Years, Chalionese and other
Jun. 17th, 2018 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowI just ran across the following passage in "The Curse of Chalion":
"... the Bastard's Day, that intercalary holiday inserted every two years after Mother's Midsummer to prevent the calendar's precessing from its proper seasons."
In our world, the solar year differs from an even number of days by a little less than a quarter of a day. Apparently in the 5GU, the difference is closer to half a day.
Not that anything much follows from that, but I hadn't noticed it before.
Sidenote: is there any reference, in the 5GU books, to an analogue of the week? The day, month, and year are based on astronomical realities, but the week is wholly artificial (and different cultures have had week-analogues ranging from four to ten days). Has anybody noticed?
"... the Bastard's Day, that intercalary holiday inserted every two years after Mother's Midsummer to prevent the calendar's precessing from its proper seasons."
In our world, the solar year differs from an even number of days by a little less than a quarter of a day. Apparently in the 5GU, the difference is closer to half a day.
Not that anything much follows from that, but I hadn't noticed it before.
Sidenote: is there any reference, in the 5GU books, to an analogue of the week? The day, month, and year are based on astronomical realities, but the week is wholly artificial (and different cultures have had week-analogues ranging from four to ten days). Has anybody noticed?
no subject
Date: 2018-06-18 05:10 am (UTC)Well, it's almost a quarter of the lunar cycle.