Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Making the Case for Returning to a 13-Month Calendar [Calendar Reform Blog]


In ancient times, and even in some contemporary societies, calendars were 13 months in length, rather than 12. 

The Sol Calendar proposal would bring back the 13-month calendar, and, aside from the superstitious fear of the number Thirteen, it's very much worth considering.

This calendar reform idea was developed by Jim Eikner of Austin, Texas, and consists of a year of 13 months in length with the first 12 months having 28 days each, and the final month of the year, December, having 29. December would have 30 days in leap years, which line up with the leap years in the Gregorian calendar.

The months are named the same as they are in the Gregorian calendar, except that a month called Sol - named for our Sun - is inserted between June and July, and it is this month that gives the calendar its name.

Although every month within the same year begins on the same day of week, the months begin on different days of the week in different years.

The 13-month Sol Calendar is a new take on a very old idea. It is, in fact, an adaptation of International Fixed Calendar, which in turn has its roots in the Positivist Calendar created by French philosopher August Comte in 1849.

In each year, the 29th and 30th days in December move the first day of the January of the following year either one or two weekdays forward in relation to that previous year. However, within any given year, monthly calendars for January through November remain identical to each other, in that they start on the same day of the week – and of course, are all 28 days in length.

Some of the features and benefits of the 13-month Sol Calendar:

• Twelve contiguous and identical months of exactly 28 days
• The thirteenth month of the year (December) has 29 days normally and 30 days in a leap year
• This calendar has the same names for the months as the Gregorian Calendar
• The new month (Sol) occurs between June and July
• Preserves the standard, 7-day week
• Preserves Gregorian leap year rule
• Almost all professional accounting systems offer a 13-period reporting option
• Computer accounting programs will likely be easily adjusted to 13 months
• Placing the new month (Sol) at mid-year minimizes the seasonal displacement of the traditional months
• Placing the extra day(s) at the end of the year allows all months to be identical for their first 28 days in any given year
• Leap years are every four years (in the same years we currently have leap years) and they add a 366th day to December (a Dec. 30), the same number of days the Gregorian calendar adds during a leap year

Overall, as a practical matter, this calendar effectively addresses some current concerns with the Gregorian calendar.

Unlike our current jumble of month sizes, the Sol Calendar's 28-day months can easily be remembered, and the leap year is more rationally located at the end of the year, rather than tucked after February (which hasn't been considered the end of the year for many centuries.)

Since each month's calendar is the same for the first 11 months (and identical through the 28th day every month) it's easy to remember that the 27th day of every month in 2011, for example, was a Wednesday.

Learn more here: http://www.abbottepub.com/newcal.html

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Why isn't our #calendar logical? A simple proposal for reform.

March 1 will be the 60th day of the year. So why can't it be the last day of the second month?

That's the question the 30x11 ("Thirty-eleven") calendar asks. The calendar reform proposal seeks to simplify the Gregorian calendar by giving 11 of the 12 months 30 days each. The last month, December, gets 35, keeping the 365-day calendar year we have now. In leap years (which remain the same as now) we get a 36-day December.

The benefit of this idea is simplicity. With 30 days in each month, it would be easy to determine, say, that the 150th day of the year would be the last day of the 5th month - May 30. In fact, for the first half of the calendar year, the last days of the month are the 30th, 60th, 90th, 120th, 150th, and 180th days of the year. Such numbering allows easy access to any day of the year.

Another quirk of the calendar is that each month within a calendar year starts two weekdays after the previous month. If January, for example, would start on a Sunday (as it does in the 2006 Gregorian calendar) then February begins on a Tuesday, March on a Thursday, April on a Saturday and May on a Monday. It's very easy to determine, therefore, that May 30 would be the 150th day of the month and a Tuesday.

Drawbacks to this proposal are few, and include a "long" December, which would have 35 or 36 days - numbers that are hard to get used to (and some would think we added days to the year's length, which isn't the case) and the seasons would not begin on the same days they do now, but would drift back about two days on the calendar. That doesn't seem too high of a price to pay, however, for a calendar that is more logical and actually makes sense!

For more information, visit www.30x11.com.