tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 17 05:09:50 1995
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re: calendars
On Tue, 16 May 1995, Anthony Curran wrote:
> If we're going to translate the days of the week for a seven-day
> calendar, we might as well just translate them literally, with no
> reference to what they really be call in the Klingon Empire.
> There is absolutely no reason to think that the Klingon calendar
> even has a seven-day week, since the only reason we have one is
> that there are seven "planets" visible by the naked eye from
> Earth.
It's a lot more complex than that. More ancient civilizations actually
had seven *real* planets in addition to the orbs of day (sun) and night
(moon). This is since Mercury and Venus accounted for 4 of the 7. (e.g.
the greeks called morning Mercury=Apollon; evening Mercury='Ermes;
morning Venus=Phosphoros; evening Venus=`Esperos...); and moreover the 7
day week is more a "settling" into a pattern that worked in our ancient
civilizations.... six days of work in the fields, one day to rest.
I imagine the Klingons would have a 3- or 9- day week anyway if they
indeed have a fascination with things three.... So indeed, "Klingon
calendar" is a misnomer.... It's just a Terran Calendar with Klingon
Subtitles.... (I'm still going to make one out with pIqaD anyway.)