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From: Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2025 15:35:31 +0100
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On 20/06/2025 19:50, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> On 18/06/2025 21.32, Tony Nance wrote:
>> On 6/18/25 10:20 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
>>> Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars
>>>
>>> So many different ways of measuring history and the passage of time...
>>>
>>> https://reactormag.com/counting-the-days-five-sff-approaches-to- 
>>> calendars/
> 
> 
>> Asimov’s Foundation series used Galactic Era and Foundation Era, 
>> depending on the work. Trantor used GE. Terminus used FE. I don’t 
>> remember when GE starts. FE starts in something like 12000GE, tied to 
>> the start of the Encyclopedia Foundation.
> 
> According to stuff that I teased out of _Forward the Foundation_ some years
> back, Seldon died in 12,069 GE, which was also 1 FE. So, presumably, FE 
> started
> in 12068 GE.
> 
> Per "Beginning of War" (Chapter 16 of _Second Foundation_), GE started 
> with "the
> accession of the traditional Kambale dynasty."
> 
> This dating was being used for dates by the time of "Blind Alley"[1], 
> which is set
> in 977-978 GE. I believe that GE dating also appears in _The Stars Like 
> Dust_, but
> a quick scan of my copy doesn't reveal any examples.
> 
> Also, by the time of "Blind Alley", mm/dd has gone away; days are just 
> numbered
> 1-365 within a year. And, yes, an "Intergalactic [sic] Standard Year" is 
> always
> 365 days in length, per Chapter 16 of _Second Foundation_.
> 
> Well, mm/dd had almost gone away. Despite having said in "Beginning of 
> War" that
> the war started on day 185, the quotation from the _Encyclopedia 
> Galactica_ that
> heads "End of War" (Chapter 18 of _Second Foundation_) says that the war 
> between
> Kalgan and the Foundation ended on "9, 17, 377 FE".
> 
> 
> I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the Shire-reckoning yet. Those 
> crafty
> hobbits set up a calendar of twelve 30-day months. Since that didn't 
> align too
> well with the Earth's annual trip around the sun, they threw in some 
> part days
> that weren't part of any month. Five or six of them, as needed.

One or two midsummer days that aren't weekdays
either.  So that one year's calendar is practically
identical to the next.  Saves on stationery.
Only the length of midsummer varies, and that's
holiday.

The actual Earth orbit year is 365 and a fraction
days, and apparently was back then, too.  And 365
is one day off being 52 whole weeks.

> It's all laid out in detail in Appendix D[2] of _The Lord of the Rings_, 
> which
> also covers some other calendrical systems used by various peoples of 
> Middle
> Earth.
> 
> 
> [1] <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41602>
> [2] <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1047472>