It's time for one of my favorite "What If of the Week!" questions.
What if the world's authorities got together
and asked YOU to re-design the calendar?
What would you come up with? How many months would your design have? How many days in a month? How long would a week be? Would they vary by season? Would there be some weeks that weren't part of a month? Would you add special days? What would your reasons be? What's something really different?
How would your calendar affect business and commerce? What impact would it have on family life? On religious festivals and celebrations? Who would be threatened? What new features would you design into your calendar?
Have fun with this! I'd love to hear your ideas.
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40 weeks of 9 days each = 360; The extra 5 days +/- would be the major holidays and slide into a week in addition to the 9 days, as appropriate. The twelve months would have 30 days each plus whichever of the 5 major holidays fit into several.
Benefits? All 3 day weekends - no fighting over the extra day off. 6 workdays per week with 40 weeks greatly reducing "Monday start-up, Friday shut-down" productivity losses. Regular month lengths will equalize accounting periods.
Downside? The 7th day is a day of rest is a big challenge! Probably why this concept has not been adopted!!
Posted by: Randy | 02 May 2008 at 04:24 PM
Randy: Some good insights and suggestions. Looks like you've given this some serious thought!
Posted by: Roger von Oech | 02 May 2008 at 07:23 PM
I would let people with true passion redesign it and support them instead of creating my own implementation
Here is an example of a very compelling analysis:
Calendar reform
Basically it proposes a calendar with a fixed number of days and with leap weeks when needed (actually they are leap small months)
This will make sure that the calendar will be the same for each year. Each day will be on the same weekday as the previous year. Christmas will always be on Sundays...
Posted by: Peter | 05 May 2008 at 03:48 AM
The calendar year would begin on my birthday, which is Feb 1. It takes me a month to recover from the holiday blur, so by the time it's 2/1, it has always felt like my own private New Year's Day. I'd also make that day the First Day of Spring, because that's actually how it feels where I live (subtropics). Has a nice ring for me: First Day of Spring = New Years = my birthday! The rest of the "solar calendar" roughly matches my lived experience (Spring Equinox would become Peak of Spring; May Day = First Day of Summer; Summer Solstice = Peak of Summer; etc.)
I don't work and play and "rest" according to the existing 7-day week. I do these things in 1-3 day clusters or "binges". I'd abolish the existing months--having to remember which months have 30 or 31 days is so silly.
Posted by: vashti | 09 May 2008 at 07:00 AM
Maintaining the 7 day week, I would have 13 months of 28 days and an extra day or two (on leap years) at the end of the year as special holidays (trideskiphobics be damned). These extra days would have no weekday (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.) designation. The one that takes place every year would simply be New Year's Eve and the extra one that takes place every four years could be "Leap Day." I'd plug both of these on at the end of the year. So, every year would start on Monday. Every month would start on Monday for that matter.
If it's Friday, you know it is the 5th, 12th, 19th, or 26th of the month. You get paid every 2 weeks or twice a month? It doesn't matter -- it is the same thing AND you get paid on the same day and the same date each month.
Independence Day would, of course, be celebrated on the 4th, in order that it should be on a Thursday each year -- four-day weekend. Christmas could remain on the 25th -- a Thursday -- another four-day weekend holiday. Let's make Thanksgiving on the 25th every year as well, to the same effect. Valentine's Day, if kept on the 14th, always ends up as a Sunday, which seems a good day for these and Mother's Day. We'll move Columbus Day, President's Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day to fall on Fridays, so those who get them off will get long holiday weekends to sleep off whatever celebratory hangovers they might acquire.
Posted by: Jim | 22 May 2008 at 01:35 PM
If you are interested in a new perspective for 24/7 living within the existing calendar, you might want to extraoplite your own new ideas by analyzing the QE Staffing & Scheduling Methods contained in the web site: www.qefoundation.org
Taken on a grand scale, it would involve big changes for business, government, industry, schools, and family life along with cultural and religious customs. It would threaten many, but it would create more productivity and more time off for liesure activity.
Posted by: George Ricci | 19 December 2008 at 08:01 AM
http://solarcalendar.net
I've always thought that the New Year should be the Winter Solstice.
It just makes sense for the Northern Hemisphere.
The Days stop getting shorter and the days begin to grow again.
I made this one up: http://solarcalendar.net
Posted by: Bhak | 13 December 2009 at 06:57 PM