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Re: Joining list. Calendar reforms.
by MIKE OSSIPOFF
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Irv--
Yes, but the 30,31,30 quarters don't give us the easy day-of-the-week determination that we get when the year-divisions each have a whole number of weeks, with a fixed calendar.
Besides, any orderly and symmetrical year with 30-day and 31-day months is going to displeasingly demote some of the Roman 31-day months. Here's what I mean:
December is an important month, the month of Christmas and the winter solstice. How would it look to demote it to 30 days?
October 31st is a holiday important to many people. Would people stand for it if we tried to take away October 31st?
Sure, I'd be in favor of making August give its extra day back to February--but that wouldn't be enough to bring February up to 30 days.
Demoting July to 30 days would mean that both of Rome's calendar emperors would be demoted. That doesn't feel fair to the Romans, if we're going to use their months.
May is an important month, being the full springtime month. So I wouldn't want to demote it either.
March is an important month, becasuse it has the vernal equinox, an astromically very important day.
And so it seems to me that, for me, there's no acceptable way to change the Roman months to rational 31 & 30 day lengths. It seems to me that, when we change the calendar, we should change it thoroughly, and not even try to represent or resemble the Roman months, or uses their names.
For instance, starting the calendar on what we now call January 1st amounts to just copying the Romans. There's nothing special or appealing about that starting-day. Julius Caesar started his calendar there because he wanted to start it on the first new moon (in 46 B.C.) after the winter solstice. I'd rather choose a year-starting date on a solstice or equinox, preferably the winter solstice--Or, much better yet, based on the actual seasons. For instance, my proposed Improved Seasonal Calendar has the middle of its Winter year-division chosen as an attempt to put it where the actual middle of winter is, on the average, based on an average seasonal time-lag of 38 days.
For all other month-systems other than the 91-day seasonal year-division, I'd start the year on the estimated average middle of winter. My estimate for that day is 38 days after the December equinox, but I'm open to hearing other suggeted estimates. A good 2nd choice would be the December solstice.
So, in regards to the year's starting-day, I'd depart completely from the Roman calendar, with any month-system.
Mike Ossipoff
_________________________________________________________________
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Yes, but the 30,31,30 quarters don't give us the easy day-of-the-week determination that we get when the year-divisions each have a whole number of weeks, with a fixed calendar.
Besides, any orderly and symmetrical year with 30-day and 31-day months is going to displeasingly demote some of the Roman 31-day months. Here's what I mean:
December is an important month, the month of Christmas and the winter solstice. How would it look to demote it to 30 days?
October 31st is a holiday important to many people. Would people stand for it if we tried to take away October 31st?
Sure, I'd be in favor of making August give its extra day back to February--but that wouldn't be enough to bring February up to 30 days.
Demoting July to 30 days would mean that both of Rome's calendar emperors would be demoted. That doesn't feel fair to the Romans, if we're going to use their months.
May is an important month, being the full springtime month. So I wouldn't want to demote it either.
March is an important month, becasuse it has the vernal equinox, an astromically very important day.
And so it seems to me that, for me, there's no acceptable way to change the Roman months to rational 31 & 30 day lengths. It seems to me that, when we change the calendar, we should change it thoroughly, and not even try to represent or resemble the Roman months, or uses their names.
For instance, starting the calendar on what we now call January 1st amounts to just copying the Romans. There's nothing special or appealing about that starting-day. Julius Caesar started his calendar there because he wanted to start it on the first new moon (in 46 B.C.) after the winter solstice. I'd rather choose a year-starting date on a solstice or equinox, preferably the winter solstice--Or, much better yet, based on the actual seasons. For instance, my proposed Improved Seasonal Calendar has the middle of its Winter year-division chosen as an attempt to put it where the actual middle of winter is, on the average, based on an average seasonal time-lag of 38 days.
For all other month-systems other than the 91-day seasonal year-division, I'd start the year on the estimated average middle of winter. My estimate for that day is 38 days after the December equinox, but I'm open to hearing other suggeted estimates. A good 2nd choice would be the December solstice.
So, in regards to the year's starting-day, I'd depart completely from the Roman calendar, with any month-system.
Mike Ossipoff
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits.
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage1_052009
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