The Xhosa Calendar
I must admit, this has been hard to grasp. But this is the truth nonetheless. Romans and Greeks started calculating time after the equinoxes, but the Ancient Africans has always had a different way of telling time altogether. So lets go through this. And also in a future post there will be calculations (after the Xhosa) calendar, how to observe the ancient traditional festival days, Feast of Weeks, The Temple Feasts - dreaded Day of Atonement and the likes, as we go further into the new year (now in month number 4).
A year traditionally began in June and ended in May the next year, when their brightest star in the southern sky - Canopus - signalled the time for harvesting. The Xhosa months are poetically named after stars and seasonal plants found in South Africa. Urbanised and other places where Roman Christianity has set their brand, the anglicised versions of the months are used, especially revered by the younger generations. But the rural areas of the Eastern Cape - the olden names and traditions still stand.
We start in June, as the year begins in June.
June - EyeSilimela (month of the Pleiades)
July - EyeKhala (month of the aloes)
August - EyeThupha (month of the buds
September - EyoMsintsi (month of the coast coral tree
October - EyeDwarha (month of the tall yellow daisies
November - EyeNkanga (month of the small yellow daisies
December - EyoMnga - (month of the acacia thorn tree)
January - EyoMqungu (month of the Tambuki Grass)
February - EyoMdumba (month of the swelling grain)
March - EyoKwindla (month of the first fruits)
April - uTshaz'iimpuzi (month of the withering pumpkins)
May - EyeCanzibe (month of Canopus)
They used to call the month of December the month of the mimosa thorn tree, however this plant is not indigenous to South Africa, and would only have arrived some hundred years ago from South America.
As mentioned before the ancients cultures used equinoxes and solstices as their main markers for a calendar, others used helical rises of stars and the movements of the moon. It seems that all ancient cultures knew about these methods. Only one particular marker was used more than others. For instance Greek and Roman cultures used the spring equinox as the start of the new year, while New Zealand Maori used the helical rise of the Pleiades, know to them as Matariki. Just as the indigenous people of South Africa, aka Children of Israel) used the Pleiades - Isilimela. Pleiades comes from the Greek Pleios, which means to sail. This was a way of saying that the rising of the Pleiades signified the start of the season for safe sailing weather in the surrounding African coastal areas.
Listen this is the way they told time in Ancient Israel and it is riddled throughout the pages of the Bible. Other time recordings are not correct, especially those that estimate time from the Middle East. That way the new year starts in March sometime, when they find a few stubs of barley and waive them in the air...
This means, after Biblical reckoning - we are know in the month of the cost coral tree, also know as the 4 month. Which means the first and upcoming feast of Weeks, should be in the beginning of the fifth month.
I know, its not easy to get. And some of you never will. But folks, if you live in todays Middle East, Europe or America. You will after all calculations be living on the wrong continent - thus - living after a made up calendar. In turn you will be missing blessing like the Sabbath altogether. Unless So NiNi shows that to you and lets you understand the true course of history and how to observe His Special days. Dont you want your body to be aligned with the blessing of knowing when to rest and when to work? Do you want to enter into His rest?
Uxolo lube nawe