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The new Tirelat calendar

From:Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 29, 2002, 2:33
The new Tirelat calendar is based on the Julian date (following John
Cowan's suggestion). The Tirelat "Year Zero" (yes, there's a Year Zero in
the Tirelat calendar) begins on the Julian day 23. Like the Jarda calendar,
the Tirelat calendar is based on a 12-year sequence of years named after
animals, but the Tirelat years are also associated with digits of base-12.
The Gregorian year 2002 corresponds to the Tirelat year 3A76 (except for
the few days from December 22 to the end of the year, which belong to the
following year, and December 21, which belongs equally to both years). From
the last digit, 6, you can tell that this is currently the Year of the
Centipede.

year name
 0*  trhil  ["tr_0il] (wren)
 1   shyrra ["S1rra]  (otter)
 2   stelka ["stElka] (spider)
 3   furu   ["furu]   (shrew)
 4*  nuumu  ["nu:mu]  (owl)
 5   hraksa ["x4aksa] (shark)
 6   zruta  [z@"4uta] (centipede)
 7   shiira ["Si:4a]  (weasel)
 8*  vaar   ["v\a:r]  (raven)
 9   kezh   ["kEZ]    (dolphin)
 A   dlhor  ["dK\Or]  (wasp)
 B   lesta  ["lEsta]  (badger)
* bird years

Every fourth year in the 12-year cycle is named after a bird. These
|linraga| ["lin@4aGa], or "bird years", correspond to the leap years of the
traditional calendar. 12 cycles make one great cycle; the current great
cycle began on December 22, 1911. The first year of a great cycle, which
would normally be a bird year, is designated as the Year of the Chipmunk,
or |kittariraga| ["kitta4i4aGa], and is _not_ a leap year. Thus, every
12-year cycle has 4,383 days (12*365, plus 3 leap days), and every 144-year
great cycle has 52,595 days (4383*12-1). Adding 46 great cycles to Julian
day 23 (the Tirelat "day zero") gives 2,419,393, which turns out to be
December 22, 1911 AD. Since 46 (base 10) = 3A (base 12), the most recent
Year of the Chipmunk is 3A00, which corresponds to 1912 AD. Conveniently,
every year in the current great cycle, except for the first one, begins on
December 21.

The months currently follow the Jarda model, although I might change a few
of the names.

hazaarlitz   (deer)       December 22 - January 18
mravnalitz   (marmot)     January 19 - February 15
huullitz     (wolf)       February 16 - March 15(14)
devlitz      (rabbit)     March 16(15) - April 12(11)
niklitz      (mouse)      April 13(12) - May 10(9)
ziriklitz    (squirrel)   May 11(10) - June 7(6)
jalj'kalitz  (eagle)      June 8(7) - July 5(4)
bintilitz    (armadillo)  July 6(5) - August 2(1)
zivatlitz    (lizard)     August 3(2) - August 30(29)
zhillitz     (fox)        August 31(30) - September 27(26)
arkalitz     (raccoon)    September 28(27) - October 25(24)
parzlitz     (bat)        October 26(25) - November 22(21)
driiklitz    (frog)       November 23 - December 20

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