Several important dates exist in the Klingon calendar system. Some of these are examined here, along with conjecture on my part about their significance and method of dating. Some are commemorated weekly, some monthly, some yearly, and some by unique dating systems.
This is a far more speculative portion of the Klingon calendar examination than the other pages on this topic. There is also quite a bit of information used here that is not gained from novels connected to the Lit-verse. I have included all the information on Klingon holidays I could, regardless of its connectivity with the rest of the literary continuity. None of the speculation here is contrary to anything in the Lit-verse continuity loved i not honor more, but it does contain quite a bit of theorizing on my part. If anyone out there wants to offer changes to some of these speculations to make the overall system more coherent, I would love to hear your ideas. And anyone, including any Star Trek authors, are totally free to use any of this for whatever purpose they would like.
The Kenson-Bennett Klingon Calendar begins in 1375. The years of the system are referred to in canon and in the Lit-verse as "the year of Kahless." However, Kahless lived around the 9th or 10th Century according to TNG: "Rightful Heir" and DS9: "The Sword of Kahless." Given the Kenson-Bennett Calendar's assumption that Klingon years roughly correspond to Earth years, this leaves us with the conclusion that Year of Kahless 1 cannot be Kahless' birth year, death year, or any other event surrounding his actual life.
One important event in Klingon history did occur around the 14th Century: the Hur'q Invasion. According to TLE: The Art of the Impossible, after the defeat of the Hur'q, the Hero Ch'gran constructed a fleet of warships from Hur'q technology and was the first Klingon to venture into the stars. Whether it was this occasion, the defeat of the Hur'q, or some other specific date, it appears the Klingons reckon time from some event in this era of history.
It seems likely that the first system the Klingons would have devoted their effort to visit is Boreth. I speculate that the Empire restarted their calendar at Year of Kahless 1 on the day that Ch'gran set foot on Boreth, and that Ch'gran planned this event to coincide with the start of a new year under the old numbering system. So for simplicity's sake, only the year changed, not the days and months.
The most widely known holiday of the Klingon year is the Day of Honor. Eight Days of Honor have been depicted onscreen or in the books and comics, and one other has been mentioned. Their timings during the year have never been consistent during any of those usages. Fandom has commonly placed the Day of Honor on March 23rd in the Earth calendar, in honor of the airdate of the first appearance of the Klingons in "Errand of Mercy." However this date does not align with any of the specific dates given for the Days of Honor shown onscreen on in the literature.
TOS: Day of Honor- Treaty's Law
TNG: Day of Honor- Ancient Blood
DS9: Day of Honor- Armageddon Sky
DS9 (Young Adult): Day of Honor- Honor Bound
Marvel DS9 Issue 13: Day of Honor
Star Trek Unlimited comic story: "The Warrior"
VOY: Day of Honor- Her Klingon Soul
Voyager episode: "Day of Honor"
The Klingon Art of War
So we are left with only this concrete information on when Days of Honor occur, which is neither consistent about the time of year, nor the duration between celebrations.
Given the fact that the two Days of Honor B'Elanna commemorates are said to be consecutive celebrations (despite the fact that they occur more than one Klingon year apart, and despite the fact that Worf notes another Day of Honor which takes place between them) I decided to divide the four most specifically dated of the 24th century celebrations into sets of two. A "High Day of Honor" and a "Low Day of Honor." This accounts for B'Elanna only bothering to take note of the "High Day of Honor", while the "Low Day of Honor" celebrations are only mentioned by Worf and Martok, who would be more observant of a lesser cultural occasion.
High Days of Honor
Low Days of Honor
Under this way of looking at things, it becomes interesting that the two Low Days of Honor could be seen as taking place exactly 1.5 years apart. The High Days of Honor don't seem to take place any notable length of time apart. The only Days of Honor which are specifically mentioned as related to the events of Treaty's Law are the Low Days of Honor.
Going with the assertion from the Day of Honor novelization that the two Days of Honor B'Elanna celebrates are consecutive High Days of Honor, and acknowledging the fact that the span of time doesn't seem to be any round length in the Klingon calendar system (certainly not one year), I speculate that the High Day of Honor actually takes place once every Boreth year. This seems to be a logical alternative to once every Klingon year, in the absence of any concrete alternative.
Then to account for the multitude of frequent Days of Honor in the early 2370s, and fitting with the fact that the two Low Days of Honor which we know the time frames of could be said to be spaced 1.5 Klingon years apart, I speculate that the Low Day of Honor takes place twice per Klingon year. I also speculate that the High Day of Honor is an ancient tradition, predating TOS: Treaty's Law, the events of which are commemorated on the Low Day of Honor.
I speculate the approximate period of a Boreth year is 1.5958 Klingon "years." This is exactly 689 Klingon "days," 6 Klingon "hours," 6 Klingon "minutes," 41.75 Klingon "seconds." Despite the discrepancy between the Boreth day and the Klingon day, the Klingons celebrate the High Day of Honor as one full Klingon day. The period between High Days of Honor therefore follows a pattern of advancing 689 days five times out of every eight celebrations, and 690 days three times out of every eight celebrations.
This makes the High Day of Honor fall on these dates in the 2370s (with the Earth dates the days on which the majority of the Klingon day falls):
The Low Day of Honor being celebrated twice per Klingon year results in the following two dates repeating each Klingon year, based on the date we know from the Deep Space Nine novel. The Earth dates are the days on which the majority of the Klingon day falls in the 2370s.
Given that Worf states the commemoration period for the Low Day of Honor is approximately four Earth days, and he makes a point to say that it falls three days after the first day of the ninth month, I speculate that the holiday is commemorated over the course of four Klingon days, culminating in the actual Day of Honor itself.
I would further speculate that if the High Klingon Day of Honor falls within the same Klingon month (within six weeks) as a Low Day of Honor, the Low Day of Honor is abrogated.
With this system of arriving at the dates of Days of Honor in mind, we can reexamine the mentions of the Day of Honor we looked at previously, and determine the success of this speculative explanation, and what dates the novels would therefore take place on.
TOS: Day of Honor- Treaty's Law
TNG: Day of Honor- Ancient Blood
DS9: Day of Honor- Armageddon Sky
VOY: Day of Honor- Her Klingon Soul
DS9 (Young Adult): Day of Honor- Honor Bound
Star Trek Unlimited comic story: "The Warrior"
Marvel DS9 Issue #13- Day of Honor
Voyager episode: "Day of Honor"
The Klingon Art of War
As an easy overview, I've calculated the Days of Honor as they would fall under this system for each year from the Next Generation era to the Legacy era. The High Days of Honor are in bold. The underlined date is when the majority of the Klingon day falls, and would be the day on which the Day of Honor would actually be celebrated according to the Earth calendar.
One might speculate that the date of the Day of Honor was changed after the events of "Treaty's Law" and the tradition of uniting with one's enemies in commemoration of the events of that novel was added as well. If the Day of Honor predates those events, and had a different set of dates before hand, perhaps that final "original" Day of Honor took place on March 23, 2267. This would account in universe, in some way, for the tradition in fandom to celebrate the Day of Honor on March 23 each year.
Indeed the Klingon Empire Travel Guide states that the Day of Honor predates the events of "Treaty's Law." It places the tradition's origins in the final years of Emperor Kaldon, not long after the era of Kahless.
If the first High Day of Honor under this new system took place on 36 Soo'jen 893 (July 22-23, 2267), then the final instance of this hypothetical previous Day of Honor dating would be March 23, 2267. Interestingly this does end up taking place on the exact date of the episode "Errand of Mercy", the episode whose airdate many fans use to arrive at the assumption that the Day of Honor is March 23. This date converts to 36 Nay'Poq 892 for this final "original" Day of Honor.
If the "original" Day of Honor dating system worked exactly like the one I have developed above, then the other High Day of Honor would take place 12 Maktag. By total coincidence the two dates are simply 3 months earlier than the their "new" counterparts. This ensures that the 432 day dating scheme works with these dates as well.
So for years before Year of Kahless 893, the Day of Honor would fall on these dates, in a repeating three year pattern:
Year 1 (890): (NO DAYS OF HONOR THIS YEAR)Year 2 (891): Low Day of Honor- 28 Jo'vos
High Day of Honor- 12 MaktagYear 3 (892): Low Day of Honor- 4 Doqath
High Day of Honor- 36 Nay'Poq
In the TNG episode "Firstborn", it is said that the Kot'baval Festival is the celebration of the defeat of the tyrant Molor by Kahless in single combat. Traditions observed this day include reenactments of this pivotal moment in Kahless' life. In 2370 this festival took place one day before Stardate 47779.4. That would mean it fell on October 11, 2370. This converts to 26 Maktag 996.
Interestingly, the Kot'baval Festival was also depicted in the Dark Passions duology. This version of the celebration seemed to take place more or less sometime around stardate 47104. This stardate converts to February 8, 2370. So the Kot'baval Festival seems to have occurred twice in one year, at approximately 9 Earth months apart. This makes it similar to the holiday QI'lop discussed below, in that it doesn't occur on the same day each year.
Also of note is that in the original document by Steve Kenson, the Kot'baval Festival was the start of the Klingon year, and Kahless' defeat of Molor took place in the Year of Kahless 0. The evidence examined above about the event that took place in Year of Kahless 1 to begin the Klingon calendar shows that it could not be an event during the lifetime of Kahless.
Interestingly the Low Day of Honor in 2370 took place only two days after the Kot'baval Festival seen in TNG: "Firstborn." This is further corroboration of either the idea that the Low Day of Honor is a very minor commemoration in Klingon culture, or that the Kot'baval Festival occurs on a different day each year. This would make the two day span between the Low Day of Honor and the Kot'baval Festival in 2370 a rare occurrence.
In the audio reference "Conversational Klingon," Empire Union Day is said to take place "in the third month." It honors the uniting of the Klingon people into the First Empire by Kahless the Unforgettable. The third month under my version of the Kenson-Bennett calendar is Lo'Bral.
As we've seen in the examination of the Klingon Defense Force's calendar system, they seem to reckon each year as beginning on 14 Lo'Bral, 109 days after the start of the Kenson-Bennett Klingon year.
I speculate that Empire Union Day takes place each Klingon year on 14 Lo'Bral, and it is this occasion that the Klingon Defense Force is reckoning the start of their year by.
The audio reference "Power Klingon" tells of this Klingon Defense Force commemoration. It celebrates the superiority of the Klingon military. Much eating and drinking are done on this day, especially stuffed to'baj legs. As opposed to the dating given for Empire Union Day, which is said to occur "in the third month," the dating of this holiday is said to be "every tenth Klingon month."
Making note of that distinction in the wording, I take "every tenth Klingon month" to mean that it happens not "in the tenth Klingon month" which would be impossible to reconcile with the Kenson-Bennett Klingon calendar, but rather that it occurs less often than once per year. I have no reasoning for why this takes place as I do with the Day of Honor.
As there has been no specific date for the QI'lop ever given, I have no evidence as to when it takes place. Any guess I make would be totally random. So in the face of absolutely no evidence, I will leave the exact date of QI'lop to others to determine.
As originated by Steve Kenson, the Kenson-Bennett calendar system includes a leap day every five years. This is called a festival year, and originally Kenson intended this day to be added to the Kot'baval Festival, as it was said to occur at the start of the year.
I have not ended up being able to place the Kot'baval Festival at the start of each Klingon year, so this Festival Leap Day has to be its own celebration, falling on 0 Jo'vos every fifth year.
Kahless' birth date has never been mentioned in canon or the literature. However it is noteworthy that one of the Klingon months is named A'Kahless.
If Kahless was born on 48 A'Kahless, that explains why the month seems to be named after him. Then the first full day after that would be the start of the Klingon year. This is pure speculation on my part, but it seems to make sense.
With this system of arriving at the dates of Days of Honor in mind, we can reexamine the mentions of the Day of Honor we looked at previously, and determine the success of this speculative explanation, and what dates the novels would therefore take place on.
TOS: Day of Honor- Treaty's Law
TNG: Day of Honor- Ancient Blood
DS9: Day of Honor- Armageddon Sky
VOY: Day of Honor- Her Klingon Soul
DS9 (Young Adult): Day of Honor- Honor Bound
Star Trek Unlimited comic story: "The Warrior"
Marvel DS9 Issue #19- Day of Honor
Voyager episode: "Day of Honor"
The Klingon Art of War
As an easy overview, I've calculated the Days of Honor as they would
fall under this system for the 2360s-2380s. Low Days of Honor are
followed by High Days of Honor in groups of two. The underlined date is when the majority of the Klingon day falls, and would be the day on which the Day of Honor would actually be celebrated according to the Earth calendar.