the beginning of the year.
This may also have a connection to the 60-year cycles for dates used in Kozakura, although it is more likely that this is simply a reference to the sexagenary cycle of real-world Asia, which is based on a naming scheme of selecting a two-word year name from pools of ten and twelve names. Ding Hai, which was Shou Year 581 (−669 DR) may be an example of this. Indeed, real-world Chinese has Ding Hai in its list of possible 60-year cycle names.
If the Kara-Turan calendar was meant to copy the Chinese calendar, it is possible that a leap month, half-month, or other period of time is inserted periodically to correct the calendar. The fourth month Kao is followed by Kao II. This is typically a notation used by cultures with a leap month. It seems likely that the editors of Oriental Adventures simply forgot to add a month after Kao II. (In the real-world Chinese calendar, which month is repeated as a leap month and the number of days in any given month vary and depend on a solar-based division of the year into 24 sections called "solar terms".)
Further support for this comes from the list of holidays provided in Oriental Adventures and how well they match with the real-world Chinese calendar. The Jade Emperor's "birthday" is celebrated on ninth day of the first month in the Chinese calendar; the Celestial Emperor of Kara-Tur is also celebrated in the first month of the Kara-Turan calendar. The fifth month in the Chinese calendar includes a Dragon Boat Festival. Kara-Tur also has a Dragon Boat Festival in its fifth month. China celebrates its Moon Festival on the 15th of its eighth month, and Kara-Tur also has a Moon Festival in its eighth month. Finally, Kara-Tur and China both have a Yang Feast/Yang Festival in their ninth months. If this is a correct pairing, then it means that the missing month must follow Kao II and come before Chuang, since Chuang is when the Moon Festival occurs; that is, Chuang must remain the eighth month, and Kao II is not the fifth month, but the leap-year month.
However, this correspondence to the Chinese calendar is problematic, because the reason that the Chinese calendar has 29- and 30-day months is because, on Earth, a lunar month is about 29.5 days. The designers of Oriental Adventures were likely assuming that the world of the setting worked just like Earth, but the 3rd-edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting established that the lunar months on Toril, where Kara-Tur was later set, are precisely 30.4375 days. The lunar months are longer than on Earth. The only reason that the Chinese calendar requires leap months on Earth is because 12 lunar months is shorter (about 354.5 days) than the solar year. This is not the case on Toril, where 12 lunar months is exactly equal to 365.25 days. Because of this, any attempt to use the Chinese calendar or the Kara-Turan calendar on Toril would result in no correspondence to either the phases of the moon or the solar year at all.
In any case, the setting material does not explain, and The Grand History of the Realms, page 4, in converting Shou dates and Wa dates to Dalereckoning, assumes an exact correspondence between the Kara-Turan year and the Faerûnian year. This convention is followed on this wiki for the purposes of year conversions.
The Grand History of the Realms, page 24, also presents a proclamation with a Shou date using a new month, Lotan, quoted above. While it is possible that this is the missing leap month, it is also likely to be from an earlier calendar, as the proclamation pre-dates the modern Kara-Turan setting by over 2000 years.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mike Pondsmith, Jay Batista, Rick Swan, John Nephew, Deborah Christian (1988). Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (Volume I). (TSR, Inc), p. 3. ISBN 0-88038-608-8.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 Gary Gygax, David Cook, and François Marcela-Froideval (1985). Oriental Adventures. (TSR, Inc), p. 107. ISBN 0-8803-8099-3.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 42. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ Mike Pondsmith, Jay Batista, Rick Swan, John Nephew, Deborah Christian (1988). Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (Volume I). (TSR, Inc), p. 25. ISBN 0-88038-608-8.
- ↑ Mike Pondsmith, Jay Batista, Rick Swan, John Nephew, Deborah Christian (1988). Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (Volume I). (TSR, Inc), p. 54. ISBN 0-88038-608-8.
- ↑ David "Zeb" Cook (1987). Blood of the Yakuza. (TSR, Inc), p. 9. ISBN 0-88038-401-8.
- ↑ Mike Pondsmith, Jay Batista, Rick Swan, John Nephew, Deborah Christian (1988). Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (Volume I). (TSR, Inc), p. 77. ISBN 0-88038-608-8.
Connections[]
Aryselmalyn calendar • Azuposi calendar • Calendar of Hmur • Kara-Turan calendar • Timesong calendar • Zakharan calendar