From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Re:  More Nile calendar stuff
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
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Organization: University of North Texas
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Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 19:01:05 GMT

Ok, here's the information I found on the Egyptian calendar.

Ancient Egypt (and so one would assume the Nile Empire) actually used
two calendars, one of which was a business and government calendar and
the other was used by everyone else.

Both calendars had 365 days to a year, but the business calendar never
included an extra day for leap years.  As a result, the business
calendar was often out of synch with the popular calendar.  The
business calendar also differed in that it did not have names for the
months of the year.  

The popular calendar was made up of 12 months, each 30 days long.  The
extra five days (six in a leap year) were called the Epagomenal Days
and occured at the end of the year as a kind of five (or six) day New
Years celebration.

The ancient Egyptians had no concept similar to our weekends; instead,
they made up for it by having numerous festivals and holidays
throughout the year that people did not have to work during.  The book
I got my information from ("Mythic Egypt" by the friendly people who
bring us ICE and Rolemaster) only listed the major, kingdom-wide
holidays but mentioned that regional holidays were very common (they
suggest rolling a d6 every day and on a roll of 1 there is a regional
holiday.)  

The Egyptians had three seasons of four months each.  The first season
is Akhet (Inundation), then Pert (Growth), and finally Semut (Harvest)
which is then followed by the Epagomenal Days.

The months for each season are:

Akhet: Tot-abet, Paopi, Hator-abet, Khoiak (might be Kholak, couldn't
	tell for sure in my book)

Pert: Tobi, Mekhir, Phamenoth, Pharmuthi

Semut: Pakhon, Paoni, Epep-abet, Mesore

The major holidays are:

New Years Day (sacred to the gods Isis and Hapi, the day that Sirius
	rises just before the sun, marks the beginning of the annual
	flooding of the Nile basin): First of Tot-abet
Festival of Thoth: first full moon of Tot-abet
Festival of Wine: Second of Paopi
Obet (sacred to Amon-Ra): Fifteenth of Paopi through Fourteenth of
	Hator-abet
Festival of Bast: Fifth of Hator-abet
Festival of Hathor: first full moon of Hator-abet
Festival of the Djed Pillar (celebrates the resurrections of Osiris):
	Thirteenth of Khoiak
Planting Festival: First of Tobi
Festival of Horus (winter solstice, date Horus ascended to the throne
	of the gods): Sixth of Mekhir 
Festival of Min (harvest festival): Seventh of Pakhon 
Festival of Apep (kind of like Halloween): first new moon of Epep-abet
Epagomenal Days 
Birthday of the Pharaoh
Anniversary of the Pharaohs ascension to the throne (with the 30th
	anniversary of the Pharaohs ascension being a very major
	celebration)

The months begin on the following dates of the Core Earth calendar:

Tot-abet: July 20
Paopi: August 19
Hator-abet: September 18
Khoiak: October 18
Tobi: November 17
Mekhir: December 17
Phamenoth: January 16
Pharmuthi: February 15
Pakhon: March 17 (March 16 during leap years)
Paoni: April 16 (April 15 during leap years)
Epep-abet: May 16 (May 15 during leap years)
Mesore: June 15 (June 14 during leap years)
Epagomenal Days: July 15 - July19 (July 14 - July19 during leap years)

Kansas Jim (jogle@aoc.nrao.edu)
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg