Calendar
The calendar in Old School RuneScape has ten months, as revealed in Postbag from the Hedge issue 21.[1]
Postbag from the Hedge
Reldo responds to a submission in the 21st issue of Postbag from the Hedge:
“ | Presently, we are in the 169th year of the 5th Age. The length of a day, of course, is equal to one cycle of the sun and the moon.
There are ten months in the RuneScape calendar. [...] An extra day is added to Moevyng every four years to account for an anomaly in the way the calendar has been calculated. Moevyng Day, as it is called, tends to fall in the middle of the month. The most intriguingly-named month is the Ire of Phyrrys. My colleagues over at the Observatory have uncovered the charred remains of a diary that belonged to Phyrrys, apprentice to the astronomer Scorpius. Early entries in Phyrrys's diary tell of how he was attempting to figure out the RuneScape calendar, based upon the astronomical studies his mentor was conducting. However, a few pages have survived of Scorpius's own diary, heavily hinting at Phyrrys's ineptitude, and how at the culmination of the apprentice's initial calendar research, he'd failed to account for a whole forty days. This is backed up in Phyrrys's own diary entries, whereby from this date on, his anger (ire) seemed to grow and grow at his inability to work these forty days into the calendar. It is assumed that a later inhabitant of the Observatory found these notes and, quite easily, corrected the mistake by placing them between Septober and Novtumber, naming the month in honour (or more likely in jest) of the 'challenged' Phyrrys. |
” |
— Reldo [1]
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Based on this information, the total number of days in the year is 365, which suggests that the Gielinorian calendar and the real-life Gregorian calendar indeed overlap.
Months of the year
The months according to the RuneScape calendar as used on Gielinor are:
Month | Number of days | Real-world equivalent | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rintra | 39 | 1 January – 8 February | Tied for 2nd longest month with Novtumber and Moevyng on years with Moevyng Day. |
2 | Moevyng | 38/39 (Moevyng Day) |
9 February – 18 March | There is an additional day in the middle of Moevyng every four years, called Moevyng Day, similar to a leap day. |
3 | Bennath | 32 | 19 March – 19 April | Bennath means "blessing" in Cornish. 2nd shortest month. |
4 | Raktuber | 34 | 20 April – 23 May | |
5 | Pentember | 38 | 24 May – 30 June | Named for its position as the fifth month. Pente (πέντε) is Greek for five. |
6 | Fentuary | 31 | 1 July – 31 July | Only month to solely encompass an entire Gregorian month. Shortest month. |
7 | Septober | 38 | 1 August – 7 September | Named for its position as the seventh month. Septem is Latin for seven. |
8 | Ire of Phyrrys | 40 | 8 September – 17 October | The longest month on the calendar, which is named after the apprentice of Scorpius, Phyrrys. Phyrrys began work on the calendar of RuneScape. |
9 | Novtumber | 39 | 18 October – 25 November | Named for its position as the ninth month. Novem is Latin for nine. |
10 | Wintumber | 36 | 26 November – 31 December | Named after winter; Wintumber trees are named after this month. |