circular calendar by the seasons

This looks really useful calendar/mandala celebrating natural cycles
There are calendars available for both northern and southern hemispheres
Here is a quote from this site about the calendar's originator

Robert Alcock is an ecological designer based in northern Spain, where he lives with his partner and two daughters in a small village overlooking a tidal estuary. When not designing calendars he's working on a book about the experience of building a cob house.

download for free from this site http://www.abrazohouse.org/project/design/calendar/
My attached image below is small but you can print a much larger size.

Judith, this post sent me on a treasure hunt (unsuccessful) for a book with a set of circular calendars describing different southwest native peoples' lives. For each tribe it gave their name for the moon, foods in season, celebrations and ceremonies, etc. I think it is in one of Stephen Trimble's books, all packed away, but not sure.

For folks who don't have a big printer but want to print a copy for themselves, some Costcos have a poster printer that can do the job for not too much. You can upload a copy of the file directly to their printer. Just in case, I'd take a screenshot of the permission to print with me to pick it up--some of the staff are on top of checking for copyright.

I've been wanting to do a wall calendar for the last couple of years but I've been trying to figure out the right design. This one is awfully interesting. I was thinking about doing something more linear but that could be slightly rearranged each year to account for the shifting of the way days are numbered. Ideally I would like something that is semi-permanent and becomes a work of art on the wall that grabs the attention of those who walk by and only needs slight modification or rearranging from year to year.

Maybe using this design one could paint the wall with a base paint or get a piece of slate/chalkboard and then draw the design on their with chalk or other medium that can be removed or changed easily.

Phillip Swartz wrote:I've been wanting to do a wall calendar for the last couple of years but I've been trying to figure out the right design. This one is awfully interesting. I was thinking about doing something more linear but that could be slightly rearranged each year to account for the shifting of the way days are numbered. Ideally I would like something that is semi-permanent and becomes a work of art on the wall that grabs the attention of those who walk by and only needs slight modification or rearranging from year to year.

Maybe using this design one could paint the wall with a base paint or get a piece of slate/chalkboard and then draw the design on their with chalk or other medium that can be removed or changed easily.

I've been thinking of just drawing it on the wall but I like your idea of putting some more effort into making it semi permanent and fun to look at. Maybe could have some parts as add-ons...magnets maybe? ...I'm not sure how, but I have every confidence in the group problem solving here:)

how about a set of concentric disks that spin around a center point

days
weeks
moons

would need to be able to swap out the disk for Leap year, but it could be a fun thing.

Hi all

glad you liked the calendar... I only just stumbled across this discussion about it. The design has been under development for about 3 years now.

I have already played around with some of the ideas suggested on this thread -- like spinning wooden discs (too fiddly, hard to make) and a permanent calendar on which you change the days of the week and the phases of the moon. But at the moment I'm leaning to the present design, because it involves the minimum of effort for people to adopt it (i.e. just print it out)

Ideally it should be printed in A2 or bigger. That's ANSI C for those in North America.

By the way the versions posted on this thread have been slightly updated, the latest versions can always be downloaded direct from http://abrazohouse.org/calendar
Feedback and queries are always more than welcome. Anyone want to make a personalised version as a promotional tool for their permaculture-related business, etc. ? Any graphic designers want to colaborate on making a better calendar? Get in touch...

Best wishes to all for a magical Solstice, and may our troubled planet find peace and healing in the new year!

Robert
http://abrazohouse.org

Hi, Robert....I didn't realize you were a member here wonderful!

I ended up printing the calendar with the 'poster' option on my printer. It matched up really well on four sheets of paper and was nice and big then.
I am writing in the months, etc. around the edges and I think in the end I will fasten to some matte board rather than the wall. I am realizing I'll want to be able to turn it every direction.

Thank you so much for your work designing it and then making it available to all.

Hi Judith

Good to know about the "poster" option. Month names and public holidays and the like -- I left them off in order to make the calendar as language-independent and universal as possible. Perhaps there will be future versions for specific climates, countries, and languages, who knows?

Any ideas for improvements or ways to make it more widely known? Mainly I'd just like to see it widely used and to help people to see the year in its natural shape.

Thanks

Robert

Any ideas for improvements or ways to make it more widely known? Mainly I'd just like to see it widely used and to help people to see the year in its natural shape.

Cassie mentioned it in Paul's Daily-ish email I hope this makes a difference!

Thanks Judith.

This is just to post the updated version of the calendar -- also downloadable from http://abrazohouse.org/calendar
Oh, and to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Robert

I wanted to share my success with printing this calendar with the 'poster' setting on my printer which prints the image in quarters on four sheets of paper....I was able to get an 11" image and when trimmed up the four quarters fit together perfectly. I think I could have gone even larger, but I couldn't seem to change the setting on the printer to do that....still learning how to use.
I've mounted it on some matte board for now and trimmed it to be easy to hold. I like it and so does my husband.......thanks again Robert!

I've been keeping records for many years now and have created a circular calendar to plug all that data into. Some of the observations include; plant observations such as-first bloom to last blossem, harvest dates... animal and insect observations such as-first pipevine swallowtail butterfly or hawk fledgling taking flight... weather... What I am looking for, is a calendar app or program that allready exists, one that I could use to enter all of this data into, click a button and look at it in the circular calendar format. Does this exist? If not, I am planning on setting up a discussion for computer nerds to co-create this program.

Hi folks

This is just to let you know that the 2016 calendar's now online, redesigned and now 125% more beautiful!
Calendar

I like it!

I hope I'm not being an idiot, here, though: Is there a practical advantage in using this calendar?

The idea is that it can help you to be more aware of and in tune with the natural cycles of sun, earth and moon. Of practical value? I like to think so...

How about this universal nature-based perpetual calendar?
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pathsthroughtheforests/2014/07/07/a-saegoahs-kalendar/

I have both a normal square box calendar and the 2015 round calendar I downloaded from here last year on the wall by my desk at work. The round calendar starts a lot of conversations. I have noted folks in my cube stating that they feel it is easier to follow the year in the round. I have been crossing out the weeks as they go by. This has created a spiral effect thus making it look the the calendar is in motion. All in all, I like it much better. I suppose it will depend on your alignment with the Wheel of the Year. You could have one just because it looks cool We could make it a Permie thing. "Oh look, they have a round calendar on the wall. They must be Permies."

Bill, that's my dream really! -- that the round calendar should become a universally recognised symbol of living in tune with the cycles of nature... If you agree, please do whatever you can to spread the word!
Really glad you've found the 2015 version of value. Hope you like 2016's even better...

By the way, you can now download the calendar for the Southern as well as the Northern hemisphere, and in Spanish as well as English.


Rua Lupa, you're into some pretty esoteric stuff there! The objectives for my calendar are more prosaic: "I’m not proposing a new system of organising the year, just an alternative way of visualising it.
We still use basically the same calendrical system introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, despite reforms having been proposed by everyone from French revolutionaries to the Kodak company. It’s not likely to change in a hurry."


all the best

Robert

Robert Alcock wrote:Hi folks

This is just to let you know that the 2016 calendar's now online, redesigned and now 125% more beautiful!

At least some parts look latitude specific. (length of day for time of year, seasons etc.) Do they have more than one?

Hi Len

The calendar is available in Northern and Southern hemisphere versions.
The rings indicating the length of the day and the night aren't meant to be exact, but just to give a general impression. Otherwise you'd need a different calendar for every location in the world (which theoretically might be possible, but tricky to implement!)

Robert Alcock wrote:
Rua Lupa, you're into some pretty esoteric stuff there! The objectives for my calendar are more prosaic: "I’m not proposing a new system of organising the year, just an alternative way of visualising it.
We still use basically the same calendrical system introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, despite reforms having been proposed by everyone from French revolutionaries to the Kodak company. It’s not likely to change in a hurry."


all the best

Robert

It isn't esoteric in the least. Just a calendar(s) that were developed to reflect the natural world with as much accuracy as possible and it includes the Gregorian Calendar (the one most people are familiar with) so that people can follow along without needing two calendars - except for which day of the week it is really, everything else is consistent and won't ever need to replace it - being the same dates year to year. It comes as a flip calendar... https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/204972965/pandion-globus-kalendar-a-global-nature?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Speaking of calendars, if you're curious as to why our modern civil calendar is the way it is, with the month and weekday names, and why New Year's Day is January 1st considering how cyclical our year is, here is a full explanation of its history and why it is the way it is. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pathsthroughtheforests/2014/12/29/cultural-quandaries-earths-civil-calendar/

Rua Lupa wrote:
It isn't esoteric in the least.

No, but not right either in my opinion. It makes the claim of being "natural" and yet the choice of month length/week length are entirely arbitrary. A natural month is 29 days marked by the time it takes the moon to orbit the earth. In my opinion, a natural calendar would be entirely based on naturally observable events and have little or no need for any paper chart at all. Using natural events also takes the idea of marking the dates off out of someones bright ideas (Caesar?) and puts it beyond human ingenuity as much of nature is.

The author's assertion that it should not be based on any religious system is also in error, I think. This person is "Religious" and I think all people are about something even if it is being religiously "nonreligious". To take religion out of the mix would mean not choosing any of the obvious times for the beginning of the year. (Solstice or Equinox)

I personally feel the spring equinox would be a good time for year beginning, as it is the time of new life. Newness is all around (it is also historically correct). The Winter solstice has the advantage that it is still useful to those who start their spring before the spring equinox. The standard calendar we use now has the advantage that everyone knows what I or they are talking about. That is, if one has any interface with the rest of the world at all, using a standard calendar will make sure my land taxes are paid on time so I can ignore the rest of the world the rest of the year.

Yup, it is all opinion. The circular calendar looks interesting to me. I am thinking the current week could always be topmost.

Rua,

yes I already read your account of how the calendar came to be that way it is. Very thorough and well written. I think history teaches us that the organisation of time is something that's very hard to change and really can only be done by those in power (which is why we're still using Julius Caesar's calendar after 2000 years). I'll settle for changing the way people visualise the year.
Describing your calendar as "esoteric" wasn't intended as a criticism, by the way...

Robert

Len, I love the idea of a calendar based on natural events; but in every location (and for every person, probably) those events would be different, so it's hard to see how you could design a functional calendar on that basis.

I have thought about automatically generating a different calendar for your location, including climate data, day length, festivities, etc... but that's way beyond my capabilities. Perhaps if it catches on I'll be able to do this in future. Distribution and marketing are non-existent at present, I'm hoping it will catch on by word of mouth..

You could mount the calendar on a piece of board and spin it round by 6.8 degrees each week (or get a motor to do the job for you?) Perhaps. I settle for turning it four times a year!

Robert

Robert Alcock wrote:Len, I love the idea of a calendar based on natural events; but in every location (and for every person, probably) those events would be different, so it's hard to see how you could design a functional calendar on that basis.

As I said, in the end being in sync with the rest of the world is more important. People are designed (by whatever means) to be social and are not healthy living apart from others. Anyone who runs their life by nature is quite able to tell when spring, summer, fall and winter appear. Harvest is ready when it's ready and that may differ from year to year even against the signs in the sky.

I have thought about automatically generating a different calendar for your location, including climate data, day length, festivities, etc... but that's way beyond my capabilities. Perhaps if it
catches on I'll be able to do this in future. Distribution and marketing are non-existent at present, I'm hoping it will catch on by word of mouth..

Considering how far off the zone system is, I don't think it is really possible. I think what you have already done in putting it in a circle is unique and useful.

You could mount the calendar on a piece of board and spin it round by 6.8 degrees each week (or get a motor to do the job for you?) Perhaps. I settle for turning it four times a year!

If it was mounted to a board (or printed on one to begin with) it could be hung from a string/wire at the centre of it's back. If the edge was folded back such that there was a slit in the middle of each week (or hook), then it could be placed to the correct week easily.

A motor would for me, take the joy out of it. Being able to hang it in such a place that the sun shining through a tiny window in the right place would somehow hit a mark once a day and show where it should be would be a bonus (yes we should build our house around the calendar... Just kidding) I suppose a big enough sundial could have rings around it's face for the month or week.

Hi Robert. I didn't take the esoteric description as criticism, was just pointing out how it wasn't the case as that would mean it was intended just for initiates or some such thing, which it isn't, just different.

Len Ovens wrote: "It makes the claim of being "natural" and yet the choice of month length/week length are entirely arbitrary. A natural month is 29 days marked by the time it takes the moon to orbit the earth. In my opinion, a natural calendar would be entirely based on naturally observable events and have little or no need for any paper chart at all. Using natural events also takes the idea of marking the dates off out of someones bright ideas (Caesar?) and puts it beyond human ingenuity as much of nature is."

..."The author's assertion that it should not be based on any religious system is also in error, I think. This person is "Religious" and I think all people are about something even if it is being religiously "nonreligious". To take religion out of the mix would mean not choosing any of the obvious times for the beginning of the year. (Solstice or Equinox)"

There are many different ways to go about setting up a calendar on natural rhythms. The most basic ones are Day/Night, Lunar Cycles and Solar Cycles. Unless strictly following the lunar cycles, then a week would be arbitrary. If you read the link provided in an earlier post about how our modern calendar came to be, you'd find that the lunar calendar was abandoned because of how it required human intervention to add a month every three years in order to stay aligned with the seasons. Sure people could read the seasonal signs, but when it comes to managing large populations markets, legal appointments, and other social events require a dating system. So when the pontiffs were adding the extra month, or denying the extra month to suit their political ends it made social arrangements confusing, hence that time in history being called "The Years of Confusion" even though it was still a fairly agrarian society. This led to the solar year because it didn't require human monitoring for basic function.

The solar year has a lot of benefits, the most fundamental of which is that our entire existence is dependent on the solar-earth relationship - from day and night cycles, to the seasonal cycles that arise directly from the amount of daylight received. So the Globus Kalendar is divided according to the solar-earth markers, Equilux (equal length of day and night, moving into longer days, symbolized as the year's dawn), Lux (longest day in the year, symbolized as the year's noon), Equinox (equal length of day and night, moving into longer days, symbolized as the year's dusk), and Nox (shortest day in the year, symbolized as the year's midnight). The amount of time between these were evenly divided into months which mathematically leads to half of the year with 31 days in a month and the other half of the year with 30 days in a month with the last month being 29 days with a day added every leap year (every four years with a total of 8 every 33 years - based on one of the most accurate calendars for long term accuracy - Solar Hijri algorithmic calendar). from there the weeks of the calendar were derived from the most mathematically efficient structure and what would suit a healthy human work and rest period, which ended up being 6 days in a week. And by considering the 31st days in the months as long holidays, and ignoring the space at the end of the last month, the calendar becomes perpetual - no shifting days of the week. Thereby a more efficient calendar overall, being less resource intensive (not needing to make a new calendar for every year), and reflective of our natural cycles in nature instead of ignoring them in how we manage our day to day lives. The year then logically starts on the Equilux based on the seasonal relation of the solar-earth cycle, which also has the leap day at the end of the year instead of the middle of the year as it currently stands. In conclusion religion or belief isn't necessary to determine the year start, being a calendar that is entirely based on the solar-earth events and efficiency because those events are universal, no matter where you are on earth the relation of the earth to the sun is what defines our existence on this planet. So it is a calendar based on the study of Nature.

Rua,

I think your design is interesting, but I have to say that I don't think a new way of organising the year, however well designed, will be adopted by more than a tiny sect of users. Look at what happened with Esperanto -- great language, terrible takeup. Or rational spelling for English. Or the QWERTY keyboard. Or the standard railway gauge, determined by the axles of roman carts. Are people stupid? Not invariably, but we are creatures of habit. That's why my calendar uses the Gregorian year, but visualised in a different way.

Appreciate your helpful contributions to the discussion, though!

All the best

Robert

Hi Robert,

I really do like your calendar design, and how it reflects our cyclical environment. I really should have mentioned that earlier. My posts weren't intended as one calendar versus the other, just sharing a design that is related to the subject, which I've always found to be fascinating. Its great to see designs like yours out there, which I may very well put it up beside the Borealis one in my own home as I find they do function well in unison.

I agree that any change in how society organizes itself is a challenge as its hard to turn the tide on the momentum of the current form, as shown throughout history. But I didn't let that deter me from making it an option, even though it likely would only end up with a few people using it. I take encouragement from Bede's experience as he was merely one monk and had fundamentally altered how we date our years just by doing it and sharing it. Permaculturalists are no different in this way - in trying to cause a fundamental shift in how society organizes itself.

Worst case scenario is that it never gets off the ground, and I wouldn't mind that at all because if I never tried it out to begin with, then I'd never know if it would of worked anyway. And I may still never know because somebody in the future, long past my death, may find it and make it into something that becomes used by society at large. You never know. So the least anyone can do is put it out there and have conversations about it, realizing that not everyone's bright idea is everyone's cup of tea, but all it takes is a bit of momentum from a few, which is also shown throughout history. Something I hope is starting with permaculture in general.

Hi folks

This is belated, but I've just posted up a new, improved version of the 2016 calendar, with a short description below. Hope you like it. It can be downloaded from the same source (http://abrazohouse.org/calendar)

That's great! I have it up beside my flip calendar now and I love it but I had a hard time trying to give proper credit and make sure people who saw it knew how to find it. Now that it is directly there - all the better!

Thanks Rua, Glad you like it!

Hello all,

Just to let you know I am posting up this year's version of the Natural Cycles Calendar for your delight and edification.

Unfortunately website issues mean I am no longer able to post the calendar up on our website, http://abrazohouse.org, for you to download it.
However, if you sign up for our quarterly newsletter then you'll get the calendar attached to that.
Happy new year to you all,

Robert

The idea of a round calendar is interesting. But I understand the discussions. Everything in the calendars we use is based on old traditions. It might be time for change ... But changing something with such a widespread use is almost impossible. And then, there are so many individual thoughts and feelings involved in this ...

Anyway, there's only one thing I'd like to add to the discussion now. It's about the week of seven days. As far as I know that's based upon the viewpoint that's in the bible (and in the torah too). After six days of physical labour the seventh day is for rest, meditation and worship.
In that old Hebrew culture the year started at the beginning of Spring. They had moon-months (lunar is probably the right word). Their counting of the hours in a day was very interesting too. And the fact that the new day started after sunset.

I've always visualized the calendar year as a circle in my head so when I started teaching my children about the seasons and months of the year, I drew a big circle on poster board and divided it into twelve slices for the months and colored it according to the seasons. It just makes sense.

I think it's interesting and usable to have the days of the week going inward in the OPs design but it bugs my brain a little bit. But I guess it would be pretty unwieldy to have 365 days in a row going around in a circle, the way my brain naturally pictures time.

As a side note, when I lived in Taiwan for a few months, I was unaware at first that they use a different year counting system (ROC- Republic of China) in addition to using the Gregorian calendar for months and days. A friend of mine asked for help cleaning expired canned and boxed food from their pantry and I threw almost everything away thinking that the packages were over a decade old because the expiration date on most (but not all) packages was the ROC calendar. 😆

I don't remember if I wrote this before here ... When I think of the year, it doesn't start in January for me.

I'm not exactly sure, but it feels mostly like 'my' year starts in Autumn. Now is the time of year I let my thoughts go on what to plant for the new season (which will start in Spring), and to start preparing the garden for that new season.

Another thought on it being a circle: if the clock with the hours is a circle (it used to be ...), the year is a circle too. And then it never has a beginning or an end ...