Anno-Societat-art - 3/2/14

"Common Questions: What is the Term Anno Societatis" by Kurios Halfdan 'Two Bears' Ôzurrson.

NOTE: See also the files: SCA-Terms-art, KW-Handbook-msg, SCA-Awards-art, SCA-intro-art, Your-1st-Evnt-art, SCA-hist1-msg, An-SCA-History-art.

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NOTICE -

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium. 

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator.

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org

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This article was first published in the December 2012 issue of "The Dragon Tale", Barony of Selviergard, Principality of Oertha in the Kingdom of the West.

Common Questions: What is the Term Anno Societatis
by Kurios Halfdan "Two Bears" Ozurrson

Cultures in the past usually identified the number of the year in different ways; for the Athenians it was based off archons, for the Romans it was consuls. Other cultures based the counting of years of reigns of local kings; very similar to how our own mundane calendar reckons the years from Jesus Christ.
Anno Societatis, the term used by the Society for Creative Anachronism, literally means "the Year of the Society" and counts from the Birthday Party held on May 1, 1966; the Society's traditional inception as a group (although the group would be named and incorporated several years later--another story to be sure).
The term Anno Societatis is often displayed simply as the initials "A.S." and then the year written in roman numerals. In some cases, the Arabic numerals are used instead since some of us have a hard time remembering what X's and V's represent numerically.
The use of Anno Societatis can be used for any number of projects, but mostly seen in conjunction with period style missives and historical references.
Having a hard time remembering what year the Society is in? There are a couple ways of deciphering it out. The main SCA website has good information on Reckoning Society Calendar Dates and gives you the answer right away according to the mundane year. Or, for those so inclined and knowledgeable; performing simple math is advisable as well; simply deduct 1966 from the current year and be mindful of the start of the Society New Year.
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Copyright 2013 by Travis Abe-Thomas, PO Box 2254, Palmer, AK  99645. Thomassorngrym at yahoo.com. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

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