The Discordian calendar is an alternative calendar used by some adherents of Discordianism. It is specified on page 00034 of the Principia Discordia.

The numbering of Discordian years is the same as that of Gregorian years plus 1,166. (Elsewhere in the Principia Discordia, it is mentioned that the Curse of Greyface occurred in 1166 BC, so this is presumably the start-date of the calendar.) The first year is year 0 YOLD (Year of Our Lady of Discord). As a reference, the year Anno Domini 2000 is 3166 YOLD.

The Discordian calendar has five seasons of 73 days each: Chaos, Discord, Confusion, Bureaucracy, and The Aftermath.

The Discordian week consists of five days: Sweetmorn, Boomtime, Pungenday, Prickle-Prickle, and Setting Orange. The days of the week are named after the five basic Discordian elements, Sweet, Boom, Pungent, Prickle, and Orange. There are 73 of these weeks per year.

Every fourth year on the Discordian calendar, starting in YOLD 0002, an extra day is inserted between Chaos 59 and Chaos 60 called St. Tib's Day. This is because 4 years + 1 day = 5, a holy number, but it also conveniently coincides very nearly with the Gregorian leap year. The result of this is that any given day of the year in the Discordian calendar may be taken to correspond to the same day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, and vice versa.

There are Apostle Holydays on the 5th day of each season, named after the 5 Discordian apostles: Mungday, for Hung Mung; Mojoday, for Dr Van Van Mojo; Syaday, for Sri Syadasti; Zaraday, for Zarathud; and Maladay, for Malaclypse the Elder. There are also Season Holydays on the 50th of each season: Chaoflux, Discoflux, Confuflux, Bureflux, and Afflux.

The given list of Apostle Holydays is not comprehensive and there may be many more, or many fewer. Discordians are practically forbidden from agreeing on which Apostles are apocryphal and which are canonical; this list is derived from the official Holydays given in the Principia Discordia and may be considered heretical by some Discordians.

ddate, a program that prints the current date in the Discordian calendar, is quietly included in most Linux distributions.

External link

• A scan of page 00034 on www.poee.org
• Online Gregorian-to-Erisian Date Converter