The Venusian Calendar

VENUSIAN CALENDAR 

On Venus, a day is longer than a year. A day on Venus lasts for 243 Earth days or 5,832 hours.

The planet's orbital period is 224.65 Earth days, which means that a year on Venus is 61.5% as long as a year on Earth. Unlike most other planets in the Solar System, which rotate on their axes in an counter-clockwise direction, Venus rotates clockwise (called “retrograde” rotation)  

It should be noted that the strange Orbit of Venus would disrupt the period and fertility cycle of humans. Rendering them infertile. To contract this, a pill was developed in the late colonial age and has since been perfected. 

Health problems from an altered body clock may also arise.
Another useful piece of future technology is a house guard, or city guard, which is a device that can be set to simulate earth’s gravity and earth days over a civilized area. Most Venusians are able to sleep regularly regardless of the day setting but enjoy the use of gravity correctors. Venus’s Gravity is a healthy 8.87 m/s², not far off Earth’s 9.807 m/s². 

It is sometimes remarked however that the change in gravity can be felt when leaving or entering a Gravity corrected Zone (A house or City.)

Now, focusing on the structure of the Venusian Calendar. Venusian civilians aren’t interested so much in years (That information is for scientists and military men.) The length of Earth days is still recorded by Venusians who wish to document their own ages correctly, Venusians are taught both the Earth and Venusian calendar and celebrate their birthdays in earth time. The Venusian calendar is used to determine school semesters, holidays and Venusian religious festivals, light zones, and weather patterns. 

The Venusians sleep for 10 hours and wake for 10 hours. Sleeping more than any other human species, though for adults, much of the sleeping hours are likely devoted to procreation, the Venusians also have the highest birth-rate of any humanoid species. 

This makes the Venusian day 20 hours. By dividing the Venusian 5,832 hour long day by 20 and by 20 again, we get the number 14.58, which is rounded to 15. (This calendar works best with an odd number.)

 So the Venusians split their 5,832 hour long rotation into 15 light zones. Each light zone is an equivalent to a month from the Venusian perspective. In each light zone, the sky is a different colour when clear.

 This means a Venusian month has 388.8 hours and 19.44 or 19 and a half Venusian sleep cycles. In the world of interstellar colonisation, a sleep cycle is often called a ‘Turn’ (Good Turn replaced Good Day as a greeting around the year 17000).

         Now to describe what happens on Venus within each light zone.

The light zones are timed with the largest Venusian colony; the Planetary capital city of Venus; Herapolis, on the Aphrodite continent. The following descriptions of weather conditions are most applicable to this geographical region, but the month will be considered by the same title all over the Venusian globe. The same as if it is Europe’s cold season, it must also be Oceania’s hot season, the month is still the same. 

The First Light Zone is ‘Monsoon’: The end of the darkest point. This is the coldest month for Herapolis, as the sun has been absent for the longest. As Venus is a tropical planet there is no snow but this is the worst season for the monsoon rain and thunder storms. 

 

The Second Light Zone is ‘Astro’: Short for “Astronomical twilight.” The first of three stages of twilight in which the weather is improving over Herapolis, the sky is a dim, slightly purplish blue. 

The Third Light Zone is ‘Naught’: Short for “Nautical Twilight”. The sky is lilac and the clouds on the horizon are starting to catch an orange glow from the sun. The weather is cool and calm. 

The Fourth Light Zone is ‘Civil Rising’: This is civil twilight. The sky is pink and the fluffy clouds are orange underneath, where they catch the sun, and purple on top. There is a red glow on the horizon but the sun is no yet visible. Not until the end of the month. The cherry blossoms are budding. 

The Fifth Light Zone is ‘Spring’: The first day of the Venusian spring is marked by the red sun rising over Herapolis, turning the sky gold. The cherry and apple blossoms and snow drops are the first flower to bloom. There are so many pink and white petals in Herapolis that it looks like snow.

The Sun Rise festival, also known as ‘Aestora’s Day’, is the most important day of the Venusian calendar. This occurs on the first day of spring. The sun is greeted with a relay race through the city, with the fastest youth (person under 18) being the last to carry the sacred torch up to the holy alter of The Goddess Venus, in her grandest Temple: ‘Le Mater Grande’,

where the chosen one will set alight a fire disk.
The celebration is a mixture of mother’s day, Valentine’s Day and Easter. Only men and boys give presents to women and girls. Sometimes fathers give presents to their children, usually chocolate eggs.
The following day every Venusian must go to the sacred jungle and scatter all of the seeds they have collected I their semilone (fruit seed container all Venusian’s own) around the outskirts of the jungle or any barren part of it. This giant Jungle, named ‘The Saltu’, is the one of the main sources of food for the Venusians, who are a fruitarian race. The Saltu produces fruit all year round. The weather is good, the temperature is 20-24 degrees Celsius.

The Sixth Light Zone is ‘Up Quad’: In the middle of this 19 day period the sun reaches the first quarter of its cycle; hence the name of the light zone. The sky turns from gold to yellow, then lime green. The temperature is 24-28 degrees Celsius. 

The Seventh Light Zone is ‘High Rise’: The sky is Green. The temperature is 30-38 degrees Celsius. 

The Eighth Light Zone is ‘Sun High’: The sky is turquoise. The temperature is in the 40’s. At the Sun high festival the Venusians have a festival of beauty and sports, where teams of volunteers from different regions compete. (A sort of equivalent to the Olympics.) 

The Ninth Light Zone is ‘High Set’: The sun is starting to descend. The sky is Green. The temperature is 30-38 degrees Celsius. 

The Tenth Light Zone is ‘Down Quad’: The sun reaches the third quarter of its cycle. The sky turns from lime green to yellow, then gold. The temperature is 24-28 degrees Celsius and decreasing. 

The Eleventh Light Zone is ‘Fall’: The sky turns from gold to orange and the sun is slowly going down. 

The Twelfth Light Zone is ‘Civil Set’: The Long sun set, the sky is pink or red. 

The Thirteenth Light Zone is ‘Dusk’: The sun is sunk and the sky is dimmed back down to the purple of nautical twilight. 

The Fourteenth Light Zone is ‘Indigo’: The sky is indigo, this is a rainy season but not as stormy as Monsoon. 

The Fifteenth Light Zone is ‘Pitch’: This is the darkest period; 19 and a half days of pitch black. Pitch ends with a day shared half between Pitch and Monsson, which is the New Year. Venusians celebrate New Year by gathering in public houses to talk about philosophy. 

Each month is between 19 and 20 Venusian days long (Venusian day=20 hours), with 2 half days comprising the New Year’s day.

Divided by 4 is 5. So Venusians have an equivalent to a week, called a She, (days of the week or turns of the She make it easier for civilians to book appointments and structure their lives. The 5 turns of a Venusian she are: Sunturn, Lunturn, Junturn, Jupturn, and Mitturn.