I’m always tinkering with the details of my world, whether consciously or in the back of my mind, and I always knew that it did not have the same length of year/month/week/day as Earth.  I just recently formalized that idea, though, and sketched out a formal calendar.

There are at least three different calendars in use on the world of Halci, but the one I’m showing now is the central calendar, used by the areas shown in red:

The calendar consists of eight months, each with 36 days (making 288 days), plus 21 common feast days (making 309 days) plus a Darkness or Light Day once every three years (making 310 days on those years).

This coincides with the 32-day cycle of the Mother Moon to make an almost-perfect 6-year lunar/solar cycle.  The Child Moon has a 12-day cycle.  Below is the lunar cycle for Book 1 through Book 3:

Additionally, Halion days are broken down into 18 ‘marks’, similar to hours except that each is approximately 100 minutes long.  This makes Halci’s days 30 Earth-hours long.  In all, Halci’s orbit around its sun (Andar) takes 387.5 Earth-days in a long year, and 386.25 in a short year.

The format of the lunar calendar above is a bit wrong, though its info is not.  I tinkered with what a proper central calendar would look like below:

The gist of this is that each month is made up of six weeks, each containing six days.  Each day and each week corresponds to one of the six elements: Fire, Air, Wood, Water, Earth and Metal, in that order.  Therefore one never really needs to number the days on the calendar, only number the sidebars, because the positions of the days within their month and week never changes.  The sixteenth is always Water day of Wood week, et cetera.

The formal names of the days are Khaelathar (Fireday), Ysathar (Airday), Treasathar (Woodday), Nixathar (Waterday), Igarathar (Earthday), and Soraesathar (Metalday).  They are often abbreviated to Kael, Ys, Tris, Nis, Igas and Soras.

Festival days do not belong to any week or any month.  They happen between months and are thus written outside of the months as shown on the calendar above.

As for the months, they are considered to correspond with the six elements as well, plus Light and Dark, and can be referred to as those names along with their formal ones.

The year technically ends on Darkness Day (if there is one) or on the midnight between the second and third day of the Festival of Shadows if there is not–either way, midwinter.  However, many regional calendars prefer to place the last month of winter at the end of the calendar and the first month of spring at the beginning, instead of the last month of winter beginning the year.

In that order, then, the months go:

Spring 1 — Llycanmont/Llycan, the Rain or Water Month

Spring Equinox — Festival of Flowers (4 days)

Spring 2 — Theramel/Theramont/Theran, the Growth or Wood Month

Summer 1 — Brimont/Brin, the Storm or Air Month

Midsummer — Festival of Lights (5 days) plus Light Day (1 in 6 years)

Summer 2 — Sevalmont/Sevalin, the High or Light Month

Autumn 1 — Ranenmont/Ranen, the Dry, Smoke or Fire Month

Autumn Equinox — Festival of Leaves (4 days)

Autumn 2 — Setenbrynt/Sebrynmont/Sebryn, the Harvest or Metal Month

Yearfrost (2 days)

Winter 1 — Cylanost/Cylanmont/Cylan, the Grave or Earth Month

Midwinter — Festival of Shadows (4 days) plus Darkness Day (1 in 6 years)

Winter 2 — Sycinel/Sycinmont/Sycin, the Deep or Dark Month

Yearthaw (2 days)

Actual frost- and thaw-dates vary with the region, but Yearfrost and Yearthaw are celebrated formally at these points even if the ground has not yet frosted or has thawed early.  If the ground has not yet thawed, though, Yearthaw may be pushed back to between Spring 1 and Spring 2 (thus added to the Festival of Flowers), since superstition cautions against celebrating the thaw prematurely, lest it not come.  Therefore most of the northern lands using the central calendar have a consistently long Festival of Flowers.

Various religions have religious festivals throughout the year but these are not reflected in the central calendar.  The west (blue on the map) has its own calendar, mostly constructed around Death-worship and spirit-based religious events, while the east (green on the map) has a calendar constructed around lunar months and tidal fluctuations.

I’ll get to those eventually, and also to the land on the far side of the world, but for the purposes of the first series, this is the deal.