| Shire Calendar |
Article Index for Shire |
Website Links For Shire |
Information AboutShire Calendar |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SHIRE CALENDAR | |
| middle-earth calendars | |
|
It is highly based on the Germanic Calendar . Year 1 of the Shire Calendar corresponded when the Shire was founded by the Bree Hobbits Marcho and Blanco in the year 1601 of the Third Age . Therefore, years of the Third Age can be converted to Shire-years by subtracting 1600. The last year of the Third Age was year 1421 on the Shire calendar. MONTHS OF THE YEAR AND SPECIAL DAYS The Shire calendar's year was divided into 12 months of 30 days. Five additional days were added to create a 365-day year. The months followed the lunar cycle.
The ''Yuledays'' were the days that signify the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one, so 2 Yule was the first day of the year. The ''Lithedays'' are the three days in the middle of the year, 1 Lithe, Mid-year's Day, and 2 Lithe. In leap years (every fourth year except centennial years) a day was added after Mid-year's Day called ''Overlithe''. All these days were placed outside of any month. These days were primarily holidays and feast days. ''Mid-year's Day'' is meant to correspond to the Summer Solstice , which Tolkien describes as being 10 days earlier than the middle day of our year. However, since then the summer solstice has shifted slightly so it falls on a different date now, rendering the difference between ''Mid-year's Day'' and the middle day of our year eleven days, instead of ten. DAYS OF THE WEEK There were seven days in the Shire week. The first day of the week was called ''Sterday'' and the last day of the week was called ''Highday''. The Mid-year's Day and, when present, Overlithe had no weekday assignments. This arrangement was used because it caused every day to have the same weekday designation from year to year (instead of changing as in the Gregorian calendar).
Highday was a holiday with evening feasts. In '' The Hobbit '' and '' The Lord Of The Rings '', the names of months and days are given in modern equivalents. For instance, Afteryule is called ''January'' and Sterday is called ''Saturday''. |
|
|