Talk:Discordian calendar

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

e.g. Debian includes it[1] in the base package util-linux[2].

It is in fact included in the freshmeat.org util-linux package, so it seems reasonable to change "many" to "most" as any linux distro not containing it would either not be using the freshmeat util-linux or would be going to the trouble of removing ddate.

If you believe so, please go ahead and make the change. DenisMoskowitz 19:21, 2004 Aug 20 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] edits by 68.49.101.213

Removed: The Discordian Pentabarf was supposedly discovered in the Fifth year of the Caterpiller, though it is unclear what year this would be YOLD.

If this belongs anywhere it would be in Discordianism which describes the Pentabarf. Please note that the spelling and capitalization of Fifth Year of the Caterpillar is different in the Principia. -- SS 03:03, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hmm: Discordians are practically forbidden from agreeing on which Apostles are apocryphal and which are cannonical

Because of the the fifth commandment? -- SS 03:03, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I think they may have been thinking of "It is an Old Erisian Tradition to never agree with each other about Saints." from page 00060 of the Principia. DenisMoskowitz 18:34, 2004 Sep 8 (UTC)

Reverted to an older version: The Discordian calendar begins with the year in which the Original Snub is considered to have occured, which is equivalent to 1166 B.C. on the Gregorian calendar.

Considered by whom? This is the first I have heard of this hypothesis, although it doesn't seem to contradict the information given in Trojan War. On the other hand, the Curse most certainly occurred in 1166. -- SS 03:03, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Not Fictional

The Discordian calendar is not a "Fictional Calendar". It applies to this world and is in current use by adherents of Discordianism. The category "Fictional Calendars" includes things like the Discworld Calendar and Star Trek's Stardates. DenisMoskowitz 13:17, 2005 Apr 24 (UTC)

Likewise, Discordian holidays are "Holidays" and not "Fictional Holidays" like "Opposite Day" and "Steak and Blowjob Day". They are celebrated by real people in a real, if amusing, religion. DenisMoskowitz 14:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] St. Tib's Day 2100

I'm not sure that the occurrence or non-occurrence of St. Tib's Day in 2100 and other such years is as clear a case as User:Jess Cully makes it out to be. It's true that the note on page 00034 says that it occurs once every 4 years. However, that page also claims to be a "perpetual date converter from Gregorian to POEE", implying that the Discordian Calendar maintains the same relationship to the Gregorian one for all time, past and future. It seems to me more likely that the Julian-esque rule about St. Tib's Day is an abstraction of the actual, Gregorian-style rule. DenisMoskowitz 19:22, 2005 August 1 (UTC)

I think the author of the page either didn't realise that the calendars will diverge in 2100/3266, or didn't expect anyone reading it to want to use dates from 2100 onwards (they knew their readers would be dead by then, after all). In the absence of any explicit Discordian pronouncements to the contrary, I think we have to assume the calendar is Julian. Perhaps there will be a Discordian schism in 2100/3266 over the issue? Jess Cully 11:56, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't think that assumption is any more reasonable than assuming that the author was taking a certain amount of familiarity with the Gregorian Calendar for granted, and didn't feel the need to fully specify the complicated leap year rules in the limited space available. (A schism is looking more and more likely.) I'll add a section about the different interpretations shortly. DenisMoskowitz 14:56, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

The page states 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). I'm not up for the math at this hour of the night, but shouldn't the calendars eventually re-align in a few more centuries? — The Storm Surfer 03:51, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, it gains a day 3 out of every 4 centuries, so it's however many centuries it takes to gain 4 years worth of days. DenisMoskowitz 13:46, 2005 August 10 (UTC)
The correspondance would be again correct between Chaos 60, 51765 (March 1, 50600) to Chaos 59, 51865 (February 28, 50700) - note that by that point, a year's difference will have accumulated between the Gregorian and Julian/Discordian Nik42 06:55, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
Oops, no, that's not quite correct. A one year difference means leap years won't correspond ... it'd take another 150,000 or so years, till the difference has accumulated to 4 years Nik42 04:59, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Does anybody have any idea who St. Tib is? Binky The WonderSkull 18:18, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't think so, but some Discordians have made stuff up. I don't think there's anything solid enough to add to the article at any rate, unless DrJon finds another treasure trove of paleo-Discordian writing that mentions him/her/it. :) DenisMoskowitz 01:56, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, it should be pretty obvious that Discordianism forbids its adherents to agree on whether St. Tib's day follows the rules for leap years or not and requires that both systems are to be considered equally valid and invalid. It's amazing how many people seem tempted to fall for the Curse instead of following the intention behind the scriptures.

From another POV, however, it makes perfect sense for the dispute being no less than a small-scale holy war. It is, after all, a religion worshipping discord. — Ashmodai (talk · contribs) 06:15, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Start year

I have removed the sentence The first year is year 1 YOLD (Year of Our Lady of Discord) as it has been changed from saying 0 to saying 1, and no source was provided to begin with. — The Storm Surfer 03:49, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

3166 YOLD is 2000 AD, so do the maths. There was no year 0 AD. 1 BC was directly followed by 1 AD. That makes 1166 BC the year 1 YOLD, not 0. Jess Cully 22:40, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
Then what of 1167 BC? — The Storm Surfer 00:00, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
The Curse of Greyface and Original Snub occurred in 1166 BC, which suggests that is the epoch of the Discordian Calendar. To my knowledge no Discordian has yet devised a method of dating pre-Erisian Era chronology. Jess Cully 23:01, 2 November 2005 (UTC)
Those times are outside of the Sacred Chao and thus are not worth knowing about. See page 00049. DenisMoskowitz 00:27, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Post Principia Holidays

There are some Discordian holidays out there that are not mentioned in Principia. Some of these, such as Jake Day on April 6, are more popular than those listed in the book. Would it be appropriate to add some of the most popular to this articles? Binky The WonderSkull 8 April 2006

Jake Day is on April 6? I thought it was on May 23rd. DenisMoskowitz 17:36, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
I searched and found it listed for April 1, April 6, and May 23. Backwards Day is listed on different days too, but I don't think that started with the Discordians. Binky The WonderSkull 14:59, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "YOLD" isn't in Principia Discordia

Many Christians believe that the Bible says there were three king who visited baby Jesus at the manger (it doesn't say there were three or that they were kings, and they didn't go to the manger). In the same way, Discordians believe in the designation YOLD for their calendar. But it's not in the book.

The abbreviation is never used, and the only reference to "Year of Our Lady of Discord" is on page 53 (I'm speaking here of the Fourth Edition of Principia Discordia). Note that many Christians refer to "the Year of Our Lord," but don't designate their calendar years as 2006 YOL, but as AD 2006 for the Latin Anno Domino. If Discordians followed that form, they'd designate years as Anna Domina, or AD, or maybe Anna Domina Discordia, or ADD.

Personally, I designate my Discordian calendar as POEE, as that abbreviation is used dozens of times, if not for the calendar. But don't worry, I haven't changed it here; just clarified. Reverend Loveshade 15:53, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I know you're a major Discordian but this was hard to believe. But I looked it up and you're right! It doesn't even talk about Year of Our Lady of Discord or YOLD on the calendar page in Principia. Not at all! Binky The WonderSkull 16:24, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
ADD? Hah! That just BEGS to become the standard designation.
Seeing how Christians do not usually designate their calendar either, I don't see any need to do it for the Discordian calendar unless you want to be fancy (in which case "In the year of our Lady Discord …" sounds fancier anyway) or specific (e.g. when handling dates from both systems), although Discordianism isn't particularily known for being specific in order to avoid confusion. — Ashmodai (talk · contribs) 06:22, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
Reverend, as true or True as your point may be, I really have to call you out (and therefore completely ignore the point you made so reasonably) on your failure to use proper notation for page 00053. Besides, why would we want to be like Christians? they worship a man! Personally, I enjoy YOLD, and will stick to it. It makes me think of "Ye Olde", and that makes me laugh.
As long as we're on the subject, can we all recognize that this is NOT the Discordian calendar, but the POEE calendar? Not that it isn't useful—I know His Greatness The Effenpy has based the accordion calendar largely on this—but it's no more the official calendar of all Discordianism than the Five Fingered Hand of Eris is the official eating utensil of all Erisians. I know it's a small detail, but the indistinction might confuse some poor young Discordian scholars. I vote we move the page to POEE Calendar, and leave this as simply a redirect.
Final note, Father Nemo Proprius has asked me to find out how other Discordians like to refer to dates in the era before YOLD. Personally, I refer to them as "Years till Greyface", or simply YTGF. any other opinion?
B.Mearns*, KSC 17:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] X-day

is it written somewhere in the bible about the date for end of the world which has already passed?nids 06:14, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

You're thinking of X-Day, which is part of the teachings of the Church of the SubGenius. It was July 5, 1998. It's not related to this article.DenisMoskowitz 14:01, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ruby version of ddate

I've written a ruby version of ddate. This is remarkable only because it is easy to obtain and install. If Rubygems is installed, [sudo] install ddate is all that's needed. On OSX 10.5, Rubygems is already installed. Since it's my own work, I didn't feel comfortable mentioning it in the entry, but I thought it might be relevant. More info available here: http://ddate.rubyforge.org/ – rictic (talk) 05:27, 19 May 2008 (UTC)