New Month

New Month, Zeribian urxim, is the first day of a month, a Zeribian holiday.
The Zeribians follow a lunar calendar, and a new month begins when the crescent of Lauge, the larger of the two moons of Salan, is first observed by the priests after the new moon. Each year has nine months, and thus nine festivals of New Month. Because the festival is observed depending on the sighting of the moon, the festival occurs on different date on each city and island, and can be postponed if the sighting is prevented by bad weather.

Each Zeribian month is dedicated to one of the gods of the Zeribian pantheon, and thus the exact practises during the festival depend on who the patron god of the month is. The first New Month of the year, in the beginning of the month of Usahdeg (god) is the new years festival Burning the First Crop.

Observance

Zeribian lunar calendar is observed differently in different areas of the Eastern Islands. In the Inner Islands near the equator the calendar is truely lunar, and thus holidays rotate slowly to different times of year. In the South near the mainland Zeribian claendar is correlated with the solar year, and some (especially agricultural) holidays always fall on the same season, while some traditional religious holidays are still truely lunar. Thus on Der Fem (West Island) the New Year and month of Usahdeg always happen in the spring.

Primary Related Location

Eastern Islands

Related Ethnicities

• Zeribians