Ghyll:Bursine Calendar
The Bursine Calendar is so named for Bursine the 14th, an otherwise unremarkable Hive-Lord of the Nitenmangrey. Bursine the 14th made a gift of the calendar to his Paramount Queen, Litivia, on their joining day. While any other great works he may have forged have been forgotten by time, his calendar has survived. I applaud the Encyclopedants for adopting it into their new EC notation for this project's Encyclopedant Calendar with nothing more than a reset of the zero year. The old counting system was getting quite unwieldy, so I deem this an acceptable change.
For those unfamiliar with the specific names of the days of the week and months of the year in the old Bursine Calendar (as well as the new dating system adopted by the Encyclopedants for this great work), allow me to list them for you.
Days of the Week: Tuesday, Ulfsday, Varhookan, Ween, Xarochsday, YinYin, Zalestra.
Months of the Year:
- Ablinth
- Baros
- Conti
- Darwina
- E
- Fusil
- Gomin
- Homin
- Ikk
- Jole
- Kendrit
- Lom
Therefore, today's date in EC reckoning of 0/1/12 EC is also "YinYin, the 12th of Ablinth of the year 0." I think the old date and day names have much more personality than the dry numerical notation, so I will attempt to use them both in my future entries, and I hope my fellow researchers will as well.
One additional note of interest about the Bursine Calendar is that the best minds of Ghyll still have no idea why, when rendered into core script as I've done above, the days of the week, and months of the year fall into alphabetic order. Core script clearly post-dates the Nitenmangrey by at least a few centuries, so either Bursine himself could see into the future and crafted an elaborate joke for us, or more likely, the original translator of the Bursine Calendar into core script took some aesthetic liberties.
Citations: Encyclopedant Calendar, Hive-Lord, Paramount Queen.
--Qwentyth Pyre 00:29, 12 Sep 2004 (EDT)
It should, of course, be noted that the Bursine calendar is hardly the only Ghyllian calendar in existence. I myself have always preferred the lovely & sophisticated Ellekaisic calendar, what with its subtleties regarding the refraction of moonlight through the last standing glass shard from a broken bottle down at the nearest pub and how that affects the name of the day tomorrow. Glorious system, really. Provides me hours of entertainment as I try to figure out whether I'm late with my most recent progress report. --Prothall 22:03, 22 Sep 2004 (EDT)
Indeed! And the Encyclopedants have even recognized this fact, as per their first EPR: We appreciate that your location has developed its own unique way to measure time and tell its history - we don't dare suggest you or your elders change it! We do require, however, that your encyclopedia entries "standardize" any timeframes to what we have dubbed the "Encyclopedant Calendar", or EC. I, myself, prefer the more embryonic natures of a calendar I've been personally developing, but alas, it'll be years before my research is truly complete. --Morbus Iff 23:14, 22 Sep 2004 (EDT)
My, my... I must say that calendars are of quite useful use! Although I am quite fond of the Ellekaisic calendar, my own historio-linguistic journeys have led me elsewhere, specifically into the dead language of Aitch. I have discovered that the speakers of this language had a calendar which in some ways is similar to the Bursine: specifically the names of the months. These are: Bling, Bris, Khnti, Dhrwin, Ih, Fsilh, Gmih, Himn, Ihk, Jhl, Khndrt, Lhm (compare with the Bursine). Though their year did hold twelve months, their week held only six days, and their month was six weeks of six days (36 days) - they added numerous leapmonths and leapyears to help adjust for the rotation of the Grand Squid (what we today call the cosmological constant). Also for comparison, the date of 0/1/12 EC which in Bursine is YinYin, the 12th of Ablinth of the year 0, is here Trsdi, the 4th of Blingbling 563; notice the double month-naming denoting that this was a leapmonth. --Nikos of Ant 01:54, 17 May 2005 (EDT)
