LOL ايه؟

Our Glorious History, Part V

More More More!

<grisom> One interesting result of a strictly solstice-based calendar is that, since solstice is a moment in time rather than an actual day, it becomes significant what time zone is used to adjust the calendar year. The above Uayeb calculation is true only for time zones east of Alberta (and west of the International Date Line).

So! There are different ways of approaching this:

a) Every time zone could do their own slightly different calendar.
b) We could establish a reference time zone for the calendar.
c) We could establish a simple mathematical approximation of the wandering solstice similar to what the Gregorian calendar does with leap years.

I'm partial to (b),

<umunmutamku> I, too.

<grisom> but I'm not sure what time zone would be appropriate. Any thoughts?

<umunmutamku> Well, my first inclination would be the navel of the world—Delphi. But it is my understanding that Jesus destroyed Delphi (or something like that),

<grisom> HEE

<umunmutamku> so perhaps someplace new is now the center of the world.

<grisom> Well, we are getting this calendar from the following sources:
- Egypt
- France
- Maya... um... land

Any of these time zones work with the empirically-established Uayeb, but they are, y'know, not the same.

<grisom> (I'm just assuming here that the Gestalt forbids the reference time zone to be that of Alberta ;))

Our Glorious History, Part IV

La quatrième partie d'une série de longueur indéterminée.

<grisom> Umu! More hellworms!
I know how to convert between the Gregorian and Coptic calendars, but I also know that the Coptic calendar has drifted rather far from the year-start originally intended by the Ancient Egyptians. When did the Egyptian calendar start *when it was invented*?

<umunmutamku> PRELIMINARY WIKIPEDIAING (i am at school and write hastily from a business-bldg computer) seems to indicate the year started with the heliacal rising (?) of the star Sirius.

<grisom> I know!

Supposedly the "heliacal rising" was an astronomical proxy for a certain point in the Nile's flood cycle, which presumably occurs on a specific date in our current calendar. The original Egyptian calendar was exactly 365 days every year, so it got badly out of sync with the Nile by the time it was Romanized into the Coptic calendar. The Coptic calendar itself, with its Julian leap years, has gone even further out of whack since then. So what I want to know, put more precisely, is: If the Coptic calendar were still in sync with the Nile, on what Gregorian date would the Coptic year begin?

(My purpose in all this is to figure out how to line up the Coptic and French Republican month names, of course.)

<grisom> July 20th! Okay, actually that's a Julian date, but it probably doesn't matter too much. This would mean we are currently in Nivose-Meshir.

Our Glorious History, Part II

<grisom> Umu! Any idea how the Ancient Egyptians named the ten days of their week?

<umunmutamku> Holy shit, Griz, did you ever just crack open a can of blood-hungry hell worms.

Yeah. Egyptian dates are fucked up the bronze ass hole, though, Griz.

<grisom> My understanding was that the Egyptians invented the French Republican Calendar, to wit: that their year was 12 months of 30 days each, plus a five-day "little month" at the end, and that they had a ten-day week; furthermore that the start of the year was based on something Sirius was doing in the sky, which went slowly out of sync with what the Sun was doing.

<umunmutamku> Okay. The year divides into 12 months (3bd) and 3 seasons: 3ḫt "inundation," prt "winter," šmw "summer." Each season had four months of thirty days, and there were five "epagomenal" days to round it all out.

Dates begin with the "regnal year" sign ḥ3t-sp and a numeral. Next up: the month position in the season cycle, e.g. 3bd 2 3ḫt "second month of inundation." The last value is the date position in the month, sw, followed by a numeral.

The first month of the season is not usually written 3bd 1 XXX but rather tpy XXX "first of XXX." Similarly, the last day of the month is written ʕrqy without sw, meaning something like "end."

The date is always followed by the royal titulary, since the date is dependent on the current regime. The bare minimum is something like: "under the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt (name in cartouche)—may he be given life!" (ḫr ḥm n(y) nsw-bity (name) ʕnḫw) The full titulary is excruciatingly long, consisting of five different names and a whole series of formulas.

So in conclusion: we must reckon only with Ancient Egyptian seasons, not month or day names (those are lost),

<grisom> I don't see why you say the month names are lost, though, since the Coptic Christians still call their months by names like "Thoth" and "Hathor". Is there any reason *not* to think that they're using the original Egyptian names?

<umunmutamku> *stares, blinks*

Jesus, you're right. No, they very obviously are.

<grisom> Success!

<umunmutamku> ...and must incorporate the royal titulary somehow.

<grisom> Oh, I'm not aiming to emulate the Ancient Egyptian year-numbering system, I just wanted better day-names than the French "oneday, twoday, threeday". But if those are lost to the sands then SCREW ANCIENT EGYPT.

<umunmutamku> Heh. But how about it? We could pick some symbolic ruler. :)

<grisom> Well, the main impetus for this calendar was to have the year-counting system centred around the end of the world on Dec 21, 2012. So as long as you can keep that property...