The Discordian or Erisian calendar is an alternative

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

used by some adherents of Discordianism. It is specified on page 00034 of the ''

Principia Discordia The ''Principia Discordia'' is the first published Discordianism, Discordian religious text. It was written by Greg Hill (Malaclypse the Younger) with Kerry Wendell Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) and others. The first edition was printed ...

''. The Discordian year 1 YOLD is 1166 BC. (Elsewhere in the ''Principia Discordia'', it is mentioned that the Curse of Greyface occurred in 1166 BC. As a reference, AD is YOLD, Year of Our Lady of Discord.) The abbreviation "YOLD" is not used in the ''Principia'', though the phrase "Year of Our Lady of Discord" is mentioned once.

Composition

As described in the ''Principia Discordia'', the Discordian calendar has five 73-day seasons: Chaos,

Discord Discord is an instant messaging and Voice over IP, VoIP social platform which allows communication through Voice over IP, voice calls, Videotelephony, video calls, text messaging, and digital media, media. Communication can be private or take ...

Confusion In psychology, confusion is the quality or emotional state of being bewildered or unclear. The term "acute mental confusion"

Bureaucracy Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...

, and The Aftermath. The Discordian year is aligned with the Gregorian calendar and begins on January 1, thus Chaos 1, YOLD is January 1, Gregorian. The Erisian week consists of five days: Sweetmorn, Boomtime, Pungenday, Prickle-Prickle, and Setting Orange. The days of the week are named after the five basic Discordian elements: Sweet, Boom, Pungent, Prickle, and Orange. There are 73 of these weeks per year and every year begins with Sweetmorn. Every fourth year in the Discordian calendar, starting in 2 YOLD, an extra day is inserted between Chaos 59 and Chaos 60 called St. Tib's Day. This is because 4 years + 1 day = 5, a holy number, but the Discordian

leap year A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) compared to a common year. The 366th day (or 13th month) is added to keep t ...

also coincides with the Gregorian one. The result of this is that any given day of the year in the Discordian calendar may be taken to correspond to the same day of the year in the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian cale ...

, and vice versa, although some users of the calendar believe that it is tied to the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

and so will diverge from the Gregorian in 3266 YOLD (AD 2100). St. Tib's Day is considered outside the Discordian week. There are Apostle Holydays on the 5th day of each season, named after the 5 Discordian apostles: Mungday, for Hung Mung; Mojoday, for Dr. Van Van Mojo; Syaday, for Sri Syadasti; Zaraday, for Zarathud; and Maladay, for Malaclypse the Elder. There are also Season Holydays on the 50th of each season: Chaoflux, Discoflux, Confuflux, Bureflux, and Afflux. Only these eleven dates are named in the ''Principia Discordia''; however, Discordians have felt free to invent other holidays which have become popular to varying degrees. Some of these include Discordians for Jesus/Love Your Neighbor Day (March 25/Discord 11); Jake Day (April 6/Discord 23 or occasionally May 23/Discord 70), a day to send tongue-in-cheek letters, emails or faxes to an official or bureaucracy; Saint

Camping Camping is a form of outdoor recreation or outdoor education involving overnight stays with a basic temporary shelter such as a tent. Camping can also include a recreational vehicle, sheltered cabins, a permanent tent, a shelter such as a Bivy bag ...

's Day (May 21/Discord 68), a day to make End of Days predictions and share them in social media; Eris Day (May 23/Discord 70), a day to gather and celebrate Goddess; Towel Day (May 25/Discord 72); Mid Year's Day (July 2/Confusion 37); X-Day (July 5/Confusion 40); and Multiversal Underwear Day (August 10/Bureaucracy 3).

Implementations

ddate is a program that prints the current date in the Discordian calendar. It was a part of the util-linux package containing basic system utilities. As such, it had been included at least since 1994 in nearly all

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

s. In August 2011 however, one of the maintainers of util-linux made ddate optional, and by default omitted. In October 2012, ddate was completely removed from util-linux. The ddate program now has an upstream source. There was some controversy, but in the end, anyone wishing to reintroduce ddate to a distribution will have to create a separate package based on the new upstream. This has been done for

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...

Fedora Linux Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. It was originally developed in 2003 as a continuation of the Red Hat Linux project. It contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to b ...

, and

Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux (pronounced ) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for ...

for example. There are many other programs with similar functionality, such as Hodge Podge, an Android widget. Discordian-calendar is an implementation using Java 8's date and time classes.

References

External links

'ddate' Linux man page @ die.net

Discordian Calendar described in the ''Principia Discorda''

Discordian Holydays in vCalendar/iCalendar format

Holydays from the Ek-sen-trik-kuh Discordia

Java sources for Discordian date calculation

* ttps://hyperdiscordia.church/dateconvert.html Online Gregorian-to-Erisian Date Converter
Online Thuddite-to-Discordian (and vice versa) calendar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Discordian Calendar Calendar eras

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

Specific calendars Discordian holidays