Britannian calendar

The Britannian calendar differs greatly from game to game:

Ultima IV

The year has 12 months of 30 days each, for a total of 360 days.

Ultima V

The year has 13 months of 28 days each, for a total of 364 days.

Ultima VI and onward

The Britannian Year

The Britannian year is a little shorter than the Earth year with 336 days, meaning that Britannia's orbit around its sun is a little closer. The year is divided in 12 months which are divided into 4 weeks of 7 days. Each day is divided into 24 hours. The hours, minutes and seconds are the same as on Earth, as proven by an Earth pocketwatch.

Britannian Months

The length of the month can be measured by the calendar display in Ultima VI. The month is adjusted to the cycles of the moons Trammel and Felucca, so that the first of a month – and therefore the first of a year – always falls on double new moon, which only happens once a month. This also means that the astronomical alignment can only happen during the first of the month at double new moon.

The months have the same names as on Earth's calendar, possibly thanks to Lord British:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

The Year Count

The year count starts with the founding of Britannia, which happened sometime between Ultima III and Ultima IV. By Ultima V it was the year 139 (calendar display). The start of Ultima VI is in 161 (again calendar display). Ultima VII takes place exactly 200 years later, thus in the year 361. Britannia does have leap years, in which an extra day is added due to the fact that the lunar cycle and calendar days do not match up perfectly over time, in order to correct any errors that appear. This is proven by the date at which Denyel got trapped in a cave, which had been February 29th 227.

Cycles of the Moons

The cycles of the moon during the month are as follows. Both moons change phases at exactly midnight.

Trammel changes phases every night, except that it lingers in Moonglow for two nights, or three when a month rolls over. In Python terms:

   trammel_phase = max(0, (day+8) % 9 - 1)

Felucca spends two nights in each phase, except Moonglow and Minoc, where it spends only one.

Day of Month	Trammel	Felucca
1	Moonglow	Moonglow
2	Moonglow	Britain
3	Britain	Britain
4	Jhelom	Jhelom
5	Yew	Jhelom
6	Minoc	Yew
7	Trinsic	Yew
8	Skara Brae	Minoc
9	New Magincia	Trinsic
10	Moonglow	Trinsic
11	Moonglow	Skara Brae
12	Britain	Skara Brae
13	Jhelom	New Magincia
14	Yew	New Magincia
15	Minoc	Moonglow
16	Trinsic	Britain
17	Skara Brae	Britain
18	New Magincia	Jhelom
19	Moonglow	Jhelom
20	Moonglow	Yew
21	Britain	Yew
22	Jhelom	Minoc
23	Yew	Trinsic
24	Minoc	Trinsic
25	Trinsic	Skara Brae
26	Skara Brae	Skara Brae
27	New Magincia	New Magincia
28	Moonglow	New Magincia

See Also

• Serpent Isle calendar
• Pagan calendar