Timekeeping in Creation
"Good morning, class!" Conn stepped up onto the dais with all the superficial energy he could muster. "I am very glad to be invited here by your teacher, Miss Zillistrennin." He smiled and nodded at the attractive silver skinned woman standing to the side of the room.
She gave him a smile and a you-better-get-this-right-or-there'll-be-no-action-tonight kind of look.
Conn looked back down on the twenty or so children in front of him. "Today we're going to talk about time. Who knows what time is?"
The children sat dumbfounded and Zilli gave him a Great-God-above-they're-all-just-seven-years-old kind of look.
"Right." Conn drew in a breath. "We think about time as minutes, hours, days and years. But how did we come up with how long an hour is? It seems like a long time but who decided it was 100 minutes long? Why not 70? Why not 238?" The children seemed to perk up at that. "OK, so here we go."
Time on Creation began simply with the rising and setting of The Lantern. A day was a day was a day. The First People had nothing better to do than hunt and fish and gather food. They lived in caves and out under the stars. They had no real need to mark the passing of time. We think this state of perfection lasted about 1000 years but no one is exactly sure because there was no need to mark the passing of time.
The first true recording of time was developed by those that watched the stars. Like me. We noticed that as they turn through the night sky only three of the stars change position. The Wanderer and The Twins. We all know the Wanderer is the brightest star and it follows a strange path night after night. Sometimes it's in the morning sky and sometimes in the evening. Sometimes it disappears behind The Lantern for a couple months and then it's back again. Every other star is fixed in place except the two stars we call The Twins.
The Twins are in the middle of the southern constellation called the Scythe. They're right where the handle joins the blade. Those two stars shift side to side, always in the same pattern and always exactly one year long. And that's how we came up with the concept of a year. When The Twins complete one shift right to left and back, that's one year. Amazing, right?
It didn't take long at all to realize that a year is exactly 500 days long. Coincidence, you ask? No. Nothing is a coincidence in Creation. The Great God planned it all this way from the very beginning.
We've broken out a year into 10 different months, each of 50 days. Those months all have the names you're familiar with. And occasionally you'll hear someone refer to a "hundredsday". That's because back in the old days, the first months were called hundredsdays and some people still like to use the term.
Now a day is defined by the rising and setting of The Lantern. A day begins when it rises and ends when it rises again. We've split our days into 10 hours, exactly 5 during the day and 5 during the night. And after we decided on the length of hours we split those into minutes. 100 minutes in each hour.
"And so," finished Conn. "That's how time is kept in Creation. You've been a wonderful class and I hope you all have a great day." He glanced over at Zilli.
She gave him an oh-you're-definitely-going-to-get-some-action-tonight kind of look.
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