Happy New year! and something to ponder

POSTED BY: artcat81
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 3, 2012 17:57
VIEWED: 2627
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ARTCAT81

Friday, December 30, 2011 7:08 PM

So, since its an Anglo-Sino Alliance, and because the Firefly 'Verse are no longer on Earth that was, and years are measured by our planets march around the Sun... do they still measure time by Earth's standards? And if so, do they celebrate Chinese New Year (based on the Lunar calendar), or the Calendar New year?

Happy New Year to the Shiniest folks in the 'verse!

Browncoats are the shiniest folks in the 'verse
www.texasartcat.com/bluesun.html <--my bluesunshop

ECGORDON

Friday, December 30, 2011 7:36 PM

My guess is that the 'verse calendar would have been changed to reflect the orbit of one of the core planets, either Londinium, Sihnon, Osiris or Ariel, whichever of those is home to the most Alliance officials.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

ZZETTA13

Friday, December 30, 2011 8:00 PM

I would say that right now we’re on the Mayan calendar. Let’s see what happens

ZBP

ARTCAT81

Friday, December 30, 2011 10:56 PM

*ponders* but if they go this route, that effect show historical time is measured no? I'm sure the outer planets don't really care, but I am sure the central planets would be a bit more.. anal about things like that.

Browncoats are the shiniest folks in the 'verse
www.texasartcat.com/bluesun.html <--my bluesunshop

RIONAEIRE

Monday, January 2, 2012 9:08 PM

I think they would measure time by earth standards, otherwise how will they know how old they are etc.? I think they might go by the Chinese way of measuring New Year's though.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

IMNOTHERE

Monday, January 2, 2012 10:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
I think they would measure time by earth standards, otherwise how will they know how old they are etc.?

River, in "Out of Gas": "Day" is a vestigial mode of time measurement based on solar cycles. It's not applicable... I didn't get you anything.

...which seems to be compatible with your hypothesis.

I'd assume that each world would have its own time & date system based on local day lengths and seasons, but with "Earth-that-was time" used for formal/legal purposes.

CYBERSNARK

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 1:04 AM

Yeah, things like clock-time (based on sunrise/sunset), day (based on Earth's rotation), month (based on the phases of Earth's moon), and even year (based on mythologizing the cross-quarter festivals[*]) are meaningless as soon as you leave Earth. That's why the Federation uses a Stardate system (that and deciding between Earth-years, Vulcan-years, Andorian-years, Tellarite-years). It occurs to me that Jayne's date confusion in The Train Job might well have nothing to do with Jayne being Jayne.

(bit of trivia; although Luke and Leia were born at the same time, Luke is actually a couple of years older than Leia --Tatooine's "year" isn't the same as Alderaan's.)

People in the 'verse probably log years based on the current CE [Common Era] calendar, though it's likely the Alliance is trying to pimp their own calendar (Alliance Era [AE], Unified Calender [UC], etc), which is meeting with predictable results on the rim. Possibly they already have a non-CE calendar, based on the founding of the first colony as year-1.

The year is After-Colony 195. . .

(. . . Aaaand now I wanna see what a Mobile Suit would look like in the 'verse.)

(* Hell, the Cross-Quarters [Christmas, Easter, Midsummer's Eve, Halloween] themselves would be meaningless, since they only exist due to Earth's axial tilt. Though pretty much any habitable planet would likely need some axial tilt [if only to organize planting seasons], there's no reason to assume it'd synch up to Earth's particular rhythm. You might well end up celebrating "Christmas" at harvest-time, or "Halloween" in the dead of winter.)

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

IMNOTHERE

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 10:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cybersnark:
You might well end up celebrating "Christmas" at harvest-time, or "Halloween" in the dead of winter.)

The population of the Southern hemisphere of Earth seem to manage with Easter in the Autumn and Christmas in the summer.

Of course, in the Firefly verse, you have "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons" all of which will have their own daily and seasonal cycles.

The industrialized/city-based inner worlds will obviously need a universal "stardate" but in the absence of alien civilizations "Earth-that-was time" would be the obvious candidate, not favoring any world in the 'verse.

On the more agrarian (not to say backwards) worlds the local cycle is going to be the most significant, and they'll probably have their own holidays based on those. On the other hand, never underestimate the power of religion, so they might go to great effort to calculate the "correct" time for holidays (the issue of time dilation during the voyage out, and whether holidays should be celebrated "simultaneously" or based on earth's light cone, could cause schisms!)

Also look at the current situation: Easter based on tricky calculations of lunar time using biblical records, Christmas (probably) more to do with the church re-purposing winter solstice celebrations. I'm sure there are examples in other religions.

So I'd expect a hodge-podge of fixed- and movable- feasts depending on the orthodoxy of the local populace, not to mention some disagreement on what the correct "Earth time" was.

ARTCAT81

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 5:57 PM

Pretty much my thoughts, but fun to see others takes on it :)

Browncoats are the shiniest folks in the 'verse
www.texasartcat.com/bluesun.html <--my bluesunshop