<- Back to Chapter 19 | [Back to the Table of Contents] | Forward to Chapter 21 -> Chapter 20 The Charming Moon The rapidly-falling cherry blossom petals covered the land in white, replacing the snow that had just melted. Though I had not checked the calendar in a while, I could surmise a guess just by looking outside that either April was about to end, or that May had already started. I thought the cherry blossoms bloomed a little late this year, but a few days' difference is no cause for alarm. It just seemed to me that there were fewer warmer days this winter. Cherry blossom buds only appear on warmer days, for on colder days the temperature makes them close up tight. If there are fewer warmer days, then that will delay when the blossoms bloom. Incidentally, in the few records left behind after Gensokyo's formation, it is written that in Gensokyo over one hundred years ago, the beginning of March would be determined by the blooming of the cherry blossoms. As it presently indicates a more suitable time frame, around the end of April or the beginning of May, when you consider that, March comes much earlier. So when compared to winter temperatures back then, and the cherry blossoms blooming almost two full months later, it was likely much warmer then than it is now. But, of course, that's not the case at all. Winter always has been - and always will be - cold. There is another reason for the cherry blossoms signaling the beginning of March. "Now if it were me, I'd shoot down every last petal." "What? If it were me, I'd dodge them all." "But they fall so slow, so that's nothin' special." "What are you talking about? Slower bullets are harder to avoid than fast ones." Fomr some reason, Reimu and Marisa were having a bitter, pointless argument, but I couldn't hold it against them. They had planned on having a flower-viewing party today, but it was cancelled. And to make matters worse, the blossoms had almost completely fallen off, and already bits of green could be seen on the trees. Today might have been their last chance. With their wish of this send-off party to their precious petals dashed by the heartless rain, they now wait bored inside the shop. They were so excited for their party, but now they were likely worried if the rain would strip the remaining petals from the trees. "And besides, the petals are already so limp. What's so special about shooting them?" "It's special ta me. I'm proud-a my shootin' skills." "Alright you two, I think that's enough of this petty argument. After the cherry blossoms fall, you know that means summer is right around the corner. It's simply that this year, it won't be the spring wind that takes them, but the spring rain. You shouldn't be spending endless hours bickering because of your current situation. Why don't you try thinking ahead a little more?" "'Petty'? How rude. What we're doing is discussing new ways of interacting with the cherry blossoms. Isn't that thinking ahead?" "We're so far ahead, we're practically in the future." Although they say "far ahead," their "future" is a lot more recent. Like about what they should do today. "We're so forward-thinking that we never reflect on the past, but a little while earlier, Yukari had said something like, 'It's a good thing the cherry blossoms in Gensokyo bloomed late this year,'" Reimu said. "Hm? So what does that mean?" "'Winter in the outside world suddenly became much shorter, so the cherry blossoms bloomed in the middle of March,' she said," Reimu told me in an unusually lazy tone of voice, which I took for her mimicking Yukari - although it was a poor imitation. If you take too many liberties in your exaggeration, no one will know who it's supposed to be. "I...see. So she mentioned something about the short winter in the outside world?" "'Since I got to see both the outside world's blossoms and Gensokyo's evening blossoms,'" she continued in her Yukari tone, "'I get to enjoy seeing the cherry blossoms twice this year.'" I don't know why she only saw Gensokyo's cherry blossoms in the evening, but even if the timing is different in the blooming of the trees between the outside world and Gensokyo, it should be no inconvenience to the youkai here. "Ah, so that means the cherry blossoms in the outside world were at full bloom in March. It seems they had an exceptionally warm winter. But no matter. Since you two seem bored, let me tell you about something strange." I took a glance out the window as I said this. The rain had lessened to a light drizzle, but the outside of the window was clearly wet. I wondered if the rain might wash away the petals stuck to the window until I finished my story. "What's this 'something strange'?" "Just a small detail. While the cherry blossoms blooming in March in the outside world is indeed early, a long time ago, the cherry trees blossomed in March as well - both in the outside world and in Gensokyo." "Blossomed in March? Isn't that more than a month early?" "Who'd wanna have a party when it's still so cold out?" "No, I didn't mean that it actually was March - simply that they blossomed in March." "What's that...? A Zen riddle...?" "It's the old calendar. There are almost no traces of it nowadays, but over 100 years ago, they used the lunar calendar. March in the lunar calendar would be around the end of April in the modern one. I was just saying that if you used the old calendar, the cherry blossoms would bloom in March." "The old calendar? Ah, that." "Hey, I sometimes wonder about this myself, but what is the old calendar? And why'd they change it, anyway?" I prepared some salted tea with floating cherry blossom petals for them. I poured the hot water slowly, and even the floating blooms in the cup were imbibed. While we can't enjoy relaxing under the trees today, there are still ways to enjoy the view of the blossoms. "I never thought you would prepare such beautiful tea for us, Rinnosuke." "So what's this old calendar buisiness about?" "And why was it necessary to change to the new one?" "The old calendar - or, to be specific, the lunar calendar - is based upon the waxing and waning of the moon. One cycle, the time between new moons, which takes between 29 and 30 days, is counted as a month. And then twelve of these months make a year." "Ah, so maybe that's why the word 'month' comes from the word 'moon'." "Precisely. When the change was made to the new calendar, that word remained unchanged. However, the amount of time is different; as a month now is around 30 or 31 days, it's about one day more than the old month. So that means a year in the old calendar is roughly 10 days shorter than a year in the new calendar." "Missin' ten days out of a year? That doesn't sound too bad to me." "No, no, no; it is bad. Being short by even 10 days is very troublesome. After ten years, it will start snowing in spring; after another 10 years, winter and summer will have completely changed places." "So it'll be a warm winter, huh?" "Wouldn't it be more hot than warm?" "And just like that, the seasons and the months would continually shift. So they added a thirteenth month every three years." "So that's why I see that word come up every now and then in the older books." Marisa seemed to be waiting for the perfect time to drink her tea. I'm not sure what her idea of perfect timing is, though. As for Reimu, she had already started on hers. "Unfortunately, that is not the case. In years when they had a thirteenth month, it was never called 'the thirteenth month'. The reason is because when the seasons would become too out of place, they would simply add that extra month to the end of the current month, like when March would start to feel too much like February; the real March and the extra month would both be called 'March'." "...How does that make any sense? What a ridiculous system." "Of course, they had some manner to clearly calculate when to add this extra month, but after a while, they were able to rely on their senses. Sense is the underlying aspect in all calculations." "But doesn't havin' two of the same month make things complicated? Givin' it some kinda name'd make more sense." "The extra month was properly distinguished by the name 'uruo month,' meaning 'intercalary month'. For example, the second March would be called 'Uruo March'. The reason why they changed to the new calendar was that even with the Uruo months, the seasons would rarely match up, and so it became too inconvenient. So the old lunar calendar was abandoned, and the new solar calendar spread in its place." "Wow, the old calendar was so complicated, I wonder if it wasn't humans who came up with it, but youkai? Why didn't they use the calendar we have now from the very start?" "Well, a lunar calendar would be better-suited for youkai. You'd immediately know on what dates the new and full moons occur. But as human technology advanced, they pushed more and more for a solar calendar." "But aren't there quite a few youkai here in Gensokyo? Do we really need to use the new calendar here?" "The reason why we use the new one here too is because it is the one they use in the outside world; that's all. We're already isolated enough, but using a different calendar would make matters worse. It's not as if the solar calendar were created in Gensokyo." "I guess you're right. Now that I think about it, it would be strange if the youkai suddenly decided to stop going by the moon and start using the sun instead." "Indeed: They never wanted to have the change forced upon them, and I've heard that there are still some here who have not yet adapted. In fact, there is a unique lunar calendar made by the youkai of Gensokyo." The two of them, their mood improved after having forgotten their quarrel, listened intently to my story. "The youkai lunar calendar. It doesn't just go by the waxing and waning of the moon, but also incorporates the color of the moonlight to determine monthly cycles. It is said that it is much easier to tell when natural phenomena will occur than the calendars the humans devised. Not only seasons, but disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and when the bamboo flowers will bloom. Many kinds of cycles are included in this calendar. Just by knowing the date, you can also know how much longer it will be until the bamboo flowers bloom." "That's pretty cool! If their calendar's got all that stuff, maybe we humans should use it too. Sounds a lot more useful, that's for sure." "However, there's a big problem with humans using the calendar - the length of their day is not as long as our days. In fact the concept of 'day' doesn't even exist - their smallest unit of measurement is a full month. If you were to compare it to the current 'day,' the new moon would be like midnight and the full moon would be like noon. And it's considerably long, taking 60 of our years for one of their calendar cycles. This might be fine for beings with such long lifespans as youkai, but for much more shorter-lived humans, that seems extremely inconvenient to me." "Hmm...so since they hate the sun, they picked the moon. Guess they really do depend on it that much, but I ain't never heard-a any youkai usin' that calendar." "Although they did make it, very few actually used it; I heard that the youkai living on the mountain use it though. By the way, there's a month with the same purpose as the Uruo month in the youkai lunar calendar as well. However, they don't call it the 'Uruo month,' but the more obvious 'thirteenth month'. And in years with this month, the power of youkai becomes exceptionally stronger. Because of these years where youkai become stronger, it seems that the number 13 is considered unlucky by humans in certain areas." "Never heard-a that before. I know about 13-year cicadas, though..." "Yes, because I told you about that, but you're still right; I myself haven't heard much about 13 being an unlucky number around here." That was all the information I had regarding the youkai lunar calendar. Even if they asked me for more, it would be mere speculation, so I stood up to pour more tea. Thinking that serving them more cherry blossom tea would remind them of the cherry blossoms outside and put them in a disagreeable mood yet again, I poured the usual green tea. Since I had shared the extent of my knowledge on the matter, the conversation came to a standstill. But then, Reimu's voice broke the silence with a rather simple question: "By the way, Rinnosuke, what does 'Uruo' mean, exactly? I don't think that word comes up normally in most conversations..." It's important not to take things for granted, but to question even the smallest details. Growth as a human is directly related to how much knowledge one has accumulated. The better you know the past, the better you know the present, and the better you know the future. "'Uruo,' huh? Hmm, let me think a bit...The meaning from the continent is 'not the genuine article.' Since the second march after the first one wasn't the real March, that's why it was called 'Uruo March.' Since it's a word from the continent, they don't use it in the youkai lunar calendar. That's why it isn't used outside of the context of the lunar calendar, but how did it become associated with it in the first place? Originally, this country had no word that expressed the meaning of the word 'uruo.'" "Now I see." "However, that character isn't pronounced 'uruo' in the continent; the reason why it's pronounced 'uruo' here is because of...a rather slipshod reason. When it came over from the continent, there were no words in the Japanese language that could properly express it, so no one knew how to read it. Then someone noticed it looked like the character in 'uruou,' meaning a number of things ranging from 'moist' to 'charming,' so they called it 'uruou' as well. So 'Uruou March' would sound like 'Charming March.' They put no other thought into it. And then, since they felt that 'uruou' was too difficult to say, they shortened it to just 'uruo.' So as far as why it is pronounced like that, there was never any meaning in it from the start. And since this word rarely came up in conversations, that's the whole origin story." "So it looked like the character for 'uruou' and then they shortened it to 'uruo' because it was too hard to say? That really is lazy. Are you okay with that, Rinnosuke? I thought you were a lot more picky about names." "Words are things that stand on their own; they are not something in which I have any right to meddle. And besides, I rather like the sound of it. Doesn't saying 'charming year' or 'charming month' sound a great deal more pleasant than 'not-the-actual month'?" "Well, 'charming month' or 'moist month', while the cherry blossoms are blooming, I don't think that means it needs to rain...Oh, look! The rain stopped!" The light from the sun, which had come out at some point, could be seen outside the window, seeping in through gaps in the clouds. Having given up their flower-viewing party for lost, the two were now in high spirits. I was unsure how many flowers remained to be viewed, but I had the feeling they would take any opportunity to have a party merely for the sake of it. "Won't you join us tonight too, Rinnosuke? This might be the last time we have a flower-viewing party this year, and the cherry blossoms are so pretty when they're shining with water." "I say this every time, but I don't like outdoor parties." "C'mon, what're ya talkin' about? We listened to your borin' stories, so the least ya can do ta make it up is join us." Despite their irrational request, I just happened to be in the mood to see the cherry blossoms that evening anyway. I said it would be worth seeing the flowers that had not been washed away by the rain once. Imagining a beautiful world of flowers moist with rain, gracefully falling under the charming moon, made me want to drink sake. <- Back to Chapter 19 | [Back to the Table of Contents] | Forward to Chapter 21 ->