Shalōm 𐤔𐤋𐤌, all. This is something I've been meaning to do for a while now, but I got to putting together this edition of the Shanatu Qadishti calendar, originally created by Tess Dawson based on the ancient Ugaritic ritual calendar, for this year and the next. As far as I can tell, this is the first time anything like this has been done in years, and it was rewarding if not somewhat frustrating.
Going by the ancient reckoning, a day of this calendar begins at Sunset on the Gregorian calendar day prior to the Shanatu Qadishti day's equivalent: So, for instance, Niqalu 0, 97 SQ, began at Sunset on September 1, 2024 CE, and ended at Sunset on Sep. 2, Niqalu 1 ran from the latter until Sunset on Sep. 3, Niqalu 2 from then until Sunset on Sep. 4, and so on. Chudthu and Mlatu days occur based on which sunset-to-sunset calendar day the corresponding lunar event falls in.
I've done my best to keep this faithful to Dawson's original scheme as to avoid confusion, but I actually did add one holiday of my own design: A Day of Lamentation for the Temple of 𒀭Baʿal-Shamin in ancient Tadmor/Palmyra, which was senselessly destroyed by ISIS terrorists on August 23, 2015 CE, followed shortly after by the Temple of 𒀭Bel at the same location. That day actually fell on the intercalary month of Shalamu per Dawson, and it wasn't possible to simply move it back a month as it would interrupt ʿAshuru Raʾshi Yeni, so I settled on Raʾshu Yeni 26 as a compromise. I'd hope such a day could be a valuable occasion for reflection and prayer, honoring victims of terrorism and intolerance.
Please note that this is a lunisolar calendar which operates based on lunation, and it's displayed here in accordance with the moon phases in my own locale. I've put the .XLSX files up in this Google Drive folder, so anyone can customize them to their utility with Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. I used this website to figure the lunation out for myself, and it can be set to most any location (for instance, here it is set to the area of ancient Ugarit) with another tab for sunset times. Thanks for reading, I hope some of y'all find this useful!
Here's the versions set to Ugarit's lunation if an "ecumenical" variation of the calendar would ever be necessary. I'd imagine for most, though, it'd be preferable to go off their own locale. Files are on the same Drive link as before '｡˚⋆˙‧₊ .
