Folk Calendar

Folk calendar is a system shaped by long-term observation and experience regarding the relationship between time and life in a particular region or community. This system has been developed in connection with local natural conditions, modes of economic production, social institutions, and beliefs.

The folk calendar is defined as “a system of time and life that serves the function of recalling and reminding the historical, traditional, religious, educational, belief-based, legal, agricultural, political, and economic links established through long-term experience between natural phenomena acquired as cultural heritage by the people of a region and social institutions and events.”

^{Folk Calendar (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}

In contrast to official calendar systems (solar calendar, lunar calendar), folk calendars:

• May assign local names to units such as year, month, and day
• May have natural events, economic activities, and social rituals serve as factors shaping time periods
• May attribute values such as auspicious or inauspicious to days or groups of days
• Function as part of social memory and cultural heritage

Major factors shaping folk calendars include geographical conditions, climate, economy, celestial phenomena, and social dynamics.

Folk calendars have developed through knowledge passed down from generation to generation, based on the accumulated experiences of people living in a given region over many years. During this process, the following elements emerge:

• Mode of economic production: Activities such as agriculture or animal husbandry determine the foundational structure of the calendar. Production activities like plowing, harvesting, threshing, manuring, and feeding cycles align with temporal frameworks.

• Climate and natural phenomena: Local climatic conditions—for example, cold and warm periods, rainy seasons—are among the primary elements shaping the names of months, days, or special designated days in folk calendars.

• Social and cultural ties: Religious holidays, rituals, beliefs, and oral literary works—such as folk poems and rhymes—can form the symbolic codes of folk calendars.

• Time and segmentation: In folk calendars, the division of the year into seasons, months, and days is functionally linked to nature and production. Expressions such as “counted days” or “calculated days” are frequently encountered.

When these elements come together, the local folk calendar becomes a cultural structure that reflects the community’s awareness of time, rhythm of production, and relationship with nature.

In different regions of Türkiye, folk calendars share certain common characteristics in the naming of years, months, and days. Typically, the year is divided into two main phases: the winter phase, which begins in November and lasts until Hıdrellez, followed by the summer phase.

The winter phase is often subdivided into three periods: November, Zemheri, and Hamsin, covering approximately 180 days. These periods serve as the basis for organizing agricultural and pastoral production. Each phase functions as an indicator of weather patterns, natural observations, and the rhythm of production activities. In this sense, folk calendars are regarded as local knowledge systems that organize time socially and regulate the relationship between nature and humans.

In the Eastern Black Sea Region, the folk calendar is commonly referred to as “bizum hesap,” while different terms are used for official calendars: the official calendar is called “huçumet hasabi,” and the Rumi calendar is known as “esçi hesap.”

The region’s folk calendar is marked by local names for months:

January: Kalandar

February: Küçük (Kuçuk)

June: Kirez / Çerez

July: Çuruk / Orak

September: İstavrit / Hac / Boş

October: Biçinayı / Koç / Dar

November: Üzüm / Ayrit / Ayerit

December: Husriyenas / Hus rınar / İstiyanar / Siğirkoyan / Zemheri / Karakış

According to this calendar, the last week of the year and the first week of the new year are not considered “outside time” in village settings. A widespread belief holds that a mythical being such as “Karakoncolos” wanders abroad during this period.

Rituals associating specific days with auspicious or inauspicious outcomes are also observed: for example, on the first day of Kalandar, people do not visit others’ homes; the first person to enter a house on New Year’s Day is expected to have auspicious feet. Additionally, seeds are not sown during the new moon. Beliefs exist that children born during the old moon will be male, while those born during the new moon will be female.

In the Uzunköprü area of Thrace, the folk calendar similarly features specific days and periods denoting cold seasons:

Zemheri period: The intense cold spanning the end of December through the entirety of January.

Bocuk: Designated as January 8, meaning “an extremely cold day.”

Tahta atımı or Haç atımı: Defined as January 18, a cold day described as “cold enough for a piece of wood thrown into the river to freeze.”

Cemre period: The first cemre falls to the air (February 20), the second to water (February 27), and the third to earth (March 6); this descent signifies the beginning of the warming process.

Kocakarı Soğukları: Refers to seven to eight days of intense cold in mid-March.

Aprilin Beşi: A period between April 13 and 18 when unexpected cold spells occur.

Hıdrellez: Marks the beginning of summer days on May 6.

Ağustos Sıcağı: Indicates intense heat between July 15 and August 15.

The functions of the folk calendar can be summarized under the following headings:

• Time and space coordination: It has served as a practical tool for scheduling local activities such as production, harvesting, and animal care.
• Interpretation of natural phenomena: Weather conditions, temperature changes, and rainfall have been encoded into the calendar’s language through concepts such as “counted days,” “Zemheri,” and “Cemre.”
• Social rituals and belief systems: Practices such as the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of days, rituals for the first day of the year, and distinctions between old and new moons are tied to the calendar.
• Cultural memory and identity: The folk calendar is linked to oral literature, folk poems, and rhymes; thus, it plays a vital role in the transmission of cultural heritage.
• Systematization of local knowledge: Although varying from region to region, the folk calendar can be regarded as a local knowledge system; studies have been conducted on the relationship between “local climate knowledge and folk calendar.”

^{Folk Calendar (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}

Variations in naming, usage, and symbolism are observed across regions in folk calendars. For example:

• Local names for months differ from region to region.
• Names for cold and warm periods are unique to each locality.
• Rituals and beliefs associated with specific days vary from place to place.
• Folk calendars do not correspond exactly with official calendars; while official calendars are based on a month-year system, folk calendars follow a production- and nature-oriented perspective.

Folk calendars are evaluated within the framework of Intangible cultural heritage. These calendars encapsulate the knowledge and experience of local communities and are closely linked to local climate information. It is known that folk calendars are primarily known among elderly generations in villages, while knowledge transmission to younger generations has diminished. This situation underscores the necessity of preserving folk calendars as cultural heritage.

The folk calendar is an original element that brings together local geography, climate, economic production, social life, and cultural memory. On one hand, it organizes production, natural phenomena, and time; on the other, it fulfills a functional role in transmitting cultural memory. Local names, rituals, and the functions of days reveal the diversity of the knowledge system embedded in this calendar. Therefore, the folk calendar is not merely a chronological arrangement but also a foundational structure of cultural and geographical knowledge.