Dapaa

Features Dapaa

Akwaaba!
Welcome to the Akan Calendar App, called Dapaa.What is the Akan calendar?
The Akan calendar is a perpetual calendar.
This calendrical system comes from the Akan peoples of West Africa.
The calendar consist of nine periods, each made of 42 days.
Those periods together form a year, called afe.
The 42-day period is called adaduanan (forty-days) because those 40 days sit between two sacred Sundays, called kurukwasi (Akwasidae).
Both kurukwasi are “bookends” and thus not part of the forty-days, yet they are counted as days onto themselves and fill out the 42 days.
Each adaduanan is the result of six prefixes (e.g.
nwona) multiplied by seven stems (e.g.
wukuo).
Though these stems correspond to the 7-day week, the Akan week is eight days inclusive, meaning, it begins on Sunday and ends the following Sunday.
For this app, the adaduanan starts on a nwona-Wednesday or nwonawukuo.
All days on the calendar fall into one of three categories: dahunu is an ordinary, common or indifferent day; dapaa is auspicious and festive; and dabɔne is inauspicious in terms of prohibitions, but also sacred, serious, and reflective.
Each day of the adaduanan has its own unique meaning for daily life and for those born on it.How can I use the Akan calendar?
The Akan day begins at daybreak and ends after midnight.
When users input a Georgian calendar date, the resulting Akan day is a package with insightful details because the calendar ordered human life in definite patterns of time.
The calendar can be used by individuals, families or communities.
The calendar was designed as a guide for living within the cycles of nature, with an eye toward staying the course on one’s life purpose.
The app helps users remain true to that design.
On your day of birth, called kra-da (soul-day), there are specific observances: fasting, no sexual activity, wearing white cloth, body smeared with white clay (hyire), and meditation on life purpose by a body of water.
There are also specific salutations and taboos observed among individuals who share the same day of birth.
These persons often share similar characteristics as well as personal challenges.
The app provides details about your Akan name and its character, the specific Akan day on which you were born, restrictions on farming and fishing to protect ecologies, favorable days for travel or honoring ancestors or festivals, and much more.