Trade Standard Dating
The Trade Standard Dating system was developed by the Mirrandian Trader's Guild as a tool to aid in dating contracts and shipments. As their influence grew across the continent, it became the world's de-facto calendar. Other systems still exist, but are used infrequently by isolated communities such as the rakshasans or within the underdark.
Basic structure of the year:
- Each year is divided into sets of months called Seasons with a universally recognized holiday between them.
- Each Seasons is further divided into three months
- Each month is divided into three ten-days which are the smallest multi-day units of time used. These ten-days are also called weeks.
Naming Conventions:
- Each Season is named after the time of year they cover, namely Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
- Each month is named after then classical alchemical metals of Copper, Silver, and Gold. These names are shared between each Season but are rarely referenced independently. Normal usage would be Month-Season, e.g. Silver Earth or Golden Fire.
- Weeks and Days are not named but are listed as numbers from 1 to 30. Individual days are, generally, referenced with their month and Season but not always; if a number is given, it's assumed to be part of the current month.
- Examples of days:
- 20th Copper Spring
- 1st Golden Summer
- 18th Silver Fall
Holidays:
- There are five holidays in a standard trade year.
- There is one holiday between each of the Seasons and an additional holiday is added during the celebration of the Winter Solstice.
- Each of the holidays are on the corresponding equinox or solstice
- The names of the holidays, and their reasoning, is as follows:
- Newspring - Vernal Equinox - Start of the new year.
- Highmorning/All-Sun's-Day - Summer Solstice
- Midfall - Autumnal Equinox
- Deepnight/Night of Mourning - Begins the dawn before the Winter Solstice
- Deepdawn/Dawn of Rebirth - Starts at midnight of the Winter Solstice
- The Elven traditions of Mourning Night and the Dawn of Rebirth, which was the 48 hour period in which the entire populace grieves for the losses that their race endured in the previous year. It was believed that on the Dawn of Rebirth, all of the lost souls would find their way into new bodies This is now believed to be apocryphal and the spike in birth rates sixteen months after each Dawn of Rebirth is simply due to the celebratory nature of the time. To date, no natural reincarnation theory has been proven.
Intercalary Holiday
Newspring
The Newspring Festival marks the start of a new year and is celebrated on the Vernal Equinox, when the day and night are equal lengths.
Newspring festivities vary by region, but typically include marriages and the burning of bonfires. There are usually festival events that include games, competitions, and other prizes held within settlements.
Highmorning
The Highmorning Festival is a celebration that marks the start of the summer months. It is celebrated on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.
Celebrations of Highmorning vary by region, but generally include competitions such as races or talent shows and the ceremonial burning of a lists of three wishes.
Midfall
The Midfall Festival is the celebration of the end of summer and is observed on the Autumnal Equinox.
Celebrations of Midfall vary by region, but typically include large feasts and the slaughtering of an animal in honor of the oncoming winter. In many traditions, it is believed that Midfall marks the time when the evil aligned planes are closest to the material world, manifesting bad luck and empowering vile magics, though this is unsubstantiated by most arcanists.
Deepnight
Deepdawn
Local Holidays
A variety of local holidays are also recognized at the regional level, though they are not integrated into the calendar as intercalary days.
Calendar Iconography
Below is the base symbology for the Trade Standard Calendar. Each Month is represented as a vertical line, each Season is a group of three vertical lines, and each holiday is represented as a horizontal line.
In use, the full calendar does not need to be displayed, only the relevant information. The conventional form this takes is to draw the calendar from Right to Left, stopping on the current month. The most recently passed holiday is always drawn and the current day is written above it. See the example below for the 22nd Golden Fall:
