The solar calendar follows the standard urban Roman calendar that we use today, with Anglo-Saxon month names in place of the Roman ones as described in the Book of Hours FAQ.
Since the version of the lunar calendar that we use starts anew every year on the winter solstice (see the explanation of Lunar Calendar, below), sometimes there are a handful of days that don't fit into either. We call these "days out of time", since they aren't in any lunar month in the calendar. The Solar calendar has one "day out of time"; it's February/Solmonath 29, Leap Day.
For our book of hours, we've had to find some way to implement a real lunar calendar, or to be more precise, a lunisolar calendar. It had to be something that kept the lunar year in tune with the seasons (the solar year), and the months synched to the moon. We have settled on this system, based on the one laid out by Linda Kerr.
The thirteen months are named for the Beth-Luis-Nion Celtic Tree names, each starting on the new moon, with the year ending on the Winter Solstice. Since the solar year is a fair amount shorter than thirteen full lunations, sometimes the first and last month (Beth and Ruis) share one lunar cycle. Roughly three out of five years start short in this way. (If you were using primarily the Greek lunar months, you would simply have 12 full months in "short" years, and add a second Poseideon for a "long" year. There would be no lunar days out of time using this method.)
Since we're working primarily with the 13 Celtic months, we've chosen to divide the last/first lunation on short years. Ruis ends at the solstice, perhaps in the middle of its lunation, and Beth picks up immediately after and runs until the next new moon, starting Luis. We've chosen to start Beth with Beth 1, then jump directly to the current place in the lunation. This allows the month to start with the ritual that opens Beth, and still be in sync for the Full and New moons. For example, if Ruis 12 was the Winter Solstice in a short year, the next day would be Beth 1, the Day of the Birch Tree. The next day after that would be Beth 14, which is just before the full moon, as it should be. On full or "long" years, Beth starts on the next moon after the Winter Solstice and the days between are considered to be days out of time.
No, but I have not personally research the topic thoroughly. Hellenic reconstructionists tell me the Greek lunar year is figured with the first moon after the Summer Solstice beginning Hekatombaion, and the additional month added on a fixed schedule. By their system days are reckoned from sunset to sunset, and the month theoretically begins on the day the new crescent moon is sighted. In practice, it seems, the first of the month was whenever the Archon said it was, giving rise to the practice distinguishing between the "new moon" according to the calendar and the "Noumenia kata Selene", the new moon according to the moon.
In practical terms this means the days given by the Book of Hours breviary are consistently a day or two earlier than those given by a Hellenicly reckoned calendar, and occasionally (like in 2006) they are one full lunar cycle late. The method of irregularly numbering Beth and Ruis and figuring days out of time need not be applied. If you want figure lunar calendar by a Hellenic system, check the Hellenic Month Established Per Athens site or this Hellenic Neo-Pagan Calendar.
For dates between 2003 and 2006, simply go to the Breviary page and select the date in the appropriate drop-down menu. The corresponding date will appear in the other drop-down menu. Both the solar and lunar dates for today are displayed just below that. For the current year, you can look at the Lunar/Solar Listing. This gives the two calendars side by side, but it takes a moment to load.
For an easy way to work this all out on your own, get a listing of the dates of the new moons for the year you are interested in. By our system, the following years have a full lunation for Beth: 2001, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2017, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2022, 2025, 2028. If you are in one of these years, Beth begins on the new moon following the Winter Solstice. If you are not, that first new moon ends a shortened Beth and begins Luis. The months follow in sequence from there. The day is simply the number of days past the new moon. (For dates outside of this range, use the longer method described below.)
If you look closely, you can see the pattern of long and short years is nearly a cycle of five: long, short, long, short, short. Nearly, but not quite. (A nineteen year cycle works out much closer.) To further complicate things, sometimes (like in 2004) the winter solstice falls in the new moon, so even in a long year Beth can follow Ruis directly, with no days out. If you find all of this to be entirely too complex, arcane, and messy, you can either take it as a reflection of the nature of the moon, or work out some other way of figuring it.
If you are interested, this is the system Joshua used to working out the months: Find the date of all the new moons from the period you are interested in, up to the following Winter Solstice. Lunar Outreach Services is a good source. Mark the first lunation that includes the Winter Solstice as 13/Ruis, the one before it is 12/Ngetal, and you number backwards from there to 1/Beth. Do the same for the next year. If you've marked the same lunation as both 1/Beth and 13/Ruis, it is split between the two at the Solstice, and you've got a short year. If not, you've got a long year. Make a note in the margin of the days out of time.
Alternately, you could use a system that gives the full lunation to Ruis on long years, and not have any days out of time. This isn't the only way to figure the months, but it is the one we've decided to use.
The Breviary does the lunar-solar calculation automatically, and here Josh has worked out the start of each lunar month relative to the solar calendar for the next few years. Play around with it until it starts to make some kind of sense.
The Hours given here are based on and ancient Greek system. Similar to the system of planetary hours used by many ceremonial magicians and astrologers, they are relative to sunrise and sunset and vary by season and location. Check out our page on the Hours for more information. There are twelve hours to the day: one before dawn, own after sunset, and ten through full daylight. The night hours are not calculated here, and are given simply as "Night". The hours are easily calculated by finding the number of minutes between sunrise and sunset, dividing by ten, and allotting that amount of time for each. The Hour Calculator will automatically do this calculation for you if you enter the sun rise and set times for the day at your location. Sun rise and set times worldwide can be looked up at the Astronomical Applications Department of the US Naval Observatory. The sunrise and sunset times used on the Breviary page are for Hubbardston Mass (W72N42. EST), and may be wildly inaccurate for your location.
On certain days, one or more pieces of astrological information will be displayed below the sun rise and set times. If you do not follow astrology, this data may have little interest to you, but I will briefly explain it. Retrograde motion of a planet refers to a period of time when, due to its position relative to the earth, it appears to be moving backwards across the sky. It is believed that a retrograde Mercury tends to bring unforeseen changes and blockages to communications, contracts, travel and appointments.
The small images show the astrological symbol for the sun followed by the astrological symbol indicating current position of the sun, and a rough image of the current phase of the moon and an astrological symbol roughly indicating current position of the moon.
This section gives today's date in the Solar calendar, the solar ritual for today, the longitude of the sun on this day (given in zodiac notation), and the position within the cycle of the eight holidays that mark the turning points of the solar year.
This section gives today's date in the lunar calendar, the tree associated that month in the celtic system, and the lunar ritual for today. Also, we have listed the phase of the moon and it's sign, and (if applicable) during what time that day the moon is void of course.
The data for moon phase corresponds to one of eight phase periods, not the exact phase at the time the page was queried. The periods start at the aspect given and lasts roughly three and a half days. The moons phases periods are given as follows:
 New Moon(0% -> 25% illuminated) |
 Crescent Moon(25% -> 50% illuminated) |
 Waxing Quarter(50% -> 75% illuminated) |
 Gibbous Moon(75% -> 100% illuminated) |
 Full Moon(100% -> 75% illuminated) |
 Disseminating Moon(75% -> 50% illuminated) |
 Waning Quarter(50% -> 25% illuminated) |
 Balsamic Moon(25% -> 0% illuminated) |
Each phase of the moon in a given sign is a specific relationship between sun and moon, and can be given an astrological meaning. The names given in after the phase and sign of the moon reflect this meaning. More information on this subject may be available on this website in the future, but for now please contact Raven Kaldera with any questions.
The moon is said to be "void of course" in the time between its last aspect in a sign and the beginning of the next sign. It is traditionally held that things begun during this time will not come to fruition.