My Equestrian Calendar

The Equestrian Calendar is one of the minor constant debate between fans of the show and there have been many versions proposed and used. Ranging for simply using the Gregorian Calendar, or an adaption of it with different names for the months. Or completely original ones based on small evidence of the show.

For example, MLP Forum user Broniesinarms, used an image from Lesson Zero of Twilight Sparkle look at a planner on some kind and determined the calendar to be made of 17 months made up of 24 days for each. Quite why 17 months I don’t know. However, it was later pointed out that the planner could easily be an hourly planner, since Twilight used to be, as still is at time extreme meticulous. So, that theory is up in the air.

A much more plausible calendar theory is I have devised from this image from, rather appropriately, It’s About Time. (Spoiler warnings.)

If the thing to the right of Twilight’s head is indeed a calendar, which appears to be case, as in the prologue to the episode Twilight show Spike the calendar while complain about she’s finished planning for the current month but forgot allocate time to plan for the months.

So, this calendar has a grid of five across and three down. This means that a month in Equestria only last 15 days, and a week is made up of 5 days.

The number of days in a week don’t need to be 7. We use a 7-day week primarily because of its Biblical connects. Although its origins are generally accepted as 7 is roughly the length on each lunar phrase, New Moon to the First Half-Moon, First Half-Moon to Full Moon, Full Moon to Last Half and then back to New Moon, so we have 4 full weeks of 7 in are months. Before the creation of the Julian Calendar, the forerunner of the Gregorian calendar the Romans used an 8-day week. And during the mess of the French Revolution the French Republican Calendar used a 10-day week, but Napoleon abolished it when he rose to power.

Future Twilight says she came back from next Tuesday morning, and we can assume the day she appears and the stuff up to and including Cerberus lasts the same day as we next see Spike awaking early in the next morning, and Twilight’s returns, then the events of leading to “Madame Pinkie” last the same, second, day.

We next see Twilight frantically trying to observe anything, when she hasn’t slept a wink, and judging by the colour of the sky when Pinkie comes to see her it could be, either early morning or evening the next day. The latter is more likely given both Pinkie and Twilight’s dialog.

Twilight says there are only three days left before next Tuesday, but with a sleep deprived and overworked brain, Twilight gets her time mixed up, so she assumes this is sometime on the third day so included it in her count, until Pinkie Pie drops that Tuesday is the very next day.

And then Twilight decides to stop time. And I myself am stuck between two Linkara running gags, so I’ll do both back to back.

Joking aside, this would seem to match the 5-day week, especially if Twilight did think the observations scene happened on the third day.

So, if a month in Equestria is made of three week of 5 days make 15 day per month in all, if we times 15 by 12 we get 180 days to a year.

However, we cannot automatically assume Equestria has 12 mouths like we do. For the moments, let’s assume they have a close number of days in the year as us humans, 15x24 equals 360 days. They could have five months with a 16th day, as we only see one month on the calendar Twilight used in It’s About Time.

So, a year of 24 small and months with a majority being 15 days in length, but occasionally 16 days as well, adding up to 365 days.

But, we also cannot automatically assume a year in Equestria is 365 days long. Because Celestia and Luna control the Sun and Moon, it has been generally accepted that Equus, or whatever name the planet is called by, is a variation geocentric model or Ptolemaic system, where the Sun and Moon orbit around the planet. Like the Discworld, but without any elephants having to cock their leg to let the sun pass.

And not the mentioned ponies help to control the seasons as seen in Winter Wrap Up, and Pegasi controlling the weather, anyone remember “Winter is Coming.”?

I myself subscribe to Silver Quill’s “One Year Theory”, where the time between Friendship is Magic and Princess Twilight Sparkle, took place over the cause of one single year. Originally evidenced by the Summer Sun Celebration, and then by a comment of Rainbow Dash’s in Tanks for the Memories, among others. At the time of writing, depending on what we might be seeing in season 7 we may or may not get further evidence.

So, to me at least, the events of seasons 1-3 took place over 1 single year. It seems highly unlikely that they could all happen in only 365 days.
Fans have said because of there being two separate winter episodes divided by seasons worth of episodes Winter Wrap Up in season 1 and Hearth’s Warming Eve in season 2 the “One Year Theory” cannot work. And the Summer Sun Celebration could easily be held in a similar way to the Olympics, only being held once every few years, but I personally don’t believe something that important to the culture of Equestria would be held as such, since it wouldn’t take so long to organise as an Olympic Games.

There are two way to get around the seasonal misplacements. First, and my preferred option, don’t assume the episode order as given in the show is the same as the order of the events in Equestria itself, if it did exist, Hearth’s Warming Eve would probably take place before Winter Wrap Up. And Heathbreakers and Scare Master as seasonally out of order as well, which leads more credence to this “Episodes Out of Order” theory.

The second option is weirder since it comes from the Discworld Series of books. While most people on the Discworld use the University Calendar, starting from the founding of the Unseen University, and consists of 400 days divide into 13 months, the longest 32 days and the shortest 16, it in fact only counts “Half-years” for the Discworld. A Discworld celestial year has 800 days and because of some interesting astronomical facts, the Disc itself turns on the backs of the World Elephants, has two of each season (two summers, two winters, etc.), which is the system used by the much older Ankh-Morpork Calendar.

It seems unlikely that Equestria has two of each season like the Discworld, but it is a possibility.

To sum up, I believe an Equestrian year is longer than an Earth year. But by how much? 24 months, twice are own and the number put forward by Broniesinarms, per Twilight’s calendar gives us only 360 days. 25 months gives us 375, not much extra time for all the events seen within three seasons worth of episodes, neither does 26 months equalling 390 months.

No, I believe an Equestrian year is over 400 days. Indeed, going by Broniesinarms numbering 24 days’ times 17 months comes out as 408 days.

And on a side note, I don’t believe leap year are a problem, since it was designs to get about the seasonal misplacing caused by the misalignment of the days in a year.

27 months of 15 days gives us 405 in total. 28 months equal to 420 days, 29 come out as 435, 30 months equal 450 days. 31 months equal 465 days, 100 hundred more days more than our year. 32 months give us 480. 33 totals 495. 34 months breaks the 500 mark with 510, and 35 total 525 days in an Equestrian year. This is as far as I will go.

I don’t think the number of days go beyond this, simply for the opposite reasons for not having 365, while 365 appears too short, the next number of days if we have 36 months per this system would be 540, and I personally think that too long.

My options are, 405, 420, 435, 450, 465, 480. 495, 510 and 525.

Part of my personal writing system is random selection. Using this website http://www.classtools.net/main_area/fruit_machine.swf I eventually narrow down my options. It can take time, but I am patient and thorough, it works for me. With 9 options, I run the randomiser 95 times, if it’s merely 2 I do it 25 times.

In the end, I choose a nice round 450 days in a year, meaning the calendar has a nice round 30 months.

So, to sum up my Equestrian Calendar has 450 days, 90 weeks divided into 30 months.

Now I am not going to name the days and the months. I imagine they would have Sunday and Monday as they take their names from the Sun and the Moon, and Twilight mentioned Tuesday, but I don’t know what to choose for the other two. And it would be virtually impossible to come up with 30 different names for the month, but this doesn’t seem to matter as the one seen on the calendar in It’s About Time does not appear to have a name, so I think months if any needed to be specified are referred to numerically like saying “Monday the 11th, Month 15, 1003 CR.”, CR meaning Celestia’s Reign, or perhaps “The third Monday of the 18th month.”

Celestia’s Reign lead me to one final note. When is the New Year in Equestria?

Here on Earth, January 1st is the New Year in the Gregorian Calendar and is the most accepted date around the world. However, there are and have been many different dates. The New Year of the Islamic Calendar varies from year to year due to its Luna Cycle nature. Chinese New Year falls somewhere between the 21st of both January and February. In ancient Babylon, the New Year began with the first New Moon after the March equinox. And in the American Wicca or Witchcraft tradition, Halloween or Samhain is the New Year for them, as the end of the harvest. And of course, the Winter Solstice has been celebrated in Northern Europe as ancient farmers become expected of the next harvest.

Going by the Northern European tradition of a midwinter festival to mark the beginning, just like Hogswatch in the Discworld Series one could easily put Hearth’s Warming Day as the New Year.

However, I personally feel the Summer Sun Celebration better fits the New Year for Equestria, since my dating system for the years is Celestia’s Reign, meaning from the point of Nightmare Moon’s defeat to now when Celestia has ruled a Monarch. Personally, I don’t think Luna is ruling on an equal basis to Celestia, I hold Celestia as Monarch of Equestria and Luna as her top advisor, aside from any possible Prime Minister, and the ruler of the Bat Ponies, but the Bat Ponies are for another time.

Now as a last note this is only my own theory and creation, I understand if it might be too complicated to gasp, I’ve had to keep notes on it. But this is dating system I will be using in my stories.

Comments

[Hereward]

I've been formulating some ideas of how the Equestrian calendar would work, but I then start wondering about how the other nations of their world would reckon time and I haven't tackled it for months since my spreadsheet software won't open on my desktop any more. What with the subsequent passage of time revisiting it would lead to a major backlog to tackle.