Yearglass

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A yearglass is an ornate, reinforced hourglass with two chambers holding fine sand. The sand rests in the lower chamber, and when the entire yearglass is rotated it marks the beginning of a new year. The time it takes for all of the sand to empty from the upper chamber into the lower one takes the duration of a whole year instead of an hour, and many folks gather around the town yearglass to celebrate as they watch the final grains fall.
The yearglass is about 20 times bigger than an hourglass and is supported on an ornate structural frame - it takes several strong folks to turn the crank to flip it over!
It isn't a perfect timekeeping device, so sometimes there's a delay between the final grain falling and the time it should be flipped in order for it to match with the local calendar. Speeches and musical performances usually take place to fill the gap.

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