this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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The symmetry calendars (Wikipedia) use a leap week each several years, which seems like a reasonable way of doing it
Apparently the author of those calendars thought that would bring on board the people who believe days following an unending sequence is important - those who think their holy day has to be an actual whatever-day not one out of sequence due to intercalary days
Ed. Linkified the calendar
Ahh, that makes sense. Here I was thinking it would be fun to have a day or two every year that weren't any day of the week.
The leap week is a little bit of an unsatisfying solution since it means solstices and equinoxes will shift around a lot more. Also not as likely to get governments and employers to be willing to treat them as holidays.
I highly doubt we'll move from our current calendar anytime soon. Its flaws aren't bad enough to justify the effort, but I would really love a more symmetrical calendar. And payroll folks would probably love it too. Hourly and salary structures would be a lot more in sync.
On the other hand the calendar is always the same, years always start on a Monday, months start on a Monday
You could have a permanent calendar, except that religious holidays and astronomical events (solstices, equinoxes, best day for planting tulips) would move around
My birthday would vanish as it's towards the end of one of the middle months; my mother's birthday would only happen in leap years as it's late in the last month
Birthdays on the new calendar would always fall on the same week day (though people born under the old calendar could celebrate on the day that it would be had the old calendar continued, or choose the same day number and month, or choose the corresponding day in the first year (or whatever) of the new calendar and stick to that month and day number)
Almost all of this would be true if we celebrated a day (or two) each year that were outside of the months and weeks, except events tied to points in our orbit would stay put a lot more. We would still have the same calendar every year. In your version we have a full extra week every 6 or so years, in mine every year we have a dedicated New Year's Day that isn't in a regular month or a day of the week, and every 4 or so years (same rules as now) we have 2 New Year's Days.
Though I would argue for Sunday being the 1st day of each month/year. IMO weekends should be like bookends, one on either side.
Edit: your Wiki link contained a link to the International Fixed Calendar, which I've been inadvertently arguing for. This is almost identical to what I've been proposing, except they put the leap day at the end of June. But it fixes the major disadvantage of your system: that a year isn't a year. In your system 1/1 is never one year away from 1/1. In mine it is within leap day drift, just like the current calendar.