This calendar is a luni-solar one of twelve months alternately twenty-nine or thirty days with a period intercalculation of twenty-nine or thirty days. When the intercalcary month is used, it always falls after the sixth month, this is done on an irregular basis.
The month begins on the day when the moon first shows after being new. They divide it into decades, or periods of ten days. The last decade contained nine days in the "hollow" or twenty-nine day months. For the first two decades of each month, they count days forward in sequence, e.g., 1st day 1st decade, 2nd day 2nd decade, etc. They could also count the third decade, however, backward from the end of the month to the first day of the next. They use this backward count only when the month contains twenty-nine days. They always call the last day of any month "Old and New" because astronomically the moon is temporarily invisible while in conjunction with the sun.
The months are as follows:
| 1. Hectamobaeon | 30 days | 7. Gamelion | 30 days | |
| 2. Metageitnion | 29 days | 8. Anthesterion | 29 days | |
| 3. Boedromion | 30 days | 9. Elaphebolion | 30 days | |
| 4. Pyanepsion | 30 days | 10. Munychion | 29 days | |
| 5. Maeacterion | 30 days | 11. Thargelion | 30 days | |
| 6. Hermes | 29 days | 12. Scirophorion | 29 days |
The Tribunal traditionally calls the intercalcary month Bonisagus. The year begins at the summer solstice. They always hold the games on the eleventh through the fifteenth day after the New Moon following the summer solstice.
It is the third year of the 487th Olympiad in 1171-1172 C.E. They inscribe this as the third year of the 487th Olympiad, or 487 III.
The Byzantines follow Roman usage in dividing the full day (nyctheeron) into night (nyx) and day (hemera), each being further divided into twelve hours. Each new full day began at midnight and each day (hemera) at sumrise. There is a seven day week. The Hebrew tradition of seven days concluding with the Sabbath, adopted by Christianity is the norm, with each day possessing its own mystical and liturgical significance: Wednesday as the day Christ was betrayed and Friday as the day he was crcified are special fast days. The first day of the week, the day of resurrection (Mark 16:2), is known as the Lord's day (Kyriake) while the Sabbath (Sabbaton) is always held in respect. The Byzantines follow the strictly Christian tradition in naming the days Kyriake (Sunday), Deutera (lit. "Second day" Monday) Trite, Tetarte, Pempte, Paraskeve (lit. "Preparation," Friday) and Sabbaton (Saturday).
The month is based on the Roman system, the reconciliation of the cycle of lunar months with the 365-day solar year being achieved by having twelve fixed months of uneven length and by intercalatng one day to a given month every four years.
The Byzantines traditionally use the continuous reckonening system for days.
The Byzantines divide both night and day into twelve hours each; thus one refers to the "seventh hour of the night." Such hours inevitably vary in length according to both latitude and season. The "first hour" (prote hora) is at sunrise; the "third hour" (trite hora) midmorning; the "sixth hour" (hekate hora) noon; the "ninth hour" (henate hora) midafternoon. 'Hespera' (evening) is one hour before sunset and 'apo deipnon' the period after sunset. In addition to its division into hours, the night could also be divided in accordance with Roman custom into four 'vigiliae' or "watches." The hours being measured by a sundial (only during day of course) or a horologion such as a waterclock.
The unequal length of hours make their further partition into smaller components difficult and quite theoretical. For everyday life it is usual to refer to the "half hour" and "quarter hour." A period of time - a poit of moment - is defined as 'stigme.' For astronomical purposes, the day is divided into 24 equal hours but employs different systems of division. According to the system of Psellos, for example, 1 hour = 5 lepta; 1 lepton = 4 stigmai; 1 stigme = 12 rhopai.
Historical time is calculated in Byzantine from the creation and not from Christ's birth, as in the west. The number of elapsed years between the Creation and the Incarnation is usually calculated at 5508 years. Christ's Second Coming or Parousia signified the end of time (sometimes measured at 7,000 o 8,000 years from creation), so that the history of humanity is conceived as developing within a limited framework of time with both beginning and end.
At Constantinople and throughout most of the Byzantine world each new year begins of the first of September. This day traditionally signified the begining of the Indiction, the official administrative year, which became compulsory for legal purposes in 537 (Justinian I). Although the successive indiction cycles are themselves never numbered, each year within the cycle is, and the indiction has become the sual way for the Byzantines to distinguish recent and forthcoming years. The day of Easter is another recurring chronological yardstick; it requires the provision of paschal tables setting out successive years with each year's Easter date.
The calendar is a purely lunar one, that is, the year contains only 354 days. It does not take into consideration the solar revolution, so the calendar consisently moves back eleven days for each solar year. Periodically one day is added for a leap year, the leap day is added to the second, fifth, seventh, tenth, thirteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, twenty-first, twenty-fourth, twenty-sixth and twenty-ninth ears of a thirty year cycle.
The months of the Islamic calendar contain alternately twenty-nine or thirty days. The last month may have either number. The months standard to the Islamic world are:
| 1. Muharram | 30 days | 7. Rajab | 30 days | |
| 2. Safar | 29 days | 8. Sha'ban | 29 days | |
| 3. Rabi I | 30 days | 9. Ramadan | 30 days | |
| 4. Rabi II | 29 days | 10. Shawwal | 29 days | |
| 5. Jumada I | 30 days | 11. Dhu al-Qada | 30 days | |
| 6. Jumada II | 29 days | 12. Dhu al-Hijjah | 29 or 30 days |
The Islamic month begins when two responsible witnesses claim they see the first cresent of the new moon. They then go before the qadi (judge), who, if he decides they are correct, informs a mufti (interpreter of the laws). He, in turn, announces that the new month has begun.
The Islamic calendar uses a week of seven days, the names of which vary from place to place. The only day with a standard name is el Jumah, or the "day of gathering," which is on Friday, and is considered the first day of the week. Because Mohammed entered Medina at sunset, the Muslim day runs from sundown to sundown. Therefore the week begins at sundown Friday and runs through to the sundown of the following Friday.
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Last modified: Thurs Dec 10, 1998