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The Traveler Universe

Culture: The Selanian Calendar

Epochs

The Selani divide the calendar into two main epochs: the time after creation (Tena Corasetal, or TC), which coincides with the approximately four thousand years of history up to and including the annihilation of Piral, and the time after the Galactic Diaspora (Sevaten Velitra, or SV). The new calendar (SV) was introduced because the temporal units needed to be adjusted to the situation on Chyoradan, although several puritan factions (e.g., the Caldarians) insist on the continuous use of the old calendar (TC).

It is assumed that the light of Velana, the dwarfed sun now circling the lifeless Piral, takes approximately fifty-six years to reach Halena Yazoral (the Forbidden Planet, Terra, or Earth). Although Velana went supernova some fifty-six years earlier, the light of this devastating galactic phenomenon did not reach Halena Yazoral until August 30 in 2 BC (by Yazorian calculation). The time warp model advanced by the technocrat Telates Catanin—the propagator of the telatian field—in 2364 TC accounts for the contradictory flow of time in different sections of the universe.

Although, when objectively seen, more time passed on Piral during the four thousand years of its history than on Halena Yazoral, the relative and warped structure of the universe allows for an astonishing concurrence of historic dates. Seen from a Yazorian point of view, 1 TC would correspond to 3984 BC, and the year of the destruction of Piral, which is 3983 TC, would correspond to 2 BC in the Yazorian calculation. The new Selanian calendar (SV) corresponds almost seamlessly with the current Yazorian era (anno domini, or AD).

A day in the old calendar was divided into thirty-two hours. High noon was therefore at sixteen o'clock, Selanian time. One Selanian hour was slightly shorter than a Yazorian hour, approximately fifty-two minutes. A Selanian year had 480 days and was accordingly about one and a half times longer than a Yazorian year. The four thousand years of Piralian history would have objectively taken about six thousand years of Yazorian time, but this is accounted for in the Telatian time warp model.

A day in the new calendar is divided into twenty-four hours, and the hours correspond almost exactly to Yazorian hours. The 360-day year of the new calendar therefore takes about as much time as the Yazorian 365/366 day year.

Days of the Week

A Selanian week corresponds to the seven-day creationistic model described in the Selani s'Ulavan. Yazorians reading this article may be uncomfortable with the fact that Sunday corresponds to Velanav, the first day of the week. Such readers are requested to remember that, in the original Yazorian model, Sunday also corresponds to the first day of the week, and that Saturday is actually the Holy Sabbath. Only after Christ's resurrection on the morning of the first day of the week (Sunday) did the custom change, in remembrance of Anae's act of hope for all mankind. The Selani on Chyoradan were not aware of such customs until the Traveler made contact with Philip Brannon and a tentative exchange of information between the two planets commenced.

Months of the Year

In both the old and new calendars, a Selanian year begins at the vernal equinox, which corresponds to the first official day of spring, even on Halena Yazoral. In the old calendar, a month was divided into forty days, which coincided approximately with the cycle of the larger moon, Velanevos. Each season therefore consisted of three months. Summer began three months after the vernal equinox, at the summer solstice; fall three months later at the autumnal equinox; winter at the winter solstice. In the new calendar, a month has only thirty days, which corresponds roughly to the cycle of Chyoradan's largest moon.