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What is the Discordian calendar?

Wikipedia (and it should know – all hail the wikiwaki) says: The Discordian calendar is an alternative calendar used by some adherents of Discordianism. It is specified on page 00034 of the Principia Discordia.

The numbering of Discordian years is the same as that of Anno Domini years plus 1,166. (Elsewhere in the Principia Discordia, it is mentioned that the Curse of Greyface occurred in 1166 BCE, so this is presumably the start-date of the calendar.) As a reference, the year Anno Domini 2000 is 3166 YOLD.

The Discordian calendar has five seasons of 73 days each: Chaos, Discord, Confusion, Bureaucracy, and The Aftermath. The Discordian year is aligned with the Gregorian calendar and begins on January 1, thus Chaos 1, 3171 YOLD is January 1, 2005 Gregorian.

The Discordian week consists of five days: Sweetmorn, Boomtime, Pungenday, Prickle-Prickle, and Setting Orange. The days of the week are named after the five basic Discordian elements, Sweet, Boom, Pungent, Prickle, and Orange. There are 73 of these weeks per year.

Every fourth year on the Discordian calendar, starting in 2 YOLD, an extra day is inserted between Chaos 59 and Chaos 60 called St. Tib's Day. This is because 4 years + 1 day = 5, a holy number, but the Discordian leap year also coincides with the Gregorian one. The result of this is that any given day of the year in the Discordian calendar may be taken to correspond to the same day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, and vice versa (but see "St. Tib's Day dispute", below).

There are Apostle Holydays on the 5th day of each season, named after the 5 Discordian apostles: Mungday, for Hung Mung; Mojoday, for Dr Van Van Mojo; Syaday, for Sri Syadasti; Zaraday, for Zarathud; and Maladay, for Malaclypse the Elder. There are also Season Holydays on the 50th of each season: Chaoflux, Discoflux, Confuflux, Bureflux, and Afflux.

The given list of Apostle Holydays is not comprehensive and there may be many more, or many fewer. Discordians are practically forbidden from agreeing on which Apostles are apocryphal and which are canonical; this list is derived from the official Holydays given in the Principia Discordia and may be considered heretical by some Discordians.

St Tib's Day dispute

A schism has recently arisen within Discordianism over the St. Tib's Day rule. The Discordian Calendar, as described in the Principia Discordia, is unclear about whether the St. Tib's Day rule follows the Julian or Gregorian Calendar.

The rule as given is "occurs once every four years", which would imply that the Discordian Calendar is effectively aligned to the Julian calendar and that the year begins on December 19 Julian. In this interpretation, the Discordian and Gregorian calendars are only aligned for the two centuries between Chaos 60, 3066 YOLD (March 1, 1900 Gregorian) and Chaos 59, 3266 YOLD (February 28, 2100 Gregorian).

However, that page also claims to be a "Perpetual Date Converter from Gregorian to POEE Calendar", which implies that the Discordian and Gregorian calendars are perpetually aligned. In this interpretation, St. Tib's Day is skipped in years where the year ends in 66, unless the number of the century when divided by 4 leaves a remainder of 3 (e.g., since 31 = (7 * 4) + 3, 3166 was a leap year and 3566 will be a leap year, while 3266, 3366 and 3466 will not).

Discordian Date in Linux

ddate, a program that prints the current date in the Discordian calendar, is quietly included in most Linux distributions.

The Discordian year

The five seasons: Chaos, Discord, Confusion, Bureaucracy, and The Aftermath (as described in The Book of Uterus of the Honest Book of Truth which was revealed to Lord Omar).
The five weekdays: Sweetmorn, Boomtime, Pungenday, Prickle-Prickle & Setting Orange.
There are 73 days per season.
Holy days: There are 5 Seasonal Holy days, and 5 Apostle Holy days per year.
The Apostle Holy Days are named after the Discordian saints: Hung Mung, Dr Van Van Mojo, Sri Syadasti, Zarathud, and Malaclypse the Elder. These translate to: Mungday, Mojoday, Syaday, Zaraday and Maladay. Mungday occurs on the 5^th of Chaos, Mojoday on 5^th of Discord etc.
The Seasonal Holy days are named after the seasons: Chaoflux, Discoflux, Confuflux, Bureflux, and Afflux. They occur on the 50^th of their respective season.
St Tib’s Day occurs once every four years, and is intercalated between the 59^th and 60^th of Chaos.

The Five Apostles of Eris and Who They Be
 

A summary of the Discordian philosophy appears on page 00049 of the Principia Discordia. The following is a quote extracted from Principia Discordia (All Rites Reversed):

HERE FOLLOWS SOME PSYCHO-METAPHYSICS. If you are not hot for philosophy, best just to skip it. The Aneristic Principle is that of APPARENT ORDER; the Eristic Principle is that of APPARENT DISORDER. Both order and disorder are man made concepts and are artificial divisions of PURE CHAOS, which is a level deeper than is the level of distinction making. With our concept making apparatus called "mind" we look at reality through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled "reality" and unenlightened people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially other cultures, see "reality" differently. It is only the ideas-about-reality which differ. Real (capital-T True) reality is a level deeper than is the level of concept. We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn grids (concepts). Different philosophies use different grids. A culture is a group of people with rather similar grids. Through a window we view chaos, and relate it to the points on our grid, and thereby understand it. The ORDER is in the GRID. That is the Aneristic Principle. Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting one grid with another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a perfect one that will account for all reality and will, hence, (say unenlightened westerners) be True. This is illusory; it is what we Erisians call the ANERISTIC ILLUSION. Some grids can be more useful than others, some more beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others, etc., but none can be more True than any other. DISORDER is simply unrelated information viewed through some particular grid. But, like "relation", no-relation is a concept. Male, like female, is an idea about sex. To say that male-ness is "absence of female-ness", or vice versa, is a matter of definition and metaphysically arbitrary. The artificial concept of no-relation is the ERISTIC PRINCIPLE. The belief that "order is true" and disorder is false or somehow wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the ERISTIC ILLUSION. The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered. Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and disordered. Reality is the original Rorschach. Verily! So much for all that.

Source: Wikipedia

 

 

I got the Discordian calendar from here, scripted by this clever guy

 

 

 

 

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