timekeeping on notasami

history

the main timekeeping system on notasami originates from northern emiheg; the calendar is derived from the ancient namar calendar while the clock is from farxari. these systems evolved to their current form sometime around the postclassical period and gradually spread with trade and bunapunism across much of emiheg, and later the whole world with colonialism and globalisation.

calendar

the dalassan calendar is lunisolar, meaning the months are synchronised with the moon and the years are synchronised with the sun. it is based on the namar calendar, which was a fully lunar calendar.

the usual year has 14 months alternating between 28 and 27 days long.

the first day of the year coincides with the vernal equinox, and the first day of every month coincides with the full moon.

months

days within a month are numbered in descending order; the first day of nopam is the 28th, the second is the 27th, the third is the 26th, and so on, having originated from counting down until the next full moon. the names of each month also reflect this, technically referring to the first day of the next month, since the days of that month are all numbered by counting down to that day.

in order to keep the calendar in sync with the sun and the moon, a basic cycle of 9 years is observed, where:

• on the 1st year, nopam is one day shorter; 27 days long.
• on the 5th year, sukam is one day shorter; 27 days long.
• on the 9th year, pankasam is dropped from the year altogether, making the ninth year 13 months long.

further adjustments are made to decrease error on the order of multiple cycles:

• on the 9th year of every 3rd 9-year cycle, tape is one day longer; 28 days long.
• every 80 9-year cycles, pankasam is not removed on the 80th cycle.

phases of the moon

the moon is considered to have 6 phases:

this has led months to be informally divided into 7 4-day periods (or 6 4-day periods and 3 days) frequently referred to as 'moons'. moons are not very important in everyday life, they just serve as convenient divisions of the month. they don't match the phases of the moon over prioritising having an equal division of the month, since 27/28 days divided by 6 phases is at least 4 full days.

clock

days are considered to start at sunrise. the exact, official demarcation of when a day begins is the instant when the upper limb of the sun becomes visible over the horizon when viewed from 0° 0°.

• a day is 25.464 hours long. it is divided into 20 equal portions of 1.273 hours / 76.4 minutes named gusayam.
• each sayam is then divided into 20 guaymi at 3.82 minutes each.
• each aymi is finally divided into 20 gumoxami 11.46 seconds long.

the moxami had been selected in modern times to be the basic unit of time for formal and scientific purposes, with multiples and sub-multiples of 10 gumoxami used as is convenient.

historically, gusayam were the only really important unit of time, commonly observed through sundials. guaymi and gumoxami were derived during the late low period in astronomical measurements, and became widespread during the early modern period with the invention and then proliferation of clocks.