Skip to content

Eras and Cycles

Eras define historical periods with custom year formatting. Configure eras in the Calendar Editor > Eras tab.

FieldDescription
NameFull era name (e.g., “Dale Reckoning”)
AbbreviationShort form (e.g., “DR”)
Start YearFirst year of this era
End YearLast year (leave empty if ongoing)

Eras may overlap. Multiple eras can cover the same year range. When eras overlap, use indexed format tokens to reference a specific matching era by position.

When displaying a year, Calendaria finds all matching eras by checking which eras contain that year. The yearInEra is calculated as displayYear - startYear + 1.

Use era format tokens in date format strings to include era information:

TokenDescription
GEra abbreviation (e.g., DR)
GGGGFull era name (e.g., Dale Reckoning)
[era=N]Full name of the Nth matching era (for overlapping eras)
[eraAbbr=N]Abbreviation of the Nth matching era
[yearInEra=N]Year within the Nth matching era
[yearInEraOrdinal]Year within era, ordinal (1st, 541st)
[yearInEraOrdinal=N]Ordinal year within the Nth matching era

Examples:

  • Y G produces “1492 DR”
  • Do of MMMM, Y GGGG produces “15th of Hammer, 1492 Dale Reckoning”
  • [era=1] / [era=2] produces “Dale Reckoning / Age of Mortals” when both eras overlap

Cycles are repeating sequences (zodiac signs, elemental weeks, etc.). Configure cycles in the Calendar Editor > Cycles tab.

FieldDescription
NameCycle name (e.g., “Zodiac”)
LengthHow many stages before the cycle repeats
OffsetStarting offset for calculation
Based OnTime unit driving the cycle
StagesList of cycle stages with names
ValueDescription
yearCalendar year
eraYearYear within current era
monthMonth index
monthDayDay of month
dayAbsolute day count from epoch
yearDayDay of year

The cycle format field controls how cycles appear in the UI. Use numbered placeholders for each cycle:

  • [1], [2], etc. - Current entry name for each cycle
  • [n] - Line break

Example: [1] - Week of [2] produces “Gemini - Week of Fire”

[!TIP] To display era and cycle information in date format strings, use the format tokens documented in Format Tokens.


See API Reference and Hooks.