Universal Celestial Calendar

The Universal Celestial Calendar (UCC), is a 'Free Man Calendar' created by Litmus A Freeman. It is a 12 month, non-sectarian, perennial, solar, and balanced zodiac calendar, aimed at helping to foster a deeper awareness of our place and time in relation to natural celestial cycles.

It proposes a 'Universal' calendar system for the planet that is independent of any religion and closely tied astronomically to Earth's relationship to the Sun and the Zodiac.

The Universal Celestial Calendar

It is particularly aimed at new/emerging communities and/or individuals who are seeking natural harmony and who do not need to conform to the Gregorian seven day week system.

It has been made a 'Standing Proposal For Calendar Reform' since its launch in 13513 UCC (2012 AD Gregorian).

Litmus has since created a sister calendar to the UCC, the UCC 'Peacock's Tail' Calendar, created on 22 Aries♈ 13521 UCC (13th April 2020 Gregorian)

UCC Main Features

The Year Start

The end and beginning of the UCC's yearly cycle is determined by the Aries♈Equinox (circa March 20/21 Gregorian), with the last day of its year - 'New Year's Eve' - generally occurring on the day of the equinox (usually March 20th Gregorian), and the first day of its year - 'New Year's Day' - generally occurring on the first full day after the equinox (usually March 21st Gregorian).

Epoch/Year Numbering

The Year Numbers of the calendar are based on the Great Year/Yuga Cycle i.e. the precession of the equinoxes, an average 24,000 year cycle. This epoch commenced 11,501/11,500 BC Gregorian and reached its 12,000 year mid point at 499/500 AD Gregorian, hence the year from 21st March 1999 to 20th March 2000 in the Gregorian Calendar corresponded to the year 13500 UCC.

The UCC Year

The UCC year comprises 360 standard days and 5 special intercalary days (6 in leap years) which 'balance' the year into equal quarters. (Intercalary days are days outside of the main calendar groupings).

The 360 Standard Days

The 360 standard days are grouped into 36 Decans (weeks) of 10 Days, which in turn are grouped into 12 Triads (months) of 30 Days. The 12 Triads form 4 equal Quarters (seasons), each of 3 Triads encompassing 9 Decans and therefore 90 Days.

The 12 Triads also closely align with the 12 Astrological Sun Signs of the Western Tropical Zodiac, from Aries♈ through to Pisces♓, and so are named accordingly. (Triad means 'group of three', which is appropriate because there is a group of 3 Triads in each Quarter/Season and each Triad itself has a group of 3 Decans.)

The 5 or 6 Intercalary Days

The UCC's 5 or 6 intercalary days are distributed throughout the year between the Quarters in order to somewhat even out the otherwise uneven lengths of the seasons due to the elliptical nature of our orbit around the Sun.

The 1st of these intercalary days is the first day of a standard year, Day number 001 of 365, is called New Year's Day and celebrates the start of the cycle. This is shown numbered 1 in the yellow sun circle at the centre of the graphic at the top of this page

The remaining 4 intercalary days in standard years are called New Season's Days, each celebrating an equinox or solstice and occurring before each Quarter. These are shown numbered 2, 3, 4 & 5 in the light blue circles at the cardinal points on the graphic at the top of this page. Their placement before the start of each quarter effectively results in 4 equal quarters of 91 days, accounting for 364 days of the year.

In leap years a 6th intercalary day, called Leap Year's Day, is inserted before New Year's Day as Day 000 at the start of the year, thereby maintaining the 001 to 365 day numbering.

Year Structure

The intercalary days (ICDs) thereby have the positions indicated in bold in the following year structure:

Year Structure

ICD	Day Name	Day#	Gregorian Date	Celebration	Followed by (3 Triads/9 Decans/90 Days)
0	Leap Year's Day	Day 000	c Mar 20th	Realignment with ♈ (only in leap years)
1	New Year's Day	Day 001	c Mar 21st	New Zodiac Cycle
2	1st Season's Day	Day 002	c Mar 22nd	Aries♈Equinox	Quarter/Season 1	day 003 to 092
3	2nd Season's Day	Day 093	c June 21st	Cancer♋Solstice	Quarter/Season 2	day 094 to 183
4	3rd Season's Day	Day 184	c Sept 20th	Libra♎Equinox	Quarter/Season 3	day 185 to 274
5	4th Season's Day	Day 275	c Dec 20th	Capricorn♑Solstice	Quarter/Season 4	day 276 to 365

The 8 Seasonal UCC Festivals

Each of the intercalary days forms part of a seasonal festival celebrating the equinoxes and solstices at the start of each season and the mid season points between them. These make up 8 festival periods closely aligned with their ancient 'Eight Fold Year' equivalent fire festivals.

Leap Years

The UCC has 8 Leap Years in a 33 year cycle (as per the Persian Calendar) whereby years 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 22, 26 & 30 of these 33 years are Leap Years, commencing with the additional Intercalary Day 0, inserted as Day Zero at the start of the year.

UCC Links

The UCC has the following web resources:

• For those interested in the background to the development of the calendar - The Free Man Calendar
• For newcomers to the UCC who may have Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) such as 'Why A New Calendar?' and 'How Does It Benefit My Life?' - The UCC Zone
• For the Main calendar page, including the About page, a detailed UCC Wiki page, a UCC 'Calendar Clock' Web APP, Calendar Date Calculator & Convertor, Full Year Calendar & Year Planner Downloads - The Universal Celestial Calendar

Related Calendars

The UCC 'Peacock's Tail' Calendar is a sister calendar to the UCC.

Although the UCC was developed 'off grid' in isolation it has similarities to two antiquated calendars viz. the French Republican Calendar and the Ancient Egyptian Calendar, due to its use of 360 standard days divided into twelve divisions of 30 days comprised of ten day subdivisions. It also similarly uses 5 or 6 intercalary days to make up the 365/366 day year, but unlike the previous calendars mentioned above, the UCC's 5 or 6 intercalary days do not occur at the end of the year, but are instead distributed between the Quarters to balance the year into seasons of equal length.

This technique has since been used in a similar calendar known as the Balanced French Calendar proposed in 2018 as a modified version of the French Republican Calendar. Like the UCC it spreads the 5 or 6 intercalary days between the four quarters, and in the same sequence, but differs in that its year start is at the Libra♎Equinox (September) as per the FRC, rather than at the Aries♈Equinox.

Another related calendar known as 'Nature's Calendar', and previously as 'The Aquarian Calendar', created prior to the UCC by Kelly O'Donnell, has the same structure as the UCC (although the two were developed independently) but with its year start at the Capricorn♑Solstice.