MoonCat​Calendar

The weather on the Moon doesn’t change much throughout the year, though MoonCats have watched the changing of the seasons based on what the blue marble of Earth looks like beneath them. MoonCat seasons start when the Earth is in specific points of its orbit (equinoxes and solstices).

• A MoonCat Year starts when the axial tilt of Earth is pointed directly towards the Sun (what humans label as the “Summer Solstice”).
• A lunar Cycle on the Moon is nearly a month long for Earthlings (full moon through new moon and back).
• MoonCats largely live on the “far side” of the Moon, so what Earthlings call “full moon” is “midnight” to MoonCats, and “new moon” is “noon”. Hence MoonCats mark the beginning of a cycle as “full moon” and runs through the next “full moon”.
• The lunar Cycle that contains the Summer Solstice is considered the first cycle of the year, and starts the first season (Emball).
• That means each lunar Year has 12 or 13 cycles (depending on how early/late the solstice falls within the cycle)
• The lunar Cycle that contains the Autumnal Equinox starts the second season (Goball).
• The lunar Cycle that contains the Winter Solstice starts the third season. (Iteball)
• The lunar Cycle that contains the Vernal Equinox starts the fourth season (Piball).
• Each lunar Season has a max of three lunar cycles in it. For years that have 13 lunar cycles, one of the seasons will end up as a 4-cycle gap. For that season, the first three cycles are that season, and then the fourth cycle is a special cycle that’s not part of any season, and is named Jubilee.
• Very, very rarely will a season only end up with two lunar cycles by the above logic (last one happened in 1963, and the next won’t happen until 2314).
• During Seasons 4 and 1 (Piball and Emball), warm-colored MoonCats are more attuned.
• During Seasons 2 and 3 (Goball and Iteball), cool-colored MoonCats are more attuned.

The following is a visualization of the merging of the in-lore MoonCat calendar periods, and the common Gregorian calendar: