Most of the continent of Faerûn uses—or at least recognizes—a twelve-month time-keeping system called the Calendar of Harptos; days are grouped by tens so that there are three tendays per month. There are also five extra-monthly holidays throughout the year, and every four years, there’s a special sixth holiday called Shieldmeet. 

While there are different ways to number the years, the most-common measurement in western Faerûn is called Dalereckoning (DR). There’s also a chronology called the Roll of Years which was created by two different prophets in separate millennia. In the Roll of Years, each year from -700 DR to 1600 DR was given a name which was supposedly linked to a significant event occurring in that year; however, most of the names have not been connected to events of any global consequence.

The current year is 1492, the Year of Three Ships Sailing.

Other Units of Time

Though time is measured in seconds, minutes, and hours in Faerûn, few places run on a schedule more specific than that which can be described by the position of the sun in the sky or by how near it is to midnight. The most common include:

Dawn – The time around sunrise
Morning – The time between sunrise and highsun
Highsun or Noon – When the sun is directly overhead
Afternoon – The time after noon
Dusk or Nightfall – The time before sunset
Sunset – The time around sunset
Evening or Eventide – The time after sunset
Night – The hours of darkness
Midnight or Deepnight – Twelve hours after noon
Moondark – The darkest part of night; also called “night’s heart”
Night’s End – The time before sunrise

Other divisions less-commonly used:

Godswake – The time before dawn
Harbright – From dawn to highsun
Elsun – The later hours of morning
Thulsun – The early hours of afternoon
Tharsun – The later hours of afternoon
Gateclose – The hour at which a city’s gates close for the night (varying from city to city)

In large cities—especially those with temples to Gond and/or Lathander—bells were often used to mark the hours, and were numbered 1 through 12 with 12 marking both highsun and midnight.