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- "Born some nineteen years ago by the Galactic Standard Calendar."
- ―Grand Moff Birra Seah, in her report on Rebel agent Luke Skywalker
The Galactic Standard Calendar was the standard dating system used throughout the galaxy. The most recent of these calendars eras used the Battle of Yavin as its epoch, or "year zero."
History
- "It was the Historical Council of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances that established and popularized the Battle of Yavin as the zero point to mark the beginning of our current society. Despite protests from some younger generations who maintain that subsequent battles were more significant, most educated beings agree that the Battle of Yavin was a hugely pivotal moment in galactic history."
- ―Tionne Solusar
As galactic civilization had existed for more than 25,000 years, maintaining a unified and standardized calendar in the entire galaxy has always been extremely challenging.[3] Over time, however, historians have used numerous galaxy-changing events as epochs to mark new calendar eras.[4]
One particularly notable epoch is the Treaty of Coruscant of 3653 BBY. The calendar eras before and after this event (referred to as "BTC" and "ATC," respectively) were popularized by the famous Jedi historian Gnost-Dural. His holographic records, which used this numbering system, contained some of the most complete records of numerous important events such as the Hundred-Year Darkness, the Great Hyperspace War, the Great Sith War, the Mandalorian Wars, the Jedi Civil War, and the Great Galactic War against the returned Sith Empire. For this reason, this method of numbering years remains important to historians.[5] Millennia later, the Ruusan Reformation of 1000 BBY substantially restructured the Galactic Republic and created a new calendar with the year 1000 BBY as its zero point.[6]
Centuries later, in 35 BBY, the Republic Measures & Standards Bureau established the Great ReSynchronization calendar to rebalance the disparate dating systems used by the Galactic Republic. In 23 BBY, the Republic Measures & Standards Bureau debated whether to keep this calendar as one of the twenty or so official calendars of the Republic, with Keelen Ma commenting that the various researchers were getting tired of needing calendar converters on their pads.[4] The Great ReSynchronization calendar eventually emerged as the main dating system used in the galaxy during the Clone Wars and the Imperial Era.[7][8]
Around 25 ABY, the New Republic Historical Council established its own dating system. From that point on, the year in which the Battle of Yavin occurred was the epoch used for the dating system.[9] The New Republic's calendar was still in use at the time of the Sith–Imperial War.[3]
Definition
A standard year, as defined by the Coruscant-based Galactic Standard Time, counted 368 standard days of 24 standard hours. One standard year included 10 standard months + 3 festival weeks + 3 holidays. The duration of the standard month and year had been used originally to establish the Galactic Standard Calendar.[10]
However, calendar reforms[4] had eventually changed the Galactic Standard Calendar to a 12-month/368-day calendar.[11][12]
Behind the scenes
Although the standard year was originally defined as a 10-month year early in the Expanded Universe,[10] the keeper of the Holocron continuity database Leland Chee revealed in 2005 that the 10-month calendar system had been dropped for further publications and replaced by a more convenient 12-month calendar.[11] The use of a 12-month/368-day calendar was later confirmed by Sue Rostoni.[12] Thus, the reference book The Essential Atlas featured years of 12 months and months of 30 or 31 days.[13] However, Karen Traviss had claimed that she used the 10-month calendar when writing her Republic Commando novels[14][15]—despite the fact that, in said novels, the one-year anniversary of the First Battle of Geonosis occurs approximately twelve months after the battle.[16]
Appearances
RM&S; Debates Calendar Reform — HoloNet News Vol. 531 #45 (original site is defunct) (Indirect mention only)- Star Wars (2013) 10 (First identified as Galactic Standard Calendar)
Sources
- Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition
- Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
- Player's Guide to Tapani
- Lords of the Expanse
- The Essential Chronology
- "Star Wars Q&A" — Star Wars Insider 58
- Star Wars Calendars on Continuity, Criticisms, and Captain Panaka — Daniel Wallace's StarWars.com Blog (original site is defunct)
- Major Character Birth Years on Keeper of the Holocron — Leland Chee's StarWars.com Blog (original site is defunct)
- The New Essential Chronology
- Don't Read This!!!!!! on Had a slight weapons malfunction. But everything's perfectly all right now — Sue Rostoni's StarWars.com Blog (original site is defunct)
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- IMPERIAL EDICT GR-1NC4 on The Old Republic's official website (backup link) (Mentioned only)
