Loa Luni-Ecdysial Calendar

The Loa Luni-Ecdysial calendar, called the Marataka Hiraka in Insuo Loa or Silk Calendar, is the calendar in use in Takatta Loa with several overseas Loa communities using this calendar in an unofficial capacity. It is a dual system calendar, with one half of the calendar being a lunar calendar and the other being an ecdysial calendar, that is one centered around a 365 day year and the life cycles of the Loa Silk Moth.

History

The Polynesians have since time immemorial revered the moon, viewing it as a source or power or mana. The Loa would come to see it as the arbiter of divine and natural law. As such, lunar calendars are well attested since at least 600 CE, with archaeological sites unearthing several pictographic representations that resemble lunar calendars of later literate periods. Around 1617, it was estimated an eclipse would occur on roughly November Eighth, 1645. This was in the 12th year of the reign of King Meajungasai IV, who ruled over the Ahoso Basin during this time. He commissioned a team of philosophers and mathematicians to design a calendar that would incorporate both this upcoming eclipse and the traditional lunar calendar currently in use. The team spent nearly 30 years designing the calendar based on theological positions and a desire to create a mathematically precise calendar. They drew on sacred numerology to date the dawn of humanity to roughly 1.23 million years ago, and to determine year length they measured the rotation of the fixed stars. Arriving at 365.25 days as being the length of a year, adding a leap week every sixty years, they broke the year up into the roughly 70 day long intervals with a 15 day week at the end of the year. These divisions were based on the growth cycle of tropical Loa silk moths, which live for roughly 70 days. As both the most lucrative crop for the Polynesians and especially the kingdom due to their rare and exotic golden hued silk, the silk moth had a sacred and economic role in Polynesian society. They were warned though that should the eclipse fail to arrive, they would all be executed.

On November Seventh, the designers of the calendar approached the king with their creation, called the Silk Calendar. The next day, when the eclipse happened as it was supposed to on its 800 year schedule, the king declared the calendar to be official in the kingdom, and set about having steles detailing its function and structure constructed and erected across the kingdom. Three of these steles survive in partial condition and one remains intact but unfinished, with the king's seal missing. These are housed in the Ólájá Aría Museum in the hills outside Ninao, converted from the Monsoon Palace of the Loa Empire. The calendar saw limited use during these times, being used for the reigns of three kings. In 1712, the Loa and their coalition of mercenaries, dissatisfied tribal subjects and enemy states went to war against the Septerine Alliance that ruled Southern Vallos as an unsteady alliance of privateering and slaving kings, including the kingdom that commissioned the Silk Calendar. The Loa adopted many aspects of their conquered peoples that they found appealing, but Káámarakatu (Empress) Raiatia'atiauelao was so enraptured by the calendar that she mandated its use across the Empire. It has endured to this day, being the official calendar of Takatta Loa to this day.

Structure

Outline of the Silk Calendar

The calendar is divided into two parts, the lunar calendar and the ecdysial calendar. The lunar calendar follows a standard format, with there being 12 lunar months with intervals of 29 and thirty days, with even numbered months having 30 days. There are also 12 lunar holidays, one of which is the Lunar New Year's, which all fall on the full moon of the cycle, marking the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next.

The ecdysial calendar is far more complex. It is divided into 365 days of the year, with the year beginning on the 23rd of November after the fifteen day long new year's week. This is based around the eclipse that occurs at exactly 16:15 in the afternoon of the Ahoso Basin every 800 years on November Eighth. The months are 70 days long, adding up to 350 with the fifteen day long week being added. There are also measurements of years, which measure how many years since the last eclipse has occurred. A single eclipse cycle is called a solar cycle with there being 24 solar cycles in a solar year, or 19,800 ecdysial years. These have little use and are used for formal and religious reasons as well as for keeping track of very large dates. It is believed there have been 96 solar years since the creation of mankind, or 1,843,587 years.

These are rendered in full as the amount of solar years followed by solar cycles in the current year, both in small notation. Then the ecdysial years in the cycle, followed by years since the last eclipse, the month and day, then the corresponding lunar date. In practice, the Loa omit most of these, using only the years since the eclipse and all following information. In full the date of September 29th, 2030 (date of Peace Day, celebrating the end of the Takatta Loa Civil War) is rendered as ⁹⁶^¹²9985/385/5/30/8/18, but is typically rendered as 385/5/30/8/18.

Culture

The Silk Calendar has a significant place in Loa culture, combining aspects of lunar worship and ecdysial theology. Although the native Polynesians did not ascribe as significant of a focus to the former two as the Loa do, they still held some respect for the concepts. With the adoption of the calendar and the establishment of the Kapuhenasa and its theology, it has come to be seen of in modern religious circles as an almost prophetic vision of a Loa future, being tailor made for their culture and religion. Certain theories suggest that the Loa adapted their culture in response to the calendar, but this is rejected by both mainstream religious figures and by other historians who note the Loa's entomantic rites long before their conquest of the mainland.

There lie beliefs that the alignment of certain days of the lunar calendar, such as new moons and full moons, with certain days of the ecdysial calendar produce days of bad luck. If a new moon falls on the first day of any ecdysial month, it is considered bad luck, and the inverse is true for full moons. As such, Loa often seek good luck charms in advance for these days, or even perform divination to determine how bad their luck will be on the associated day. Conversely, for full moon days there are often important events arranged on these days, such as the groundbreaking for a new building, the naming of children and opening of businesses. Women will even try to not give birth if a lucky day is very close by, though this practice is condemned by medical professionals as dangerous and unnecessary.

A common hobby in Takatta Loa is the construction of silken calendars, in a play on the name. Generally, these calendars are made from indigenous Loa silk with no dye to preserve the natural golden hue of the silk. Instead, dyed red silk threads are embroidered onto circular cuts of silk in a stylized representation of the Silk Calendar's structure. They also often include schedules and important dates of the family, such as the days that they visit a forest preserve, the days they clean ancestral bones, the days they go to visit family other parts of the country, etc. These home calendars are a traditional aspect of Loa handicraft and have become very popular in recent years as a craft trend, with PagéPage reporting significant increases in the sales of custom-made calendars, bolts of silk and embroidery supplies.

Holidays

There are approximately 18 holidays associated with the luni-ecdysial calendar, 12 of these being lunar holidays. The other six are ecdysial holidays, with two of them being secular and four being religious. The Islamic lunar calendar does not correspond with the lunar aspect of the calendar and so Loa Muslims follow both the Islamic calendar and the Silk Calendar.

Lunar Holidays

There are twelve lunar holidays celebrating the full moon, which also marks the end and beginning of the month. These are considered auspicious days, and the extended family gathers for a traditional dinner consisting of sweet rice soup and candied taro. These holidays are also associated with significant religious celebrations, with temples holding all night sermons and scripture readings and entomantic adyta hosting mass blessings for villages and crowds. These events are also often festivals, with many people dressing in fancy and traditional clothes and hosting ceremonial dances. The one exception is the month or months that correspond to the Loa New Year's, which is considered its own, far larger holiday. The reasoning for these events is that the moon is at its full majesty and power, and so religious rites have an added significance due to the fact that the will of the moon and the divine law is most easily accessible by mortal beings. As such, the Loa often take the opportunity to celebrate their faith to pay respects to the moon and its divinity.

The Lunar New Year's is a similar holiday, but is far more associated with silk moths then with the moon. It is the full moon that is closest to June, when the traditional start of the silkworm season. This consists of harvests of mulberry leaves by families who then deliver them to sericulture farms. The farms then traditionally reward the family with two bolts of silk, which are then delivered to a temple, with one being exchanged for a blessing. However, in modern times this has become impractical, and so sericulture farms instead mark a family's name down and ask the temple to perform a blessing for the family when they deliver silk to the temples. Additionally, businesses offer sales on various silk and mulberry related products. The sericulture farms tend to offer a discount on bolts of silk, which are used to make small handicrafts or are woven into existing garments to add a golden silk sheen, and bakeries offer mulberry pastries. Families also gather to eat a dish of rice and fish, steamed in mulberry leaves.

Ecdysial New Year's

The ecdysial new year's is a far larger holiday, taking place over a 15 day long week. It consists of a series of rites, festivals and household gatherings specifically timed out over the week. The holiday is officially announced at midnight on what is the eighth of November in the Gregorian Calendar by the temples sounding out on metal conch horns 15 times. This continues for each night, with the soundings decreasing as the days wear on. CONTINUE LATER, DON'T HAVE MENTAL ENERGY TO ADEQUATELY FINISH THIS

Aiasin-sekkin

taking place on January 12th of the Gregorian Calendar, Aiasin-sekkin is known as the grave tending holiday and is the day that the Loa clean the bones of their ancestors. Aiasin-sekkin has roots in ancient Polynesian customs, with many references found of how they performed jungle burials by allowing the jungle fauna to clean the bones of the deceased before collecting them and keeping them in jars. Today, most Loa do not perform jungle burials except in the case of rural groups where it is both possible and less of a public health hazard. Instead, the Loa have medical professionals deflesh the body and then have it cleaned by dermestid beetles. In the end, the result is the same. Every year on the holiday, Loa return to ancestral tombs in order to take the bones out of their jars and perform a ritual cleaning. This cleaning is unnecessary as far as actuall cleaning is needed and largely consists of anointing the bones with fragrant oil applied to a golden silk cloth. This rite is only performed by adults, while the elderly watch over children. At dusk, the family has a meal in the tomb with the jars and reminisce on the lives that have since passed.

Although most Isi Loa can perform this with ease, many mainland Loa only perform this ritual for the generations of their family dating to the 1920s or 30s due to the incredible cultural destruction caused by the Loafication period and the resulting civil war. As such, there are tens of thousands of 'abandoned' tombs. The Ministry of Rites has enacted two programs since the late 1980s and 2010s aimed to address this. One consists of having civil servants and volunteers go to tombs to perform rites for the dead there, though this is limited by the number of government workers and volunteers and as such not every tomb can be attended to. Tombs receive attendance on a rotating basis. The second program aims to perform genealogical testing to determine the descendants of the dead in abandoned tombs. Since 2014 when this was implemented, 231 tombs have been 'adopted' by families who have moved their recent ancestors into the tombs and now attend the once forgotten dead.

Huehuekaso-sekkin

Holiday celebrating the birth of the Kiravian mystic.

Akaru'a-sekkin

Holiday celebrating scripture, the boring holiday

=Toua-sekkin

Holiday celebrating the birth of the Second Incarnate