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Religions, time and other worlds
Now let's get into the fun relationships between various religions and the clock/calendar and how this can mess things up on other planets.
The various Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) all have their own calendars, with various relationships to the sun and moon. The Baha'I have yet another calendar, but share the 7-day week with the other three.
Judaism and Islam have the day starting with sunset. *Actual* sunset.
This led to problems when Jews started living around and above the Arctic circle. As I understand it, this led to a ruling that in cases where the sun is not practical to use, you use the sunset in Jerusalem.
To the best of my knowledge, Islam has not yet dealt with this.
Christian monks were one of the drivers behind clocks in the Western world, so the Catholic church and its descendants pretty much run on clock time, not solar time. The Liturgy of the Hours (and the canonical hours based on it) follow clock time for the most part.
Islam definitely runs on solar time. There's a simple test for when the daylight (and thus things like the daylight fasting in Ramadan) begins. It's when you can tell the difference between a white thread (hair) and a black one laying in the palm of your hand. A quick search for an equally clear definition of sunset didn't turn up anything equally simple, but from the learned arguments I encountered, it is most definitely an *observation al* event, not a calculated or clock based one.
Islamic prayer times are equally tied to the sun.
So what Moslems on Mars or some planet around another star will do is unknown. If I had to guess, they might go with Mecca the way Jews did with Jerusalem. Or they might go with local solar time.
Now we have the week. this gets *really* problematic, because it's supposed to be important to take a *specific* day of the week as a day of rest. No putting it off or doing it early. It has to be *that* day.
Now, using Mars as an example, from my previous post, we know that 36 Martian sols is a bit over 37 days. Which means that you'd be taking that day of rest a day late! Not good.
Trying to stick with the earth-based week for this will be a pain. And various religious authorities *will* Have Opinions On This.
Beyond the week we've got months and various holy days (holidays) based on the year.
The Gregorian calendar is fairly straightforward, though the rules for locating various feasts such as Easter (which determines when a whole *bunch* of things happen) and various saints days are anything but. Easter is based on some arcane calculations that are an approximation of determining the first Sunday after the first new(?) moon after the spring equinox.
Try transplanting *that* to Mars or elsewhere!
The Jewish calendar is a hybrid lunar/solar calendar that has a roughly 19 year cycle in which leap *months* are inserted according to various rules. This *could* be transplanted, but the difference between a day and a sol would again mess things up in short order.
This Islamic calendar is even worse. Not only is it *strictly* lunar, but the beginning of the month is determined *observationally*! The first day of the month is when you can see the barest sliver of the new moon right after sunset. Again, not easily transplanted.
All I'll say about the Baha'I calendar is that it consists of 19 months of 19 days, with 4 extra days at the end of the year to bring it up to 365. And yes a 5th extra day in leap years.
Now we come to the difference between the year (365.2425 days) and the etos (local solar year). This too is gonna throw things off religiously. And in other ways.
The various Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) all have their own calendars, with various relationships to the sun and moon. The Baha'I have yet another calendar, but share the 7-day week with the other three.
Judaism and Islam have the day starting with sunset. *Actual* sunset.
This led to problems when Jews started living around and above the Arctic circle. As I understand it, this led to a ruling that in cases where the sun is not practical to use, you use the sunset in Jerusalem.
To the best of my knowledge, Islam has not yet dealt with this.
Christian monks were one of the drivers behind clocks in the Western world, so the Catholic church and its descendants pretty much run on clock time, not solar time. The Liturgy of the Hours (and the canonical hours based on it) follow clock time for the most part.
Islam definitely runs on solar time. There's a simple test for when the daylight (and thus things like the daylight fasting in Ramadan) begins. It's when you can tell the difference between a white thread (hair) and a black one laying in the palm of your hand. A quick search for an equally clear definition of sunset didn't turn up anything equally simple, but from the learned arguments I encountered, it is most definitely an *observation al* event, not a calculated or clock based one.
Islamic prayer times are equally tied to the sun.
So what Moslems on Mars or some planet around another star will do is unknown. If I had to guess, they might go with Mecca the way Jews did with Jerusalem. Or they might go with local solar time.
Now we have the week. this gets *really* problematic, because it's supposed to be important to take a *specific* day of the week as a day of rest. No putting it off or doing it early. It has to be *that* day.
Now, using Mars as an example, from my previous post, we know that 36 Martian sols is a bit over 37 days. Which means that you'd be taking that day of rest a day late! Not good.
Trying to stick with the earth-based week for this will be a pain. And various religious authorities *will* Have Opinions On This.
Beyond the week we've got months and various holy days (holidays) based on the year.
The Gregorian calendar is fairly straightforward, though the rules for locating various feasts such as Easter (which determines when a whole *bunch* of things happen) and various saints days are anything but. Easter is based on some arcane calculations that are an approximation of determining the first Sunday after the first new(?) moon after the spring equinox.
Try transplanting *that* to Mars or elsewhere!
The Jewish calendar is a hybrid lunar/solar calendar that has a roughly 19 year cycle in which leap *months* are inserted according to various rules. This *could* be transplanted, but the difference between a day and a sol would again mess things up in short order.
This Islamic calendar is even worse. Not only is it *strictly* lunar, but the beginning of the month is determined *observationally*! The first day of the month is when you can see the barest sliver of the new moon right after sunset. Again, not easily transplanted.
All I'll say about the Baha'I calendar is that it consists of 19 months of 19 days, with 4 extra days at the end of the year to bring it up to 365. And yes a 5th extra day in leap years.
Now we come to the difference between the year (365.2425 days) and the etos (local solar year). This too is gonna throw things off religiously. And in other ways.
no subject
I mean, how do you have lunar calendar, when you're on a completely different planet which has two moons?!
I suspect you're probably right, they'll switch to a time signal from Mecca or Jerusalem, because there is no other way to resolve the conflicts that I can see, not without it becoming utterly arbitrary.
But then.. you run into speed of light lag... Oy vey!
no subject
But that's not "official". Likewise, when planning for future events, they'll use calculated values for the first of the month.
But these are not "official".
Speed of light lag can be calculated close enough. Or actually *measured* at least part of the etos.
I rather expect some schisms over keeping the local week or the Terran one.
And year based holy days... argh.
I've got a partially written essay on how the Imperial Survey Service in the Traveller universe uses very long baseline astronomy (baselines *parsecs* long) for surveying, and how they synchronize the time between the observatories on the ends of the baselines.
Basically, it involves a powerful laser modulated with a time signal at each end.
Once the signal reaches the other end of the baseline, they add the time they just received from the other end to their transmission.
When that reaches the other end, you can then use the difference (and frequency shift in the laser beam) to calculate the time at the other end of the link.
That gives you Imperial standard Time (or whatever they call it) at both ends of the link. It also gives you a very *precise* measurement of the length of the baseline. add that to the timestamps on observations made of various stars and you get very high precision measurements of where those stars are (after all, we are talking about parallax measured in *degrees*)
The observations are well out from the stars for various reasons.
They also (once synched into the network of such observatories) can broadcast a radio time signal. This can be used by folks in system to synch up their clocks using Imperial time.
And since they are *very* powerful, they can help misjumped ships figure out where they are (if they are close enough).
After all, the observatories have *fusion powered* transmitters, and ships that have misjumped but are otherwise ok can string out one *hell* of a long-wire antenna. Kilometers long, anyone?
no subject
Oh yeah, consider the fun when you are *on* a moon. A lunar base or one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn...
no subject
This is incorrect. Their answer is similar to those used by Jews - either you use the same schedule as the nearest Muslim community that has a workable day/night this time of year, or you use the same schedule as Mecca.
no subject
Still wonder how they'll handle the moon and Mars. :-)
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no subject
And in one shared universe the Arabs (who were excluded from a deal that let a number of other nations "earn" the right to get people rescued from a coming alien invasion) managed to build their own starship based on a very obsolete (thousands of years) design in a database the aliens had shared with the folks they were letting come.
They took a piece of the Kabba with them to be incorporated in a mosque to be built on their colony. sensible, that.
no subject
I suggest examining what people of various religions have done on the ISS, where the "day" is about 90 minutes long and the directions towards various locations on Earth change rapidly.
Also, I believe Judaism - though maybe not all branches - has exceptions for work on the Sabbath necessary to preserve life, such that done by doctors or soldiers .