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Fortnight quite literally translates to fourteen nights. This increment of time beckons from an age when the moon told us when to hunt, forage, and prepare for the seasons. Fortnights served as waystations, offering our ancestors an intuitive way to track time. A complete lunar cycle takes 29.5 days, and a fortnight is very close to half of that cycle. In other words, after 14 sunsets, a new moon transforms into a full moon, and another fortnight brings back the new moon. Reading the heavens was once an active skill—an essential tool, just as important as fire, the wheel, or writing became later. It signaled when to hunt, gather, and move. It guided migrations and helped anticipate less prosperous months. Those who could read the sky gained a distinct advantage—organizing societies, declaring festivals and wars, and coordinating trade. This was a framework for human existence, as vital as any tool we’ve ever created—its principles laid the very foundations for how we understand time and structure our lives today.

Our exposure in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to solar radiation defines the seasons, with the Solstices marking the extremes. Take Summer, for example, the first day (May 1) and last day (July 31st) have nearly identical amounts of daylight when measured from the same location, with the peak amount occurring on the Summer Solstice each year. The same balance of daylight is true of the Equinoxes. These cardinal signposts in the year act as the defining midpoints, where the daylight before and after is balanced. Like two ropes of exactly the same length, extending down from a spire in opposite directions—one reaching backwards, and the other stretching towards the future—staked in the ground exactly where the line to the previous season ended and the next season is to begin. And so we go, spiraling on...

Viewing an entire year divided into fortnights offers several distinct advantages. It allows us to observe the phases of the moon as they drift across the seasons, offering a bird’s-eye view of the year. It also provides invaluable insight into celestial events such as solar and lunar eclipses, meteor showers, and more. This method is especially useful for agricultural planning—tracking frost dates, bloom times, and determining the best days to sow, harvest, fertilize, and preserve crops. It extends to animal husbandry, navigation, sports, travel, tidal movements—the list goes on. While it serves the same functions as a traditional calendar, it offers a more intentional approach. It invites us to slow down, make room for new projects, and bring old ones to completion. But perhaps more importantly, it encourages us to live in the liminal spaces—in between the doing and the done.