Imperial Calendar
Calendar established at the creation of the Third
Imperium as a universal calendar reform. Dates count from the
founding
of the Imperium, the year "zero."
Dates before zero are negative, dates after are positive. For
example,
Terra discovered jump drive in
-2431. The Imperium was founded in zero. The Imperial
Second Survey was published in 1065.
The year is divided into 365 standard days, which are
grouped into 52 weeks of seven days each. The lengths of days and
weeks is a legacy of Terran domination during the Second
Imperium. Days are numbered consecutively, beginning with
one.
The first day of the year is a holiday and is not part of any
week.
For example, the first day (Holiday) of the year 1116 is
001-1116.
The last day of the year is 365-111. Weeks of seven days and
months of 28 days (four weeks) are used to indicate periods of time,
but are not named and are not used to indicate dates.
If only for the purposes of consistency within the Imperium, it would
have been necessary for that vast interstellar empire to produce a
standard time-keeping system. Cleon I used the calendar as
just one part of a wide-ranging campaign to establish the power of the
Imperium throughout its territory. Within a hundred years, the
Imperial calendar was the standard by which history, trade, and
bureaucracy were measured.
Imperial timekeeping is based on the time units of the Terran Confederation.
During the Rule of Man, the basic
units of the Terran day (24 hours) and the Terran year (365 days) were
imposed on First Imperium
territories by the Terran conquerors. During the Long Night, the day and year remained in
place in what interstellar trade remained, and by the time the Third
Imperium was established, the use of these particular spans for day and
year was easily accepted. The time periods were simplified: the
day was made exactly 24 hours, and the year was made exactly 365 days.
The adoption of the standard calendar produced a requirement for names
of the days of the week. The decision was made to scrap the
traditional Anglic day names, and
instead a series of numbered day names were established. Over the
course of the centuries, these names have settled into galanglic as Wonday, Tuday, Thirday,
Fourday, Fiday, Sixday, and Senday. They are sometimes
abbreviated as 1day, 2day, and so on. Holiday is not part of any
week, and the first week of the year begins with Wonday on 002.
-cam MW
-IE ld
-RC kt