Proposed New Standard Year

[Second Summer]

I came across this on Twitter and thought it seems a novel idea:

 

[Poppy]

Wow - that is interesting - it would simplify a lot! I remember a while back reading an article about there actually being a 13th zodiac that would completely change the dates of the current zodiacs, That article created quite the stir among those who follow astrology.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I've known about this for years. I think Arthur C Clarke used to write about it in science fiction books I read as a kid.

I've promoted the idea to people occassionally, the way I look at it is a double sunday at the end of the year. Side note: The weeks should start on a Monday. I think of Sunday as the last day of week.

It is more ordered in the sense of fitting weeks and months into years and weeks into months. Months of 28 days works well.

There is a problem with it which is that 12 months can be divided neatly into halves, thirds and quarters (including company's fiscal quarters and seasons) while retaining whole months.

So with a 12-month quarter a company's fiscal Q1 can be Jan 1st-March 31st - nice and neat. With this system quarters would be a mess. Similarly, you wouldn't have the ability to have summer as June, July and August and winter as December, January, February etc (although a lot of people insist that the season start on the 23rd or 21st of the month, but I don't like it).

Changing this system would cost a huge amount of time, money and hassle. People's birthdays would have to be changed, and everything scheduled for a future date, from eclipse predictions to elections and a thousand other things would have to be redone, it would be a total mess. Some people get confused just when the clock changes by one hour!

So because it has some advantages, but some disadvantages, and it would be a tremendous hassle to change, it's probably better to stick with the current system.

I do think if the system you proposed already existed, and then someone proposed changing to our actual current system of random months of 28, 30, or 31 days that would be even more of a non-starter. So the 13-month system is probably slightly better, but not enough to be worth the hassle of change.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Lol, just looking at the comments on twitter, so every Friday would be a Friday the 13th? Not superstitious, but that could be another reason to start the week with Monday instead. I like how someone said "astrology, numerology (and similar) will be messed up." and someone replied "One more reason to adopt it". I'm almost becoming convinced.

Saw this via twitter also: International Fixed Calendar - Wikipedia

However can I suggest we first spent the next 100 or 1000 years fixing climate change, poverty, animal rights, sexism, racism and a bunch of other important stuff and getting world peace. When we get to a utopian society where everyone works two hours a day and there is no disease or violence, and it's all got very boring, perhaps then all the governments of the world can waste a year arguing over all the details of this transition lol.

Edited to change "also" to "almost" 1 day later.

 

[Amy SF]

Not everyone would be willing to adopt a calendar that disrupts hundreds of years of an established way of marking time, and would disrupt society in a major way. The enormous cost of the switch would be a dealbreaker as well. It was hard enough to change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. It took Russia almost 400 YEARS (1582 -> 1918) after its initial adoption, first by Catholic countries/states and then gradually by other countries/states, to convert to the Gregorian calendar. Since the Gregorian calendar is so accurate it won’t have to be updated for thousands of years, most people aren’t looking to replace it with anything else.

In fact, it took a while for all the countries of the world to officially convert to the metric system, and the US, Burma and Liberia still haven’t officially adopted it. It might happen eventually, but probably not tomorrow. Or next year. You can bet there are people in the US government who insist that it’s just too damn expensive, despite the fact that almost every other country has done it already.

So yeah, just because it looks like a simpler way to mark time doesn’t mean it will be embraced by the people who could make it official anywhere in the world.

 

[Second Summer]

Yes, I can see how it wouldn't be easy to switch. And the week obviously starts on Monday, and ends on the seventh day, the day of rest, which is Sunday. Consult your Bible if you're unsure!

I wonder what should be the names of the months in the 13-month calendar? I don't think it makes sense to continue honouring long dead Roman emperors in 2019. Though, I much prefer that to our modern "emperors"!

However can I suggest we first spent the next 100 or 1000 years fixing climate change, poverty, animal rights, sexism, racism and a bunch of other important stuff and getting world peace. When we get to a utopian society where everyone works two hours a day and there is no disease or violence, and it's all got very boring, perhaps then all the governments of the world can waste a year arguing over all the details of this transition lol.

Hey, there is room for two (or more!) ideas in our brains at the same time, right?!

 

[KLS52]

Please wait another 30-40 years...until I’m dead and buried. Then go and have a field day and change whatever you want!

 

[Jamie in Chile]

The links I posted above suggests keeping the same months and slotting an extra one, sol, in between June and July. Would that mean 4 months of summer (northern hemisphere), and only 3 months of the other seasons? That's quite optimistic, although maybe with global warming it would actually make sense.