Yafan calendar

The Yafan calendar is a set of calendar systems used originally by the but in modern times has gradually replaced the  for almost all purposes and activities within the nation of South Kesh after the enactment of apartheid and Yafan hegemony in 1986. The calendar mixes elements of, , , as well as in its count, providing for a lot of variation between dates.

The Yafan calendar system is unique in which it does not follow other calendar patterns and customs found in other Austronesian cultures and people groups. The Yafan calendar system was thought to have been invented long before the arrival of the Yafans in the area, in which the Yafans simply adopted the system after settling and possibly taking over the previous peoples that inhabited the region. The continuous maintenance and use of the Yafan calendar even when it was not the official calendar has resulted in overall good maintenance and time-keeping of the four separate cycles of the calendar, being synchronized with past days and dates throughout the existence of the calendar marked by rituals and events which occured only during specific days which match up modern scientific calculation and analysis.

All events and activities in the Yafan culture are heavily based on the calendar. The combination of the four cycles provide for unique combinations in which a date could be blessed, cursed, etc. depending on the alignment of the four calendar cycles. According to Yafan oral tradition, the goddess Suwarnakarni revealed the calendar system 9 great cycles ago to the Yafans in order to keep track of their society and livelihoods.

Overview
The Yafan calendar consists of four separate calendar cycles or étung of varying lengths and sizes. The four cycles determine the name of the day (Wayu), the date (Suryakreta), the week (Semar), and the theme of the year (Anekawarna). These four cycles comprise the complete Yafan date, and the four cycles work concurrently and are synchronized with one another. When the Wayu and the Suryakreta are combined, they form the Small Round. When the Small Round and the Semar are completed, they form the Middle Round, and when the Middle round and the Anekawarna complete one cycle, the Calendar Round has been completed.

The Wayu is a name given to the name of the days which are assigned to the Suryakreta in ascending order. The Wayu consists of two parts, namely being the count and the name of the day itself. There are 20 day names and 17 counts, providing for a total of 340 unique day names within the Wayu. The Wayu is one of the determining factor of when workdays or holidays occur, when to perform certain rituals and acts, and what to abstain from doing on particular days as well as determining the day of worship for several deities when combined with the Semar. The Wayu is used in combination with the Suryakreta a 365-day vague which was originally bestowed upon the Yafans to keep track of harvest and astronomical events. There are 13 months each consisting of 28 days, and one day at the end of the 13th month called the day of grave reflection which does not fall into any month and is generally celebrated by Yafans as the the solar year's end. Each of the 13 months with the exception of the 8th month is associated with a which in turn forms the core tenets of. Within the months themselves the 28 days do not have specific divisions. Weeks are determined by the Semar count. As there are 340 days in the Wayu and 365 days in the Suryakreta, the cycle completes itself once every 24,820 days or exactly 68 solar years. 68 solar years complete one small round.

Weeks in the Yafan calendar do not carry the same connotation as in the standard calendar. The week in the Yafan calendar speicifcally denotes greater importance towards one deity, and therefore perform rituals and acts towards that deity during one specific "week". Due to the nature of the Yafan day naming system, a week is never filled with the same days and dates in one middle round. Each week consists of 13 days which honor 14 deities, consisting of 292 days to complete the Semar. The day of grave reflection does not fall within any week, and is simply skipped in count.

A completion of the Suryakreta completes one solar year in the Yafan count. Each year has a specific theme according to the four elements and one of the twelve traits of the twelve constellations found in Yafan astrology. Influence from Imperial Zhou in the 15th centuries revamped the system in which a zodiac is now associated with not just its traits but also an animal which bears resemblance with the trait of the constellation in question, and is generally treated as a secondary naming convention and trait in the naming system. The modern suryakreta evolved to possess two separate qualities inherited from the constellations and from the animals associated with them. With four elements and twelve constellations, the suryakreta cycle completes itself once every 48 years.

Traditionally, there are two ways of denoting the day and date in the Yafan calendar. There exists the more formal and more codified long form which is generally used in government texts, documents, and papers as well as religious document and doctrine. The more informal and newer short form is preferred by most of the population, and is the notation used in schools, offices, and electronic devices, although schools mandate the teaching of the long form, and electronic devices have the capability of tracking long form dates.

Each cycle has its own special days or other days of significant importance. Usually, political or state events are recorded as special days in the solar calendar (Suryakencana), while religious holidays are often denoted in terms of the Semar (Week). Other cultural holidays use the Wayu as the base of determining when they happen. For example, the Wayu completion happens every 17 Wong, and the Wayu "new year" or "new cycle" happens every 1 Gunung. As a consequence of the overlapping lengths and measuring systems between the cycles, all holidays occur on different dates or days in the next cycle.

Wayu
The Wayu is the name of the system in which the Yafan calendar names its days. The Wayu is arguably the most imporant aspect of the complete Yafan date. In the Wayu, there are 20 day names combined with 17 counts, providing for 340 unique days which form the backbone of the Yafan calendar system. The count and the day together for the most part determine holidays and special occasions that repeat once every 340 days, and when combined with the other cycles determine the date for important rituals that happen once over a specified length of time. The Wayu is also one of the components which form the Yafan short form.

The days and the counts progress gradually and are independent of one another. The count progresses from 1, 2, and is maxed at 17. After that, the count simply returns to 1 and the process repeats itself. A similar phenomenon can also be observed in the day names, with the 20 day names having a strict order when it comes to in which order the day comes to. Due to the discrepancies between the maximum number of the count and the number of the days, no day is ever repated within one cycle.

Days
As previously mentioned, a wayu day consists of a count and a day name, both of which increase in incremental order and reset once the cycle for each is complete. These combinations are unique within a singular Wayu cycle, and has the adverse affect of denoting holidays and workdays depending on the Wayu and other counts. Because a Wayu cycle is shorter than the Suryakencana cycle, one solar year in the Yafan calendar will ultimately have two differing sets of themes depending on the Anekawarna (year) and the Semar (week). This means that the Yafan calendar does not know the notion of the traditional western 7-day week, instead being comprised of two intertwined cycles.

Below is an example to demonstrate the incremental nature of both the count and the day name as well as their correspondences in the western 7 week system.

Days in the Wayu are either inherently good, neutral, or bad, and are associated with a noun in the Yafan language which bears qualities of that day. The Wayu, when combined with the Semar and the Anekawarna, determine which days are a holiday and which days are workdays, making the calendar very inconsistent in which holidays and workdays are distributed over a year. Although the name implies that some days are inherently good, neutral, or bad, this is not necessarily the case as in western tradition, as some bad days are one of the most important days in Yafan tradition. Owing to the inherent bad nature of the day, some rituals can only be performed during such days. Performing one on good days will in fact have the reverse effect.

The day as well as the count is also important for several professions in determining their holidays, workdays, or other days of significant importance. Every profession or trade has their own special day within the Wayu in determining which days hold the best of luck to complete certain tasks, or certain days to avoid doing certain rituals or activities in order. This makes the Yafan calendar one of the most complex in determining holidays and workdays, as different professions will in turn have different holidays and work days, although there are instances where everyone is open for business (workday) or on vacation (holiday) which falls in some day names, or special combinations of the Anekawarna-Semar cycle.

As such, determining holidays in the Yafan calendar relies much more than just the day name itself or even the count. All three other cycles must be inspected and regarded completely beforehand in order to determine the aspects in determining holidays, such as the story or significance a day holds for a specific trade or profession, the zodiac and element of the year, the constellations as well as its characteristics within a solar month (in Suryakencana), and the week a specific set of days fall into.

The day of grave reflection is always a holiday regardless of the cycles associated with the day.

Count
The count is one of two parts that make up the Wayu. The count is a cycle of seventeen numbers aptly denoted by the numbers 1 until 17. When a count cycle has been completed, the cycle repats itelf and comes back to 1. The count is paired with days in incremental order. Due to the LCM of 17 and 20 (the number of named days) being 20 being the same as the product of the two numbers, no two combinations of the count and day name are ever repeated before the Wayu cycle is completed. The count holds less of a signficance when compared to the day names, although it plays a role in determining workdays and holidays as well as the administration of several rituals and special occasions. The count ensures that holidays and workdays are distributed evenly even when different cycles for the year and week are at play.

Differing from the days, the count has no inherent quality of being good or bad, nor does it have any characteristics associated with it.

Day names
The Wayu consists of twenty days and combined with the count maxed at 17 to provide 340 unique days. The twenty days are as following and in order of succession, accompanied by the classical Yafan name, noun, characteristic, and quality of the days.

As evident from the list, there are a total of 3 good days and 4 bad days with the rest of the days being neutral. The Yafan calendar specifically marks 1 Gunung as the first day of the Wayu, as well as 17 Wong as the final day.

Each of the days have a specific story or superstition behind the naming of the day as well as the traits and the inherent quality a day possesses. The sequence in which a day appears is also correlated with the sequence in which the specific noun appears in the oral traditions. These days and traits coupled with the nouns they represent are represented in the oral traditions of Yafa, codified and made into a book by the 16th century titled The Chronicles of Yafan Dates. As such, each day is also associated with natural or social events which take place in the real world depending on the trait and story of the day.


 * Gunung is the first day of the Wayu system, signifying a new peak and life for the Yafans after nineteen days of work, rest, rituals, and activities. In most cases, Gunung is a holiday, and depending on the other cycles could be a good day for worship, rest, or even work. Legend has it that Gunung Wiro in the north of the country moved itself to be closer to the Yafans in order to protect them from the invading western tribes, and therefore provided refuge for the Yafans until the situation was calm, giving the day strength and obedient qualities as the Yafans have experienced on that day. However, due to it moving hundreds of kilometers away, it cause massive destruction and holes in the ground in what is now known as the Banyuasin river, giving it the quality of stubborness and an ill-tempered day.
 * Padhang is the second day of the Wayu system, as well as the first out of three good days. Padhang is generally noted to be a day of good luck and wisdom, as Padhang represents the light cast upon the Yafans after finding peace by seeking refuge behind Gunung Wiro. Padhang is usually a work day in various cycles. Padhang is also noted to be one of the days best suited to begin the school year or academic year since according to legend, the calendar was revealed to the Yafans on a Padhang. Writing, poetry, and other skills were taught onto the Yafans by the deities only on Padhang day. As such, Padhang is considered a good day by the Yafans.
 * Rusa is the third day in the Wayu system. Rusa signifies the growth of the Yafan civilization from semi-agricultural peoples to a fully agricultural one by the domestication of the . Rusa signifies growth and the the traits responsible for the success of the entire civilization's growth. According to oral tradition, the humility of the deer was what brought the Yafans to prosper, it being a lazy animal and its only purpose to be in servitude towards the human populace tending the animals. Rusa is generally a day of work, and for farmers, Rusa is considered a good day.
 * Rumah is the fourth day of the Wayu day naming system. Rumah, which is house in the Yafan language, symbolizes the strong foundations of the Yafan society after acquiring peace, tranquility, and a bountiful stock of food and nourishment for the generations to come. Rumah is often correlated with togetherness in construction and work as the foundation of a utopian society, hence why Rumah is always a work day regardless of calendar cycle or occurences. Although so, the growth of society as a whole produced a great deal of inequality within the populace, and marks inequality and materialistic tendencies. In Yafan oral tradition, the first great Yafan cities and towns were always proclaimed on Rumah.
 * Uler is the fifth day of the Wayu system and the first out of four bad days. Uler, which translates to as snake, takes its roots from the invasion of the Yafans after a period of stable peace and tranquility, in which the enemies used snake-like allegory and motifs in order to promote their fierceness and scare the Yafans. Due to this fact, Uler is often associated with its bad characteristics, namely being malicious and in a temper. In more modern times, Uler has gained equally positive characteristics taken from the Yafan soldiers defending against the enemy with persistent and responsive behavior observed in them. Uler is an important day for soldiers and other army related activities.
 * Kuping is the sixth day of the Wayu naming system. The name "Kuping" refers to the defense systems employed by the Yafans across their realms in order to prevent another disastrous invasion, hence being the "ears" of the Yafan people. Kuping is now often synonymous with the discplined nature of the Yafans in maintaining their place in Southern Kesh, and is an important day for the army and servicemen. While Kuping is generally regarded as a holiday for most people in respect for the defense mechanisms constructed and to showcase to the region that the Yafan defense systems are very enhanced the population can safely have holidays in peace. Kuping, however, is still not a holiday for servicemen, and is the second most important day in behind Uler.
 * Alas is the seventh day of the Wayu system, and the second out of four bad days. Alas, which means forest, has the shortest interval between bad days, with only one day in between. Alas symbolizes the humiliating defeat of the Yafans in the forest against invading armies as the Yafans did not fortify or have any defense mechanisms within the forests. The Yafans suffered losses, according to oral tradition, but was kept at reasonable levels due to the togetherness and the good coordination of the troops under Patih Juwanasraya. Alas, for all Yafans, is a day of reflection and self-contemplation. In most of the cycles, Alas still constitutes as a work day. Alas marks the end of the three "militaristic days" of the Wayu.
 * Gajah is the eighth day in the Wayu system, and marks the first day known as the "mid-Wayu ascension" in Yafan tradition. Gajah symbolizes the elephant, a majestic creature which the Yafans used to demonstrate their power and wealth to the outside kingdoms. During this period, the Yafan peoples are entering their golden age due to just kings and courts as well as the increasing volume of trade. Gajah is not a holiday in most cycles, and is considered a good day for courts and other legal afoundations.
 * Srêng is the ninth day of the Wayu system, and is the second out of three good days. Srêng symbolizes the sun, the giver and source of livelihood for most Yafans, and is named so for its golden color which marks the beginning of the Yafan golden age. Srêng days are always a work day in commemoration for the deeds of the ancestors which made it possible for the Yafans to reach a golden age at all, and is considered the best day to open businesses or to start earning money.
 * Wêtêng is the tenth day within the Wayu system. Wêtêng literally translates to stomach, symbolizing the condition in which the Yafans lived during the golden age of the kingdoms, plentiful with various kinds of meat, plants, and grain, supplemented by a healthy stream of spice brought in from elsewhere. Due to this fact, Wêtêng is considered a good day for merchants and traders alike, and is one of many important days for farmers. In some cycles, Wêtêng marks the end of a 30 day fast for monks, and is celebrated by the whole populace and treated as a holiday.
 * Manuk is the eleventh day in the Wayu day name system, and literally means bird. The bird referenced in the Wayu is an analogy towards ancient Yafan inscriptions and ornaments which utilize a diverse set of birds to mark official and binding documents or other forms of legislation. The Manuk also corresponds to the Yafan state, which is insightful in all its dealing, and due to this fact the day is now characterized by the characterstics of the Yafan government. Manuk is a good day for government employees, and is still considered a working day by many, however, conventions still exist to determine which days fall as a working day or not.
 * Lawang is the twelfth day in the Wayu day system, and its meaning is door. The general symbolization of the Lawang is that the door (which is the literal translation of Lawang) is the gateway to the peak of the golden times, although more literally some scholars and Yafan culture experts argue that the Lawang here symbolizes the grand gates of Hatan, an ancient city prescribed as the capital of the ancient kingdom. Lawang is thought of to be one of the least significant days in the Wayu, and its status as a workday or vice versa entirely depend on other counts or cycles.
 * Tembang is the thirteenth day in the Wayu day system, and is the final of three good days. Tembang is the most noble day in the Wayu, and is almost always a holiday. Tembang, which literally translates to song, refers to the songs of praise chanted throughout the kingdom by the populace by living in great conditions and standards. However, Tembang also marks the end of the golden age, and marks the end of the "ascencion" period started with Gajah five days earlier. Tembang is considered the most important day for bards, minstrels, and other mucisians, who often do not take the day as a holiday. Because of that, Tembang is often associated with feelings of charisma and humor laden from the ancient populace living in the golden ages.
 * Asu is the fourteenth day in the Wayu system, and marks the beginning of the "great downfall." Asu narrates the story of prosperty in the kingdom led to cracks being exposed on a massive scale, singalling distrust and a motion of no confidence in the government by the people. With the population ever richer, many, both government officials and ordinary citizens alike, became lazy. While Asu literally translates to dog, many scholars agree that the name for this day captures the essence of those who let the golden age slip and refers them as dogs, or undesirables in modern language. Although so, Asu is not a bad day, and is considered to be a workday in most cycles.
 * Geni is the fifteenth day in the Wayu system, and is the third day of four bad days in total. Geni is thought to symbolize the great fires of ancient Yafa, which completely destroyed the civilization and is one of the defining moments in ancient Yafan history, and plays a central theme and role in most Yafan epics and narrations. Geni is considered a bad day for many as it burns in the memory of most Yafans of how easy what one has constructed could be ruined due to negligence of one's duty and watch. For that, Geni is never a holiday, and is regarded by many Yafans to be one of the unluckiest days in the Wayu.
 * Wulan is the sixteenth day in the Wayu. Wulan, which translates to moon, represents the comfort the Yafans recieve when viewing the moon. Oral tradition records that after the great fire of ancient Yafa, the sun had become a scary object for most Yafans as it contained many properties of the fire that destroyed their civilization. Wulan is either a workday or a holiday depending on other cycles, and for the most part is one of the lesser days in terms of overall significance.
 * Udan is the seventeenth day within the Wayu system. Udan is considered by many to be one of the better neutral days, as according to oral tradition and several Yafan scholars, during Udan, many important historical events occured. Udan, which translates to rain, is the bringer of fortune and good will for the populace of Yafa after a series of disasters which ruined most of their livelihoods. Other important good-fortune events also occured in Udan, for example the introduction of King Bahanawana's new currency system was allegedly introduced and promulgated on an Udan. The general consensus among Yafan historians is that Udan is either a workday or holiday depending on profession, although cycles help determine which professions get which.
 * Cincin is the eighteenth day within the Wayu system, and marks the beginning of the final days of the Yafan people before the great flood event. Cincin translates to as ring, symbolizing the newfound wealth of the Yafans after the fire, in which husbands would often prize their wives with rings of various sizes and materials as a symbol of their wealth and fidelity, now signifying and being associated with faithfulness. Cincin is regarded by most Yafan scholars to be one of the best days to get married, and when coupled with the correct cycles and events may be one of the best days to give birth or to purchase communal property such as houses, cars, land, etc.
 * Banjir is the nineteenth day within the Wayu system, and is the final day of the four bad days. Banjir is a big day in Yafan epics as it marks the separation between canonical history and recorded history. Banjir, which translates to flood, is believed to be a massive flood which wiped out most of the Yafan civilization, with only the most intelligent and ardent people surviving, having to repopulate the region again. Due to the flood's nature, the day has been characterized by extreme and uncaring, and is believed to be one of the most dangerous days to perform any work, which is why Banjir is almost always a holiday. Banjir also marks the end of the downfall period.
 * Wong is the twentieth and final day of the Wayu system. Wong is the most significant day of the Yafan calendar in terms of historical setting and narration, as the period in which Wong symbolizes and represents is still occuring and happening to this day. Wong, which literally translates to person or human, is a representation of the Yafans after the great flood and who sought to seek better life by reconstructing and rebuilding to what is now the modern Yafan society and life. Wong is an important day for education, and is considered a workday for students and professors alike.

Significant dates
The Wayu contains several important dates and occasions mainly regarding to culture or tradition. These days are solely based on the Wayu, and always fall on different dates in other cycles. Some days in the Wayu are only celebrated by a specific group of people in accordance to one's own profession or trade. Other days only occur when not only the Wayu day is satisfied, but other criteria too such as falling on a specific month in the Suryakencana or falling on a specific week in the Semar. The biggest occasions in the calendar usually have all four cycles fulfilling a certain criteria.

Below are a list of some important dates in the Wayu calendar as well as their observance by the general Yafan populace which happen every Wayu cycle.

The representation of the holidays displayed in the chart above is merely a generalization except for some codified holiday days, where a check mark on the holiday column generally denotes that that specific day is a holiday by default unless other cycles prohibit that day from becoming a holiday, and the same could be said for vice versa. General observance is also merely a generalization, as some professions or people groups choose not to celebrate certain days accorrding to other cycles.

Several days which require other conditions to be met are usually a cause for celebration. Below is a list of some holidays which require the alignment of several cycles to be fulfilled:

Characteristics
Each Wayu day is assigned a specific set of characteristics derived from the oral traditions and other interpretation of the Yafan epics done by scholars both ancient and modern alike as well as extensive research on the connotations and relations a set of characteristics has with the origin story for the names of each day. It shall be noted that the Wayu day themselves do not carry these traits, but are only merely associated with them. The day itself can not possess earthly characteristics, but only inherent quality ranging from good to bad which have been derived from the creation myth of the day names. The characteristics associated with a day are then passed on to whichever the Yafans deem are inherently associated with that day.

All objects borne or created on a specific Wayu day is believed to have inherited some or all of the characteristics of that Wayu day. This is one example in which the Yafans believe a day and its associated characteristics can influence and give both inanimate and animate objects traits before the development of the conscious sets of skills and personality for animate objects, or any history or events surrounding any inanimate objects which resemble the characters or traits bestowed unto them. The overall tendency of the Yafans to strongly believe the associated tratis and characteristics based on Wayu days are still rooted deep in Yafan society, with careful planning of virtually all activities which have any connection to the Wayu done on a daily basis.

It is possible to rid both inanimate and animate objects from the adverse effects a Wayu day is associated with. Different rituals or activities are done depending on which characteristics are being removed and which characteristics are associated with which Wayu day.