Calendars

[linuxdoctor]

Another thing that fascinates me is calendars. The calendar currently used in the West, the so-called Gregorian Calendar, which has been in operation since 1582 and adopted by various countries throughout the world at different dates since then (even into the 20th century). This calendar was based on the Julian Calendar in use since the Roman empire which was a modified version of the Roman calendar. An interesting side-effect of using basically the same calendar since Roman times is that the succession of the days of the week has been exactly the same for about 2500 years.

One particular calendar that especially fascinates me is the "World Calendar." This is a calendar system first proposed by the American (I don't hold that against him) Lewis E. Ashbaugh of Denver, Colorado in 1929 who in turn noted that it was designed by a Catholic monk in the 18th century. This new calendar discarded the odd progression of months of varying lengths and divided the year into four equal quarters each of which had three months of length 31, 30 and 30 days respectively. Each 91 day quarter would add up to 364 day in the year with the remaining day, the 365th, would be tacked on at the end and call "World Day." Every four years, that is to say in leap years, the extra day would be inserted not at the end of February as it is currently but at the end of June and it would be appropriately called "Leap Day" or even "Leap Year Day."

The thing to note about "World Day" and "Leap Day" is that these days are outside of the calendar and even outside the week, This intercalatory day is not on any day of the week nor is it on any day of the month. These extra days are inserted so that the terrestrial calendar continues to coincide with the solar year, Vernal Equinox to Vernal Equinox.

This calendar has a number of interesting features. First, taking advantage of the fact that "World Day" and "Leap Day" do not fall on any day of the week, the World Calendar will always begin on the same day of the week (Sunday) each year. This is because the 364 day calendar year is exactly 52 weeks long. Also, because the calendar is divided into four equal quarters, each quarter is exactly 13 weeks long which means that the first day of January, April, July, and October all begins on the same day of the week.

So, instead of children having to try to remember the progression of the lengths of the months with some silly rhyme (which i don't even know) to come up with 31, 28 (29 in leap years), 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31 all they will have to remember is 31, 30, 30 repeated four times.

There are all sorts of advantages to this calendar from economic to ecological, so so say their advocates at the The World Calendar Association. They also have their critics, chief among them religious groups, who do not like that one day each year, and two days in leap years, is outside of the calendar completely and not even on any day of the week. Religious groups insist on maintaining the inviability Monday to Sunday week in order retain the integrity of the holy days. They insist that they must worship in their church/synagoge/mosque once every seven days and the introduction of World Day would cause the Sabbath Day (for Christians, Protestants, Jews) to move from (say) Sunday one year to Saturday the next then to Friday and then Thursday. On leap years beginning with the first Sabbath day following the first of July it would move back still another day. They see it as a secular intrusion into a divinely ordained plan which man has no business violating.

My own personal view on this is the oft said maxim, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." I have no objection to intercalatory days that are outside of the week. God will understand.
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Misanthrope: someone who realizes that humans really are as stupid as they appear.

If you think I'm 'politically' incorrect you have the wrong politics.

[martinz]

There are 25 other calendars available in the world, and I really wonder if its possible to integrate them by 2012. Check out all the 25 calendars and their conversion here.

[linuxdoctor]

Most of those calendars on the list are actually historical calendars no longer in use. For instance, the Roman Calendar is used citing today as the "fourth day after the Kalends of February" (in latin) and the calendar of the French Revolution which named the months after figures of the Unpleasantness (as the English used to call it) lasted only as long as the revolution (about a dozen years or so).

In general the problem in getting the "World Calendar" adopted has not centred so much on the changed layout of the months, which almost everybody agrees is excellent, but on its requirement of having one or two days outside the week. At the end of every year the day following Saturday December 30 is not Sunday December 31 but "World Day." It is not on a Sunday nor is it December 31; it's just "World Day." The day after "World Day" is then Sunday January 1.

This is how the system keeps the calendar constant, by adding an extra day that is technically not on the calendar. By doing that every January 1 of every year is always on a Sunday and every (say) August 15 of every year is always on a Wednesday. It is that extra day outside of the week that has got everybody in a twist.

Even when the Gregorian Calendar was promulgated in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII (thus the name of the calendar) did they alter the sequence of the days of the week. It removed ten days from the calendar in 1582 so that Thursday October 4 was followed by Friday October 15 but the uninterrupted cycle of the days of week remained untouched.

Personally I don't care one way or the other. I don't see why the World Calendar cannot be adopted without placing the intercalatory days in the week. At worst the start of the years shifts a day every year (two days on leap years) as presently occurs with the Gregorian (and Julian) calendars. We would gain so much with the regularity of the World Calendar that it should be adopted even if we have to sacrifice its perpetuity. Conversely I do not agree with the religious authorities that we cannot alter the normal progression of the days of the week for any reason whatever. As Christ Himself said, the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around (cf. Mark 2:27).
_________________
Misanthrope: someone who realizes that humans really are as stupid as they appear.

If you think I'm 'politically' incorrect you have the wrong politics.