This would be a good time of year to rethink the calendar. Let me show you my calendar.
THE SPACE AGE CALENDAR
Have you ever thought that we could use a new calendar? The Gregorian Calendar, named for Pope Gregory, that we now use is from a medieval time when most people worked in agriculture. The idea of calendar reform is not new. The days do not fit evenly into a year and there has been the idea of "leap weeks" instead of an extra day in a "leap year", every four years.
I have a calendar too. My calendar is called the "Space Age Calendar". As the name implies it is intended to help with space exploration. The calendar is based on the earth's distance from the sun.
The earth's orbit around the sun is elliptical, rather than circular. The point at which the earth is closest to the sun is known as perihelion, and the furthest point from the sun is aphelion.
Why on earth do we need months? Months were based on the orbit of the moon around the earth, which is 29 days and does not fit evenly into the year. This might have been useful in agriculture, to keep track of the best time to plant, but months are completely irrelevant today except as a convenient billing cycle.
In my calendar the days are simply numbered, from 1 to 365, with day 366 added every fourth year. We will still keep the weekdays. Today we live much more by the clock than by the calendar, and much more by the week than the month. Months have been mostly irrelevant since the Industrial Revolution, except for setting holidays and religious observances by the lunar cycle.
The convenient monthly billing cycle can continue on multiples of 30. Day 30, Day 60, Day 90, etc. The date will be expressed with three digits following the year. Today will be 2024004
The solstices and equinoxes, when the day or night is longest and the other shortest and when the two are equal, will still be there. But today it really matters to very few people exactly when the seasons begin. It is only temperate latitudes that really have four seasons anyway.
If the year were to begin with either perihelion or aphelion the date, the number of the day, would tell us how far the earth was from the sun. There is a difference of about 3 million miles, or 5 million kilometers, between perihelion and aphelion. This distance makes a difference. For an example spring tides, where the gravitational pull of the sun and moon is coordinated, will be stronger at perihelion but weaker at aphelion. But neap tides, when the sun and moon are at right angles to each other, will be the opposite.
One issue with space travel is that there is no ready way to tell directions in space. There is no north, south, east or, west. We might refer to the northern or southern hemisphere of the moon or sun or one of the planets. But we are only going by earth's northern or southern hemisphere. This is less-than accurate because each planet has a different axis of rotation that is not parallel to earth's.
The earth rotates eastward. The moon revolves around the earth in the same direction, as does the earth around the sun. So we might say that the earth revolves eastward around the sun. But it is only eastward relative to the earth, there is no real "eastward" in space.
But using a line between the points of aphelion and perihelion, which remain fixed, gives us a meridian or baseline from which we can establish directions in space. Two lines perpendicular to it, both intersecting the original meridian at the center of the sun, would be all that we need to establish directions in space, just like on earth. We would easily find exactly where in space we were because the date would give us both the position and the distance from the sun. We just have to factor in that the earth does not move at a constant pace in it's orbit around the sun, it moves faster when it is closer to the sun.
I was thinking of beginning the year on January 4, because that would be closer to the present New Year. But aphelion occurs, just by chance, on America's Independence Day. What would Americans think of the year beginning on what is now the Fourth of July?
THE AMERICAN CALENDAR
See if Americans can believe the following four facts.
1) The earth's orbit around the sun is elliptical. This means that there is a point during the year when it is closest to the sun, as well as a point when it is furthest. Just by chance the Fourth of July, America's much-celebrated Independence Day, is the day when the earth is furthest from the sun.
2) There are 50 U.S. states, represented by the 50 stars on the flag. If we add the District of Columbia, America's capital district, and Puerto Rico, that gives us 52. There are also 52 weeks in a year.
3) There are 13 red and white stripes on the U.S. flag, which represent the 13 original states. There are also 13 lunar cycles in a year, although they don't fit perfectly with the length of the year. The 12 months are based on the lunar cycle but there are actually 13 in a year. The moon orbits the earth in about 27 days and 8 hours, known as a sidereal month. But because the earth is revolving around the sun at the same time the moon appears to go through it's phase cycle in about 29 days and 12 hours, known as a synodic month. But a year divides into 13 four-week periods.
4) There was once a great supernova, an exploding star, that lasted about two years and was so brilliant that it was visible during the day. The brilliant supernova began on July 4, yes the Fourth of July, in the year 1054. The remnants of that supernova are today known as the Crab Nebula. The Crab Nebula turned out to appear red, white and, blue, the same colors as America's flag.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula#/media/File%3ACrab_Nebula.jpg
So why doesn't America have it's own calendar? I have long thought that we should name the weeks rather than the months. Ever since the Industrial Revolution the week has been more important to most people than the month. The Gregorian Calendar that we use now is a medieval calendar that preceded the Industrial Revolution.
In the American Calendar the year would begin on what is now the Fourth of July. This is the day on which the earth, in it's elliptical orbit, just happens to be at it's furthest point from the sun. The calendar would thus show where the earth is in it's orbit, in which it moves more slowly the further it is from the sun. This would be ideal for the Space Age.
The 52 weeks in a year would be named for the U.S. states, which are represented by the 50 stars on the flag, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. To avoid confusion with Washington State, Washington D.C. would simply be listed as "D.C.", or the "District of Columbia".
The present months were originally based on the lunar cycle but got stretched so that there are 12 months in the year. The American Calendar would have 13 four-week periods, based on what the lunar cycle actually is and named for the 13 original states, in alphabetical order, that are represented by the 13 stripes on the U.S. flag.
Isn't it about time that America had a calendar of it's own?
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