The 13 month calendar — The Daily PPILL #337

There are many things that are in use today, that are the product of cultural standards. Someone thought it was a good idea, or it may have made sense at the time, and many years ago, this is how things started to be done. Or perhaps they were ordered by someone very powerful back in the day. Now, things have changed, and while they don’t make much sense anymore, we continue doing them the way we learned them.

Then we say things like: “this is how we do things over here”, and even “our way of life”.

But there are certain things that even though they make more sense, the effort of change, of learning the new standard is not worth the benefit. So we continue the way we are.

One example of this is a fantastic idea. It is the 13-month year. Weird? Not. It is just different. Here is how it would work: 13 months, all of them exactly four weeks long. 28 days long. Each week starts on a Sunday, and ends on a Saturday, just like we do today, but also every month would start on Sunday and end on a Saturday. Also, every month’s date would fall on the same day of the week. And this will happen every year. That sounds simple, right?

Now, 28x13 = 364. We are one day short. And adding a day to a month would ruin everything. The solution? We get the last day of the year to celebrate and to reflect, all on its own. To make it all work, this day would not belong to any month, nor any week either.

Super elegant. Just the thought of trying people to agree on it makes me tired.

Just because we can, it does not mean we should.

As published on The Channelmeister