The fictional Christian Calendar, also known as Biblical Calendar, originally is an adapted Julian calendar – not shown here – with altered labels for days, weeks and months. It was soon changed into a more regular schedule and later into a 13-month calendar with 4 weeks each.
Christian Days of the Week[]
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
Origin | Day of Light and Dark (and Sun) | Day of Sky and Heaven (and Moon) | Day of Land and Water (and Earth) | Day of Air and Wind (and Birds and Fish) | Day of Animals and Spirits or Angels | Day of Mankind (and Life) | Day of Rest (and God), Sabbath |
Modern | Liday | Skiday | Waday | Irday | Nimday | Manday | Holday |
Elsewhere | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
Traditional Christian Calendar[]
Quarters | Matthævs | Marcvs | Lvkas | Ioannes | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Months | Petrvs | Andreas | Iacobvs maior | Ioannes | Philippvs | Bartholomæus | Thomas | Levi | Iacobvs minor | Thaddævs | Simon | Ivdas |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
Weeks5 | 1–6 | 7–12 | 13–18 | 19–24 | 25–30 | 31–36 | 37–42 | 43–48 | 49–54 | 55–60 | 61–66 | 67–72 |
Elsewhere | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February |
The Traditional Christian Calendar has its year divided into four quarters of equal length, named for the gospels, and each contains three months, named for the first apostles. Phases of the sun and moon are not explicitly considered by the calendar, but it is hardly less lunisolar than the Julian calendar.
Two different kinds of weeks are employed:
- the longer one, like ours, has seven days and originates in the story of genesis,
- the shorter one has just five days and there are 72 thereof in a year, commemorating Jesus’s disciples.
The year begins with the feast in memory of Jesus’s life and death: Birth – Preaching – Crucifixion – Resurrection – Ascension. This span of five days, sometimes called a Sabbath, does not formally belong to any week, month or quarter. Every fourth year it is preceded by another day to celebrate the (holy) family and the community. Other festivities are held on the second-to-last day of the week, spread across the year.
- approximate date: week5 14, dow 4, quarter 1 = Matthævs, month 3 = Iacobvs maior, dom 9
In later times, four days of the holy quasi-week were distributed across the year as holidays. They would fall between the 15th and 16th day of every second month in a quarter, the family day was moved to the middle of the year. The Birth day (alias christmas) remained at the beginning. They still did not belong to any week or month.
Modern Christian Calendar[]
Quarters | Matt | Mark | Luke | John | Josh | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Months | Pete | Drew | Jim | Han | Phil | Bart | Tom | Levi | Jake | Thad | Sim | Jude | |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |
Weeks7 | 1–4 | 5–8 | 9–12 | 13–16 | 17–20 | 21–24 | 25–28 | 29–32 | 33–36 | 37–40 | 41–44 | 45–48 | 49–52 |
The Modern Christian Calendar is intended for thought experiments and fiction. In this calendar design, a thirteenth month has been added (to the Traditional Christian Calendar) outside the quarters, named for Jesus themself (Josh). All months have been shortened to 28 days, i.e. four weeks exactly.
It keeps the festivities in honor of Jesus’s birth outside the week and month cycle, but this “Christmas” now is – strangely – at the end of each year and the Family Day now follows it as a leap day not belonging to any year. Instead of celebrating the other holidays, Manday became a regular holiday every week, hence the Sabbath now spans two consecutive days at the end of each week (“weekend”).
Not respecting some custom rules, today is quarter: 1 = Matt; month: 3 = Jim; week: 11 of year, 3 of month ; day: 19 of month, 6 of the week = Manday
Also, the leap rule has been changed such that every eighth leap year is postponed by one year, i.e. there are eight leap days per 33-year cycle (mean 365.(24) days per year). This rule was amended few decades later, now after eight 33-year cycles there is an exceptional 29-year cycle, i.e. already the seventh leap year is postponed by one year, thus resulting in a larger, 293-year cycle (365.24232… days per year).
Parallel Biblical Calendar[]
Week of Month | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Day of Month | 1–7 | 8–14 | 15–21 | 22–28 | 29–35 | 36–42 | 43–49 | |
Month of Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
Week of Year | 1–7 | 8–14 | 15–21 | 22–28 | 29–35 | 36–42 | 43–49 | |
Day of Year | 1–49 | 50–98 | 99–147 | 148–196 | 197–245 | 246–294 | 295–343 | |
Year of Cycle | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | (8) |
Month of Cycle | 1–7 | 8–14 | 15–21 | 22–28 | 29–35 | 36–42 | 43–49 | 50–56 |
Week of Cycle | 1–49 | 50–98 | 99–147 | 148–196 | 197–245 | 246–294 | 295–343 | 344–392 |
In the Biblical Calendar, the seventh day, week and month are holidays, i.e. 121 of 343 days per year are not work days.
After ten Cycles (alias Commandments) of seven 343-day years, there is one long Cycle containing eight years. These eleven Cycles make an Age, of 78 years. Four Ages, i.e. 312 years, make an Era, of 2148 months or 15288 weeks. This is equal to 294 years of 52 weeks without any leaping or to 293 years with either 52 leap weeks or 71 leap days.
Although it would be possible to align the year better with solar calendars by extending 3 of the 7 months to 8 weeks and 4 of them in leap years (i.e. 52+1 weeks per year) as done in Cal7, this would be against the spirit of this calendar which mandates each (sub-year) cycle to contain seven items exactly and each last one being sacred.
Perpetual Christian Calendar[]
The alternative Perpetual Christian Calendar does not change any names and does not alter the months of the Julian calendar, i.e. an alignment of 31:28+:31:30:31:30:31:31:30:31:30:31 of its 365 days, 366 in leap years. It only changes the week cycle by introducing 15 or 16 irregularly spread eight-day weeks (called octaves) containing a Holiday after Saturday, which results in a perpetual calendar that has 50 weeks per year and every month date on the same day of the week every year, but the nth day of all months may occur on different weekdays, e.g. the first day falls on Sunday (Jan, Mar), Monday (Feb), Tuesday (Apr, May, Sep), Thursday (Jun, Jul, Oct) or Holiday (Aug, Nov, Dec).
Month | Week | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Hol | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
January | 01 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | Epiphany |
02 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |||
03 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | |||
04 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Candlemas | |
February | 05 | 31 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | ||
06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Valentine | |
07 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | |||
08 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | Leap | |
March | 09 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | Shrove / Lent |
10 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |||
11 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | |||
12 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | |||
April | 13 | 30 | 31 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | Pascha |
14 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Easter | |
15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | |||
16 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | |||
May | 17 | 29 | 30 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | ||
18 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |||
19 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |||
20 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | Ascension | |
June | 21 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | Pentecost |
22 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Corpus Christi | |
23 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |||
24 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | |||
July | 25 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 01 | 02 | 03 | ||
26 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | |||
27 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | |||
28 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |||
29 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 01 | Assumption / Metamorphosis / Transfiguration | |
August | 30 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | ||
31 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |||
32 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | |||
33 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | |||
September | 34 | 30 | 31 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | ||
35 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |||
36 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |||
37 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | |||
38 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 01 | 02 | 03 | |||
October | 39 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | ||
40 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | |||
41 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |||
42 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 01 | All Saints / All Hallows | |
November | 43 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | All Souls / Thanksgiving |
44 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||
45 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | |||
46 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 01 | Advent / Nicholas | |
December | 47 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | ||
48 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |||
49 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | Christmas | |
50 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | New Year |