The Shepherd's Trail, Part 3: Timekeeping
New Jerusalem orbits the start Nereus approximately every .97 Earth years. This single rotational cycle is called a year, which is divided into 375 days. These are broken into 12 months, each of 31 or 32 days. The months are Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ax, Elul, Tishri, Marheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shivan, and Adar. The months of Tammuz, Marsheshvan and Adar each have 32 days and the rest have 31. Days are grouped together into 7-day weeks, and the names of the days are consistent with Earth’s. Seasons are approximately three months, with Nisan being the start of the northern hemisphere’s summer.
A day on New Jerusalem is 22 hours long, with each hour consisting of 60 minutes, each of 60 seconds. The day is not broken into AM and PM, so a 22-hour clock is used. The day is not exactly 22 hours long, so the remaining time is added to 0700 and 1800 and traditionally marks the beginning and end of the working day. This time is typically used for daily preparation, prayer, meals, and other short activities.
The New Jerusalem calendar starts on 9 June, 5431. The actual date that landings began was 27 September 5431, and the start of the year was backdated to the start of the summer season. This means that Landing Day, the celebration of the first landing, is on 15 Tammuz NJ 1. As of the middle of TN 1954, New Jerusalem is in year NJ 738, and the CEF 7th fleet arrived in NJ 729.
The ramp opened onto an unfamiliar, alien world. The colonists were met by the sight of lush grasslands stretching for kilometers with a crown of mountains in the distance. This first party of the colonization effort was composed mostly of dozens of scientists, engineers, and workers ready to set up the first temporary housing on the world. They were not the first ones off the ship. The very first group was a handful of doctors and an old man in a wheelchair. As they reached the end of the ramp, the old man motioned them to stop. The Pope of the Jerusalemite Church tried to lift himself from his chair. Initially his doctors tried to stop him, but he waved them off. After all these years, all this effort, he would do this himself.
Steadied by an aide who took great care to stand behind him, the Pope would be the first to set foot upon New Jerusalem. As he walked, he felt stronger. Weak, hesitant steps became more confident, and eventually he didn’t need his aide’s support. When he took the first step on New Jerusalem, the Pope did so triumphantly as he gazed over this new promised land. He fell to his knees almost immediately. His aide and the doctors were about to leap into action until they realized the Pope had done this deliberately. As he got back up, those beside him saw a clump of soil in his hand. The Pope brought the soil to his lips and kissed it before letting it run from free from his hands onto the ground. The Pope’s aide noticed the Pope was crying, his tears falling upon the culmination of his life’s efforts.
The serene, reverent moment ended in an instant as the Pope collapsed to the ground.
Landing Day has a double meaning on New Jerusalem. It is a celebration of the start of the planet’s colonization as on other colonies. It is a promise of a new future and what is to come. It is also a somber day of remembrance, honoring the past and those who gave their all for this new colony as well as those who did didn’t live to see it. Pope Adrian XXXIV is a central figure of this celebration. His death mere minutes after landing on New Jerusalem is the very symbol of those who labored for a world they would never live in.
