Calendars and Days

[Dark Huntress]

When creating your fantasy world, do you also create your own custom calendars ( names for the months, year) and the days of the week?

 

[Graham Irwin]

I personally invent names for the ones I need for the story I'm telling.

For example, if I need to say that three weeks has passed, then I need a word for how long that was. If months or other units of calendar time are mentioned, I make up only the names I'm going to use in the story.

However, if you are going to create your world first and let your story flow from it, then you should focus more on things like this.

Also think about why we have calendars, and how they are different amongst different cultures. The names of our days of the week in the English language come from gods, like Friday, from Fryda, or Thursday, from Thor. Our months come mainly from Roman emperors, like July from Julius Caesar or August from Augustus. Maybe your world named their calendar like the Mayans instead, after animals. It's good fun to think about.

All of that is interesting as far as world building goes, but for the story, which should be the focus, you only need to create that which you are going to use in story.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I invented a calendar for my world, but I don't reference the details (names of days/months), aside from seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall) and the 5-day celebration period at the end of the year that culminates in the winter solstice (which is the first day of the year, called Wintergift). I didn't feel any real need to do so, although I don't have any objection to stories that do so.

 

[zizban]

Depends on the world I create but I usually just use our calendar with the months renamed because I'm lazy that way.

 

[Sparkie]

Not to overcomplicate things, but there are different kinds of calendars.

For instance, the calendar most of us use daily is a solar calendar, which relies on the earth's rotation in relation to the sun. Then there are lunar calendars, which were used more frequently in ancient times but still see some limited use today. There are other types I think, but I'm not entirely sure what they are.

Have you thought about your world in relation to other heavenly bodies in space? How long is it's year? How many moons does it have? Does your world feature a unique sort of astrology?

Just some food for thought.

 

[Lawfire]

Interesting topic! I am in the midst of determining time and a calender for a world I have been working on. I "think" I am going to eliminate months because I "think" I want to include more than one moon....no real decisions made, so far.

 

[ascanius]

Lol I have a full calander set with holidays, for each culture group, solstices and equinoxes and phases of the moon. Names of months are all my own. I even have two moons one set on a normal thirty day cycle and the other set on a twelve year cycle to complete a full rotation around the planet. I think I spent like three hours doing the math. having 13 months really made it a nightmare, I would suggest using even numbered months, otherwise orbital rotation of the moons and other things get messy.

 

[Chilari]

For my current WIP I'm using a calendar system which is basically used only for farming and for religious rituals, and based on the stars and the sun. Certain festivals take place at various points in the year, like when a particular constellation becomes visible, or in relation to solstices and equinoxes; these festivals in turn are used as anchor points for farming activities, like the way the saints days were used in medieval Europe. There aren't month names or day names, but rather things like "the fifth day after the festival of flowers" or "the eleventh day after the festival of the bull".

 

[Flemming Hansen]

I remember this as one of the tough decisions. I dropped the use of months, because I was afraid that it would confuse the reader if I made up my own calendar. Instead I've decided to use the four seasons as indicators of how the weather is etc. And as for the moment that's I need.

 

[Chilari]

I dropped the use of months, because I was afraid that it would confuse the reader if I made up my own calendar.

Indeed, that's part of the reason I avoid creating calendars for my worlds. You can say that a particular event happened in the month of Kipplehep, but when is Kipplehep? And will readers remember that you said it was early summer half a book later when you mention the month again? Doubtful.

Having said that, using descriptive month names might work. For a novel I was working on at some point - I can't even remember which one - I decided on having fifteen months divided into three seasons (the four seasons we're used to weren't always regarded as such even in moderate climates) of Planting, Harvest and Cold. The months were called things like Coldwind, Littlelowsun, Blossomrain and Ripengold, so that even if readers don't know exactly when the month was, they could take a decent guess.

 

[Penpilot]

I've created my own calendar before, but I finding other than changing the names of the months and days of the week, trying to rename the words for day, month, and year, or increments of time like hour, minute, second, to be problematic. So if such things aren't important to the plot in a significant way, I just keep the names because it lessens the steepness of the learning curve to the fictional world. What's that trope 'rule'? Don't rename a rabbit a smirp?

 

[Saigonnus]

I created one for my WIP... though it may be slightly unrealistic, though I am not certain. My world has 500 days in a year, 10 months of 50 days, so each season is around 2 1/2 months. Humans may only live on average of 60 years; less depending on personal circumstances, but that's the equivalent of 80 with 365 days. All the months have names, the three moons likewise, though I never really calculated things like the rotational cycle for each one.

 

[Zophos]

I think that a personalized calendar adds a good deal to the depth of a world. You want there to be a great deal that you know about your world that you never have to tell your reader or express to them. You should know everything about your world, but that doesn't mean that you should burden the reader with all of that.

I'd say a calendar can be useful as a vehicle for explaining your timeline and the temporal pace of things, but I'd be wary of overburdening the reader with too much detail. If your reader has to do a complex calculation in completely foreign terms and figures, you may well perturb their overall feel for the world you've placed them in. A great deal of effort is required in fantasy explaining how everything works. The easier and more memorable you can make that, the easier the reader's transition to "living" in your world.

 

[Helleaven]

Personally, I am using our sun based calendar. Because I remember that when I was playing The Elder Scrolls, use of the different month names was very confusing for me. There are plenty of things that reader would learn, the names, the places, the history, the myth, the races, etc.. Adding a completely different timeline, different lenghts of months would mess things up, I think. Reader would be confused about the chronology of the events.

Although I'm not oppose to idea of creating a different calendar, don't forget that it will effect even the ages of your characters. When you change the seasons, you change almost everything; because in fantasy stories the events take place in a rather undeveloped world (compared to us). That means, nature is still the biggest helper as well as the biggest enemy. So seasons have an utterly importance.

 

[ThinkerX]

Certain days of the year are very important on my principle world (the equinoxes/solcistes in particular) so I ended up setting up a calender just to set those days in place. I kept it simple, though - 12 lunar months, each month with four weeks of seven days each, plus the four 'special' days which stand apart from all weeks and months.

 

[Eeirail]

Depends on if you reference then in the story at all, personally I only did seasons.