Greyhawk calendar

The Greyhawk Calendar is the most common system for tracking the days and months of the Common Year in the Flanaess.

Months, festivals, and seasons

The year consists of 364 days, split into twelve months of twenty-eight days each, and four seven-day festivals, each placed at three-month intervals. Diverse cultures have their own names for the months and festivals. The months and festivals are commonly referred to as the Dozenmonth of Luna and the Four Festivals.

The months and festivals are based on the cycles of Oerth's moons, Luna and Celene. Luna has a twenty-eight day cycle, while Celene's cycle is ninety-one days. Celene is full at the midpoint of each festival week (the fourth day), while Luna is full at various times throughout the year. Notably, both moons are full on Richfest 4.

There are five seasons—two summer seasons, low summer and high summer, totaling six months, while winter, spring, and autumn are each only two months long.

Art by Jeff Easley World of Greyhawk boxed set (1983).

Month	Common	Elven	Nomads	Season
Needfest (Midwinter)
1	Fireseek	Diamondice	Tiger	Winter
2	Readying	Yellowillow	Bear	Spring
3	Coldeven	Snowflowers	Lion	Spring
Growfest
4	Planting	Blossoms	Frog	Low summer
5	Flocktime	Violets	Turtle	Low summer
6	Wealsun	Berrytime	Fox	Low summer
Richfest (Midsummer)
7	Reaping	Goldfields	Snake	High summer
8	Goodmonth	Sunflowers	Boar	High summer
9	Harvester	Fruitfall	Squirrel	High summer
Brewfest
10	Patchwall	Brightleaf	Hare	Autumn
11	Ready'reat	Tinklingice	Hawk	Autumn
12	Sunsebb	Lacysnows	Wolf	Winter

Days of the week

A week is sometimes called a sennight and periods of two weeks are commonly called a fortnight.

The names of the days of the week used in the Common Year calendar are adopted from the Flan calendar.

The days are reckoned in weeks of seven days each. In order, the days of the week are: Starday, Sunday, Moonday, Godsday, Waterday, Earthday, and Freeday. Godsday is commonly associated with worship, and Freeday with rest. The remaining days are considered workdays.

The Touv Calendar uses different names for the days of the week. They are "named for the major Touv gods or their areas of influence"—Uday, Sunday. Rainday, Lawday, Lifeday, Goldday. Kunday

An interesting feature of the Greyhawk calendar is that the days of the week always occur on the same calendar date every year, a result of the year having a number of days evenly divisible by seven.

The first of the month is always a Starday, and the rest follow as shown below:

• Starday is always on the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd of the month.
• Sunday is always on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd of the month.
• Moonday is always on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th of the month.
• Godsday is always on the 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th of the month.
• Waterday is always on the 5th, 12th, 19th, and 26th of the month.
• Earthday is always on the 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th of the month.
• Freeday is always on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of the month.

Publishing History

In the 1980 World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting folio by Gary Gygax the dozenmonth was said to have 360 days, because the festivals only had six days apiece, shortening the calendar.

However, the moon cycles don't add up to even cycles with 360 days. So, in December 1982, "Weather in the World of Greyhawk" was published in Dragon #68, and was immediately accepted into official lore. Gygax would later use this same premise, and make it official.

"In order to provide a pattern for Oerth’s two moons that is both regular and easy to use, the year has been extended by four days from the duration specified in the World of Greyhawk Gazetteer [Folio, 1980]. These four days are added, one apiece, to the four great festivals, making each celebration a full week in length. The total year of 364 days consists of twelve months, each having four seven-day weeks, plus an additional “month” made of the four festival weeks."

Only months later in 1983, while the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting boxed set was still in development, Gygax incorporated that material and revised the year to be 364 days, with all weeks (including festivals) being of equal length (7 days). It was published at the end of the year and 364 was the standard dozenmonth in all publications between 1983 and 2023 (including the 5e DMG [2014]).

In fifth edition, the Dungeon Master's Guide (2024) returns to some of the content as originally presented in the 1980 Folio edition, though it does not discuss the incompatibility with lunar cycles. The year is once again described as 360 days, with festivals of only six days. Additionally, the accompanying illustration of the dozenmonth has four seasons of equal length, rather than five of varying length—resulting in shorter summers, and longer winter, autumn, and spring. The seasons are thirteen weeks long—the 90 days surrounding each festival—i.e., six weeks (42 days) before and after each 6-day festival.

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The calendar of Greyhawk, from the DMG (2024), with four seasons instead of five.

		Spring
Readying				Coldeven				« Growfest »	Planting				Flocktime
		Summer
Flocktime				Wealsun				« Richfest »	Reaping				Goodmonth
		Autumn
Goodmonth				Harvester				« Brewfest »	Patchwall				Ready'reat
		Winter
Ready'reat				Sunsebb				« Needfest »	Fireseek				Readying

See also

Various Calendars

• Common Year
• Touv Calendar
• Suel Calendar
• Olven Calendar
• Baklunish Hegira
• Flan Tracking
• Olman Lunar Calendar
• Oeridian Record

Other Pages Related to Calendars

• Holidays
• World of Greyhawk Timeline
• Calendar Events

References

Bibliography

• Bulmahn, Jason, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona. Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007.
• Gygax, Gary. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
• Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K. Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.
• Moore, Roger E. The Adventure Begins. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1998.
• Sargent, Carl. Ivid the Undying. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1995. Published online. PDF by William Allman with maps. Original RTF archived: Wizards.com. WGR7 or WGRx

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Baklunish Hegira	Calendar		Living Greyhawk Gazetteer	13
Baklunish Hegira	Calendar		Living Greyhawk Journal #3	9
Baklunish Hegira	Calendar		Living Greyhawk Journal #5	20, 21
Baklunish Hegira	Calendar		Player's Guide to Greyhawk	14
Baklunish Hegira	Calendar		The Adventure Begins	39
Flan Tracking	Calendar		Living Greyhawk Gazetteer	13
Flan Tracking	Calendar		Player's Guide to Greyhawk	14
Flan Tracking	Calendar		The Adventure Begins	39
Grand Calendar	Calendar		The Scarlet Brotherhood	50
Oeridian Record {Reckoning}	Calendar		Living Greyhawk, Living Onnwal Gazetteer, D&D 3.5e	15
Oeridian Record {Reckoning}	Calendar		Living Greyhawk Gazetteer	13
Oeridian Record {Reckoning}	Calendar		Player's Guide to Greyhawk	13
Oeridian Record {Reckoning}	Calendar		The Adventure Begins	9, 55
Olman Lunar Calendar	Calendar		The Scarlet Brotherhood	64
Onnwal Calendar	Calendar		Living Greyhawk, Living Onnwal Gazetteer, D&D 3.5e	1