Subject: (urth) The calendar

From: Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 16:35:40 +0000

I can only recall a single instance when a specific date is mentioned in
the Urth cycle, and that is only a day of an unnamed month. After the
elevation of Roche and Drotte to journeymen, the same calendar year as
Severian's near drowning and his encounter with Vodalus, Roche knocks on the
door of the apprentices' dormitory to collect Sev and take him to the House
Azure. He knocks because he no longer lives there, as journeymen have their
own rooms. Sev is then captain of apprentices. Roche remarks: "Today is
what? The eighteenth--it's been under three weeks." The "under three weeks"
refers to the elapsed time since the Feast of Holy Katharine and his
elevation. (I, VIII)

The Feast occurs in spring, which, because the seasons are six months out
of phase in the Southern Hemisphere, comes after the warm weather of summer
when it was warm enough to swim, which came earlier that same calendar year.
The winter in which he discovered Triskele and Valeria fell between the
fight in the necropolis and the Feast. In an appendix to CLAW Wolfe notes
that the months are lunar, lasting 28 days, and the weeks are 7 days. He
also notes that a watch is 1/10 of a night, or about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
This figure must be based on the average length of a night, which works out
to 12½ hours. Therefore in Sev's era the days are 25-hour days. Also, in
SWORD, in the story that Cyriaca tells of the founding of Ultan's library,
she notes that the years used to be longer than they are now (III, VI).

St. Catherine's Day is Nov. 25. (I should say "was": contrary to Wolfe's
opinion as to the historicity of the saint, the Vatican, in an attempt to
purge its vast pantheon of some of its more dubious saints and martyrs,
abolished her feast day, amongst others, in 1969.) At any rate, we are not
told just how much shorter the year is in Sev's day than now, or if there
are 12 or 13 months in the year. 25-hour days, for 28 days, would equal
about 29.17 of our days per month. A 12-month year would then equal about
350 of our days per year, 13 months 379 days, which is too many. A 12-month
year in Sev's era would equal 336 days, 13 months 364 days. This latter
figure is too close to our own year to be noteworthy, so it would seem that
the year would most likely be 12 months. I mention both sets of figures
because I am trying to reconcile Urth's calendar with Earth's.

Alternately, the shorter year could simply be attributed to the longer day.
If Urth's orbit of the sun is the same length as Earth's, then the Urth year
would be 350 of its days. The problem with this figure is that it would
yield 12½ 28-day months per year.

If the surviving details of the torturers' feast day are any indication,
it's not likely that the date would be forgotten. If the year is 12 months,
like ours, then the month that Roche mentioned it was the eighteenth of
should be the equivalent of our December. But from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18 is not
"under three weeks", by Earth's calendar. Even if you grant that the
"November" of Urth has but 28 days, the eighteenth of the following month
would fall exactly 21 days later, which is still not "under three weeks".
So, as I said, since this is the only date mentioned in the series, I assume
Wolfe attached some significance to it. Anyone know what that might be, or
how Roche's statement can be reconciled with the calendar?

Roy

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 19:31:59 +0000

Roy,

I have done a lot of work on the calendar, so allow me to share a few notes.

You wrote:
>the Urth cycle, and that is only a day of an unnamed month.

"Hallowmass Eve (which is to say, the full of the Spading Moon)," ("The
Cat," first few pages).  This is probably the best of all calendar
references in the text.  The months each have many names, according to
Wolfe (when I asked him): the Spading Moon shows a good example of one.  It
reinforces the Lunar nature of the Commonwealth calendar, as well as the
agricultural sense (Spading Moon), and the religious sense (Hallowmass Eve,
aka Halloween).  There is also the suggestion that the previous month is
the Harvest Moon.

That is to say: we have Harvest Moon (first full moon after Sep 23) and
Hunter's Moon (the full moon after Harvest Moon); Spading might be equal to
Harvest, but to get closer to our Halloween, Spading must instead be
Hunter's Moon.

>Roche remarks: "Today is

First of all, the Feast occurs "in the fading of winter"; i.e., somewhere
between Aug 1 and Sep 23.

Next, as in Biblical times, one tells the date by looking at the Moon: it
is hung there in the sky as a calendar.  It seems, judging from the court
schedule at Thrax, that the month begins on New Moon (which of course makes
perfect sense!).

Next, let's establish some hard numbers:

ASTRON. EVENT     DATE      SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE EVENT
Vernal Equinox    Mar 20    Southern Hemisphere Autumn begins
mid-Spring        May  1    mid-Autumn
Summer Solstice   Jun 21    S. Hemisphere Winter begins
mid-Summer        Aug  1    mid-Winter
Autumnal Equinox  Sep 23    S. Hemisphere Spring begins
mid-Autumn        Nov  1    mid-Spring
Winter Solstice   Dec 22    S. Hemisphere Summer begins
mid-Winter        Feb  1    mid-Summer

(Southern Hemisphere dwellers please chime in regarding the ballpark
accuracy of these numbers)

THUS
. . . the Spading Moon of the Commonwealth should fall somewhere around May
1, and, if Halloween is here, too, then it has been shifted along to match
the proper season (local Autumn).

. . . New Year's Day in the Commonwealth is apparantly on the first New
Moon after Summer has begun (i.e., Dec 22), that is, somewhere between Dec
23 and Feb 1.

>she notes that the years used to be longer than they are now (III, VI).

Stop.  The "watch" as a unit of time is =seasonally= variable.  The long
watches of a winter night really =are= longer than the short watches of a
summer night (historical note: this is close to the way time was reckoned
in Japan--the Dutch even made variable clocks for them, with levers that
shifted through the seasons). The only time the night is really 12 hours
long is at the equinoxes.

Lunar month is ballpark 28 days; but more accurately 29.53 days (for
phases) or 27.322 days (for both revolution and sidereal day).  (You can
see why the ballpark figure is so handy!)

>are 12 or 13 months in the year.

Lunar calendars have thirteen months (13 x 28 = 364).  Period.  They never
match up to solar calendar time, but nobody cares--the seasons (solar
determined) are floating anchor points in the Commonwealth, and on Earth
the Islamic holidays drift from season to season.

If my hard numbers are roughly correct, Nov 25 is (S.H.) late Spring rather
than late Winter.  Granted, the feast day may have been shifted to match
the proper season, except that where it is (late Winter, according to text)
isn't exactly the proper season (mid-Autumn--where C's feast day is in
N.Hemisphere).

MORE HARD NUMBERS
Catherine Alex. -- Nov 25
Catherine Geno. -- Sep 15
Catherine Sien. -- Apr 29/30
Catherine Swed. -- Mar 24

Comparing these numbers with the other numbers, it seems as though
Catherine of Genoa has a feast day at the time closest to the target.  FWIW.

>25-hour days, for 28 days,

Stop.  I strongly resist the idea that the Urth days are 25 hours long.
All the other numbers match up to ancient calendar methods, I don't see why
the length of day would be different.

Granted, one avenue I have not explored is: given that Lune is closer in
orbit, what sort of (slower) velocity must it have to maintain a 28 day
period.  (And maybe it is exactly 28 days, instead of some fraction?)

Furthermore, there is, naturally, the gap between astronomical seasons and
perceived seasons.  In part this is probably due to the fact that seasonal
weather (the features that alert us to "season") takes a bit longer or
shorter to develop.  Boundaries are fuzzy.  So when Severian talks of
seasonal weather, it is quite vague.  December seems like Winter to me, but
21 days of it ain't (go figure).

Anyway, there's a pile of notes for you--happy hunting!

=mantis=

---

From: Charles Dye <raster at highfiber.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 00:17:09 +0000

>long is at the equinoxes.

The lengths of hours changed in Europe, too, until about the fourteenth
century (and the invention of mechanical clocks.)  Adjusting a water
clock is not difficult:  inscribe different scales for different months.
Sundials are self-adjusting, of course.

It appears that most timepieces in the Commonwealth are of the variable-
speed kind.  Dr. Talos refers to the Autarch's star-made clock specifically
as an 'isochronon' -- suggesting that this is unusual.

>the Islamic holidays drift from season to season.

But "the Spading Moon" suggests that there is some correspondence between
the calendar and the solar year.  I suppose you could intercalate an
entire month at need, as the Jewish calendar does....

raster at highfiber.com

---

From: Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 06:45:47 +0000

mantis,

>the proper season (local Autumn).

Actually, your definition of the Harvest Moon is incorrect. As stated, the
Harvest Moon could occur as late as October 21 (in the Northern Hemisphere),
which is not so. The Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest the autumnal
equinox, that is, a fortnight either side of the equinox. While I am
familiar with the Harvest and Hunter's Moons, I have not heard of a Spading
Moon. It would seem to me, however, that spading would be associated with
planting time, not harvesting time, as you have it. In spring, when the
ground is readied for planting, it is plowed (or spaded if no plow is
available). This, in the Commonwealth, would happen six months away from May
1, around Nov. 1, which is, precisely, All Hallows, just as it says in "The
Cat". Only, it is mid-spring in the Commonwealth, not mid-autumn, and has
nothing to do with the Harvest Moon, which would happen near the autumnal
equinox in March.

Thinking upside-down makes my head hurt. <g>

Roy