Time & Dates In Equestria

[Cain 24]

This question popped up in my head recently, after reading some fanfics and just generally after watching some episodes.

How exactly does time work in Equestria? Do they measure it in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years like we do? Or something different?

And what does their calender look like? Are the months the same length as ours, with the same names? Or something different? And the years, they can't really follow the gregorian calendar, based on BC/AD, because of course there was no Jesus Christ (that we know of) in Equestria, so what would their years be called, if they weren't just numbers?

I've seen some very interesting ways people have used dates in fanfic, usually with the year something to do with an 'Era', like 'Year 85 of the Celestial Era' or something like that. Would that be close to what they would use?

It's probably looking too hard into this particular element of the show, but it's got me stumped.

[Bari 7,021]

Seems like a good system. It's what they use in the Elder Scrolls series.

[PonyHag1 591]

Well, Spike mentioned 3 a.m. in one episode, so it seems they measure time as we do. And they seem to have the same seasons, as Twilight said "It's summer." once.

[Twilight Sky 449]

I believe it is the same as us...but occasionally call months "moons" and their written language appears to be russian T_T

[Fire_Fly 499]

Well, in the "Fall Weather Friends" episode, Applejack and Rainbow Dash's running times are measured in seconds, so I think it's a safe guess that the standard time system applies. As for months and years, that's another story entirely. Sure there are holidays in Equestria that are similar to our own, like Hearts and Hooves Day, Hearth's Warming Eve and Nightmare Night, but where they fall in the Equestrian year is still up for debate. Interestingly, Equestrian days also seem to share the names of our days, like Monday, Tuesday, etc. This is especially odd since the etymology for the names comes from early Latin human history.

[Twilight Sky 449]

Well, in the "Fall Weather Friends" episode, Applejack and Rainbow Dash's running times are measured in seconds, so I think it's a safe guess that the standard time system applies. As for months and years, that's another story entirely. Sure there are holidays in Equestria that are similar to our own, like Hearts and Hooves Day, Hearth's Warming Eve and Nightmare Night, but where they fall in the Equestrian year is still up for debate. Interestingly, Equestrian days also seem to share the names of our days, like Monday, Tuesday, etc. This is especially odd since the etymology for the names comes from early Latin human history.

 

But it seems they are based off a latin history hence Equestria ---> Equus = Horse (latin)

[Cain 24]

Alright, the seasons are the same, from various episodes.

That can be expected, I guess. As well as the timing element. But the dates/years are still befuddling.

[Fire_Fly 499]

But it seems they are based off a latin history hence Equestria ---> Equus = Horse (latin)

 

Good point. What makes the days interesting particularly is the fact that they're the same as ours, but holidays have completely different names altogether, suggesting Equestria has a sort of mixed history.

[Twilight Sky 449]

Good point. What makes the days interesting particularly is the fact that they're the same as ours, but holidays have completely different names altogether, suggesting Equestria has a sort of mixed history.

 

Or maybe they had a pony-based history....similar to ours except ponies so things get changed around...

[Yellow Diamond 7,564]

It seems to be more or less related to our own:

Days (e.g. Pinkie mentions the amount of days until a given birthday in "A Friend in Deed")

-More specifically, the coming "disaster" in "It's About Time" is set to occur "next Tuesday."

Weeks (e.g. Twilight asserts this in "Lesson Zero")

Years (e.g. Fluttershy states she's a year older than Pinkie in "Griffon the Brush-Off")

24 hour clock (Multiple references)

Four seasons:

-Spring ("Winter Wrap Up")

-Summer (Summer Sun Celebration in "Friendship is Magic, parts 1 and 2")

-Autumn (Running of the Leaves in "Fall Weather Friends")

-Winter ("Winter Wrap Up" and "Hearth's Warming Eve")

 

Save for the fact they need to manually change the seasons, the weather, and the solar and lunar cycles, the ponies appear to go by a calendar not unlike our own.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Thereisnospoon303

[null1 606]

They ought to call Monday 'Manesday'.

[Jammo 986]

Normal days are 24 hours. Days run for a thousand Earth years if ponies question her authority as Eternal Leader of Equestria.

[Bronyforever21 2]

just for fun, i like to say that the year is 891627, or 802701 or 61 26

 

I kind of thought that their minutes went buy like seconds as they do in The SiMS.

 

And seeing how they use medieval, gothic architecture, and use horse drawn carts (And horses drawin' horse dawn carts) as well as airships, and flying machines with technology from the 50's 60's 70's 80' and 90's. It might just be steampunk.

[MLPOCBeats 3]

Seconds, minutes, and hours are the same across the board, it ultimately just depends on what they call them. They seem to use the same system as we do and their times are the same (i.e. 3 a.m.) Depending on whether you count the comics as canon or not (I myself do) then you can figure out what year they are in. During the flashback in the comics of how Shining Armor and Cadence met the yearbook claims it is the 80s. During this time we see Vinyl Scratch as a filly which means that if we assume the concept of 18 is adulthood then we can understand that Vinyl is somewhere in her 20s. Logically then if it's been about 20 years since the 80s then they are about in the same year. (We could go a step further and say she's in her 30s and say that it's 2010's but that's up for debate.) 

While they may not have had a Jesus of their own world it may still be possible for them to have made up a new calendar of their own around that time. Luna was banished 1000 years ago which using my method puts the possible origin of today's equestrian calendar at 1010. It's possible the calendar was reset then meaning the year could be 1017 now. On the contrary there may have been another event another 1000 years before that bringing it up to 2017. Ultimately it depends on when they started keeping records or if they reset it. It could be possible that Gregorian years do exist under another name as we see historical ponies in the show.

The months seem like they are about the same as ours. I don't recall where they said it but it was "a few months of winter" which if we use our heads could mean that with their holidays: Spring Cleanup > Easter, Nightmare Night > Halloween, and Hearth's Warming Eve > Christmas. It's likely that their years are similar to our own. The name of the months are debatable but we do know that years are called years as claimed in the show, this likely means that the months are similar to our own since the months are Latin and we know that they used Latin at one point (English speaking now and such.)

[sweetolebob18 724]

Yeah, I've been working on that myself, off & on.  

First thing is that their year might be 13 months of 28 days = 364 days.  If you assume that the Summer Sun Celebration is an  intercalary day, that = 365.   IMO, the other possibility is 6 months of 30 days alternating with 6 months of 31 days = 366 days.  Since they control the sun, I see no reason why they would bother with Leap Years.

For the seasons

I first thought the Sumer Sun Celebration (start of Summer) would be June 21 (longest day of the year).   That would put the Running of the Leaves (Autumn) as Sept. 21, the start of Winter on Dec 21 (It was Season 5, Tanks For the Memories but ICR what it was called) & Winter Wrap Up on March 21.  That is, their seasons are the same as ours

There are 3 days that most fans equate to Earth days.  Nightmare Night = Halloween (Oct 31), no problem. Hearth Warming = Christmas (Dec 25), no problem.  Hearts & Hooves Day = Valentine's Day (Feb 14). BIG problem.

It is clearly a Spring day, which means it has to be after Winter Wrap Up.  Big Mac isn't busy, so planting is done.  It must be at least a few days later.  This means 1 of 2 things.

1) Winter Wrap Up is no later than, say Feb 10.  This means either.

1a) Winter in EQ is VERY short. (Probably no longer than needed to ensure an adequate snow pack to supply ground water). This makes some sense. The reason there are few Winter episodes is that there isn't much Winter to have episodes IN.  However, in the song Rarity says "90 days of Winter" (technically 91, but that's quibbling) & that's wrong.

OR

1b) The seasons are all cattywampus from Earth.  Sumer  starts early May, Autumn starts in August & Winter on Nov 10. Still works for Nightmare Night & Hearth's Warming dates

2) Hearts & Hooves day is at least 6 weeks later than Valentine's day, March 22 or later.  About when Easter is on Earth.  

 

As to "When does their calendar start?" Logical dates include

Celestia banishes Luna (lot of  fan fics seem to assume this) 

Start of Celestia's reign. IRL, a lot of ancient kingdoms did this.  Means you have to start renumbering every time the ruler dies, but EQ would avoid that problem

Building of Castle of the 2 Sisters. IRL, the ancient Romans dated their calendar from when they reckoned Rome was built (754 BC -they got it wrong).  It probably wouldn't be Canterlot, that wasn't the capital until after Luna's exile.

Creation of the world -if they know it or have a dateable creation myth. Ancient Jewish calendar did that (ICR the conversion factor. No, not The Inquisition) IMO, this makes the most sense because you've got no confusing BC/AD nonsense

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by sweetolebob18