Taking Calendars to Real Nature Time: ECOlogical Calendar

December 10, 2007 —

Time to choose wall calendars for the new year, or to purchase a calendar as a nice stocking stuffer. But why just opt for the same, staid, 12-page picture-and-grid calendar that is geared to unnatural or denatured time? The ECOlogical Calendar—now in its fourth year—is a dazzling, sumptuously illustrated, nature-time/knowledge packed uber calendar. Taking a few years of research and taking the idea of what a calendar is from scratch (and real calendar history), the ECO calendar spreads out across 4 12” x 36” panels, one for each astronomical season. Filled on each season panel is a powerful pastiche of days coordinated with star time, sun time, moon time cycles, ecological cycles for animals and nature, even the old names of each day. Every day had a name just a few centuries ago in European cultures, adding up to 360. So five special holidays were added in.

On the back of each panel is a rich array of explanations for the front panel, which is covered with naturally fantastical art in earth tones shaded to the season. The information harvested for this calendar is so replete that Gene Shalit of the NBC Today Show calls it “as thick as a book.” The top of the calendar includes star and sky information and illustrations. The weeks as we know them are gone, as they are an artificial construct. Lunar cycles take precedence here, artfully tied into nature’s response to the moon’s waxing and waning. The calendar provides much opportunity for observing our human and psychological changes in the real time cycles of the planet. Includes a full-color booklet.