The Calendar & The Roll of the Years

[Administrator]

The Forgotten Realms uses a year 365 days long, with a leap year every four years, right after Midsummer known as Shieldmeet.
Between every few months, an additional day is added. Below, they appear "during" the month after which they happen.
The calendar uses 12 months, each 30 days long divided into three "tendays" (note that there are no "weeks" or "weekends"). Each day is simply called by their number; first-day, second-day and so on up to tenth-day.
As such, what we'd call the "thirteenth of March", would in the Forgotten Realms be referred to as either "the thirteenth of Ches", or "third-day, second tenday of Ches".
There may be local variations as to the exact conventions of specifying a day, but this is the general guideline.

The Underdark can't use "days" as such, but keeps track of time in other ways. I'll leave it to the experts to detail that.

The Calendar Of Harptos

1. Hammer; Deepwinter
(January)
Special Day: Midwinter

2. Alturiak; The Claw of Winter, or The
Claws of the Cold
(February)

3. Ches of the Sunsets
(March)

4. Tarsakh of the Storms
(April)
Special Day: Greengrass

5. Mirtul; The Melting
(May)

6. Kythorn; The Time of Flowers
(June)

7. Flamerule; Summertide
(July)
Special Day: Midsummer
Every Four Years: Shieldmeet

8. Eleasias; Highsun
(August)

9. Eleint; The Fading
(September)
Special Day: Higharvestide

10. Marpenoth; Leafall
(October)

11. Uktar; The Rotting
(November)
Special Day: The Feast of the Moon

12. Nightal; The Drawing Down.
(December)

Special Calendar Days

Midwinter is known officially as the High Festival of Winter. It is a feast where, traditionally, the lords of the land plan the year ahead, make and renew alliances, and send gifts of goodwill.
To the commonfolk, this is Deadwinter Day, the midpoint of the
worst of the cold.

Greengrass is the official beginning of spring, a day of relaxation. Flowers that have been carefully grown in inner rooms of the keeps and temples during the winter are blessed and cast out upon the snow, to bring rich growth in the season ahead.

Midsummer, called Midsummer Night or the Long Night, is a time of feasting and music and love. In a ceremony performed in some lands, unwed maidens are set free in the woods and hunted by their would-be suitors throughout the night. Betrothals are traditionally made upon this night. It is very rare
indeed for the weather to be bad during the night—such is considered a very bad omen, usually thought to foretell famine or plague.

Higharvestide heralds the coming of fall and the harvest. It is a feast that often continues for the length of the harvest, so that there is always food for those coming in from the fields. There is much traveling about on the heels of the feast, as merchants, court emissaries, and pilgrims make speed ere the worst of the mud arrives and the rain freezes in the snow.

The Feast of the Moon is the last great festival of the year. It marks the arrival of winter, and is also the day when the dead are honored. Graves are blessed, the Ritual of Remembrance performed, and tales of the doing of those now gone are told far into the night. Much is said of heroes and treasure and lost cities
underground.


Years (“winters”) are referred to by names, each one consistent across the Realms, because each kingdom or citystate numbers years differently, usually to measure the reign of a dynasty or the current monarch, or since the founding of the country. passage of the years. Names for the years are known as the Roll of Years, as they are drawn from predictions written down under that title by the famous Lost Sage, Augathra the Mad, with a few additions by the seer Alaundo. The Roll is a long one; here is the relevant portion of it.

YEAR OF THE MORNINGSTAR (1350)
YEAR OF THE DRAGON (1352 DR)
YEAR OF THE ARCH (1353 DR)
YEAR OF THE BOW (1354 DR)
YEAR OF THE HARP (1355 DR)
YEAR OF THE WORM (1356 DR)
YEAR OF THE PRINCE (1357 DR)
YEAR OF THE SHADOWS (1358 DR)
YEAR OF THE SERPENT(1359 DR)
YEAR OF THE TURRENT (1360 DR)
YEAR OF THE MAIDENS (1361 DR)
YEAR OF THE HELM (1362 DR)
YEAR OF THE WYVERN (1363 DR)
YEAR OF THE WAVE (1364 DR)
YEAR OF THE SWORD (1365 DR)
YEAR OF THE STAFF (1366 DR)
YEAR OF THE SHIELD (1367 DR)
YEAR OF THE BANNER (1368 DR)

The names of the years aren't arbitrary. Rare is the year that doesn't see at least one event occur that has at least some notable relation to the name which Augathra gave it.