Kelna Lufku (Lufkan Calendar)

The Lufkan calendar is based on cycles of lunar months, the lunta. These lunta are arranged in sequences of five each, known as zarsa. There are different names for the zarsa corresponding to the number of days in each of the five lunta:

The zarsa are in turn arranged in groups of five, the zamsa. The astrological calendar is made up of ten zamsa, though the final zamsa is always incomplete:

Each zamsa is know by the name of its first zarsa. For instance, the calendar begins with Zamsa Bonvu, the Period of the Cow.

The ten zamsa are traditionally viewed as two groups of five, known as tarsa. These also take the names of their first zamsa or zarsa; the two are respectively the Time of the Cow and the Time of the Fish. Indeed bonva and apova, as zarsa, dominate these two Times.

These two tarsa of five zamsa of five zarsa each, missing the final zarsa, make up a great lunar cycle, the kirsa. This kirsa is repeated indefinitely. The 245 months in a kirsa cover 7235 days, about twenty years. (Each tarsa is thus about a decade.) The most recent kirsa began on 3 Dec 1994.

Dates are written by giving the day of the month, the zarsa, and the zamsa. For example, 1 Jan 2000 in the Lufkan calendar is 25 Azata 3 Sacpa 3, the 25th day of the 3rd month in Azata being the 3rd zarsa in Sacpa.

Solar Calendar

The months of this lunar calendar are also named by their place in the Lufkan solar calendar. This is a simple calendar, with no months of its own, used to celebrate the start of the new solar year. This occurs around the time of the vernal equinox. The Lufkan year 6069 began on 20 Sep 1994.

Each standard year in the calendar has 365 days. However, years divisible by 5 are leap years and are given an extra day. For example, 6070 has 366 days. Years divisible by 25 also receive an extra day, so 6075 has 367 days, one extra because it is divisible by 5 and one extra because it is divisible by 25. Similarly, a day is added to years divisible by 625 and to years divisible by 3125. Thus the year 5625 had 368 days and the year 6250 will have 369 days. This leap year pattern repeats every 3125 years, with a total of 1141381 days in each cycle. The average year is thus 365.24192 days.

The lunta in which the new year occurs is called Lunta Kunsu, the Moon of Beginning. Subsequent lunta are named in the following order through the year until the next Kunsa:

Note that the number of days in each solar month will vary from year to year, since that aspect is controlled by the lunar cycles. The thirteenth month, Lunta Soltu, will not occur in all years.

As an example, 1 Jan 2000 with the solar names is 25 Pivta 6074. Such dates are used for civil and historical purposes but are implicitly based on the lunar calendar. The Lufkan will often write 25 Pivta Azatu 6074, including the name of the ruling zarsa for that month.