Well-Tempered Calendar for 2018
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(Here is a calendar of 13 four-week months, plus an odd day to make 365;
in leap years, 2 additional days to make 366.)
(The rationale, or at least an excuse, is noted below.)
In the wee hours of March 8, 2015, the impending Daylight Savings Time change kept me out of sleep. For diversion, I thought: 'if all these hours can arbitrarily shift for the common good, then let us improve the whole calendar for the common good.'
Calendar-making is an ancient craft. Jews, Greeks, Muslims, and others each maintain a special calendar coherent with a world-view and heritage.
Implementing a calendar has payoffs and pains. The Western switch from the Julian to the more-accurate Gregorian calendar (adopted 1582-1917, here and there, gradually) produced endless historical date recalculations. The crazily rational calendar set up by the new French Republic in the 1790's became a strange joke.
My calendar joke is a small trip outside the box. After sketching this pattern for the year, my sleep eventually returned.
Well-Tempered Calendar Feature Summary:
No change for these handy items:
___ Approximately 365-1/4 days per solar year (try to change that!)
___ 7 days per week
___ Traditional weekday names
___ Traditional month names (plus a bonus one)
Details with important changes:
___ Exactly 4 weeks (28 days) per month. Notice that 28 x 13 months = 364 days.
___ The new year begins March 1-- reverting to the old Roman calendar.
___ The extra days (1 or 2) of each year append to the last month (February).
___ A new month is inserted between January and February. It is named for my cat.
Benefits:
___ The year's pattern is more evident, reducing reference to calendars.
___ The names: 'September', October', 'November', 'December' regain meaning.
___ St Patrick's Day is unchanged.
___ US income tax day moves to April 18.
___ The Full Moons make a linear graph on the calendar.
___ In 2015, every 13th is a Friday; then, no Friday 13th until 2020. Nice to get 'em overwith.
Why not just use it?
___ The change is not prompted by necessity (as was the Gregorian revision).
___ No great payback balances the great cost of switching.
Eventually, I believe the annual switch to Daylight Savings Time will succumb to the same 'minus' factors.
My 1970 Encyclopedia Britannica says that another 13-month calendar has been proposed and rejected. The 'International Fixed calendar' sets a 364-day year with a new 28-day month (Sol) between June and July. Each month begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday, no matter the year. To achieve this, some peculiar rules take 1-1/4 days of each solar year officially 'off-the-books'! This jars whatever I have of common sense.
Hopefully creating no new problems, nor solving any old ones, here is a 'Well-Tempered calendar' for amusement.
[March 9, 2015 MMG]