Why can't New Year's Eve and New Year's Day always fall on a weekend? Why can't holidays always fall on a Monday? Why can't a date in a month always fall on the same day in the week? They could, if as suggested in this article, we use a perpetual calendar.

Through accidents of history, the Gregorian Calendar has come to be used worldwide as the standard civil calendar for government and business affairs. No improvement has been made in this calendar since it was decreed by Pope Gregory in 1582. The economic and social benefits to be gained by a more orderly, consistent, user-friendly calendar will surely be immense. Just reflect on what a perpetual calendar would do for any kind of scheduling process, for example. Also, the elimination of confusion caused by the Gregorian Calendar's "grasshopper dates" would be welcome. Two main ideas for perpetual calendars have been around for a century or a little less. The concepts below are adaptations on those two ideas that could be introduced at the start of the Twenty First Century and the Third Millennium, i.e. 2001, with a smooth transition from the Gregorian Calendar (no dates or days of the week would have to be dropped or added in making the change). The first day of the Third Millennium of the Common Era would seem to be an auspicious point to introduce an improved calendar. This is a timing opportunity that won't arise again for a thousand years. (Proposed calendars could also start smoothly with year 2007 if the earlier date could not be met, since the last day both of 2000 and of 2006 is a Sunday.)

The inconsistencies of the present calendar came about by the forced amalgamation (by Constantine) of the Roman (Egyptian) solar calendar of 365 (or 366) days, with the 28-day lunar calendar divided into quarters of seven-day weeks. The calendar as we know it repeats the same date on the same day of the month and week only after several years, as I'm sure you are aware. Grasshopper Dates.

The problem is to make the solar year divisible into seven-day lunar weeks, which are now so ingrained into our way of life. Three hundred and sixty four days divided by seven equals 52 weeks. Both of the new calendars (based on ideas for a twelve-month World Calendar and a thirteen-month Fixed Calendar that have been around for a long time) account for the 365th day (and 366th in Leap Years - which should be renamed "Long Years " as dates will no longer leap) by interposing an intercalary day (or two) outside the normal week structure, and thus the calendars become perpetual (good for fifteen million years), the same year after year, and grasshopper dates no longer will plague us. This more orderly, sensible, and user-friendly, system would have important benefits in today's global system of economics and communications, including:

1. Schedule constancy
2. Budgeting regularity
3. Improved statistical comparibility between like periods
4. Reduced confusion (fixed day-date relationships)
5. Educational (Cosmic Calendar)

The proposed calendars have the first regular weekday as Monday (last day of 2000 or 2006 is a Sunday). Thus Saturday and Sunday truly become "the weekend". Many present-day calendars, especially business scheduling calendars, are currently printed in this Monday-to-Sunday format. Of course, the new calendars could be printed in a Sunday-to-Saturday format but it would not look as neat. Printers would still issue calendars for art, writing schedule info on, and as reminders of important dates and holidays, (plus translation calendars during changeover period).

Both proposed calendars have an intercalary New Year Day as the first day of each year. In the 12-month Common Era Calendar this results in most people's birthday being changed slightly. (All except Feb., Sept., Nov. & Dec. dates.) For example: Old Style May 17 would be Common Era Calendar May 15. In the 13 month Fixed Cosmic Calendar everyone's birthday is changed with new month names (see below). (Non-discriminatory, everyone gets the same treatment.) As the intercalary New Year Day is the equivalent of the present New Year's Day holiday, neither calendar introduces a new paid holiday with this intercalary day at the start of the year.

A 13-month calendar requires a new month name. SOL has been a frequent proposal. Why not rename all months in a manner that reflects order and will have relevance into the future? The current names have no underlying meaning to us today. Proposed is a system of names after an ordered progression of objects in our Solar System and Cosmos (a lesson in Astronomy). (This name system could likewise be used for a 12-month calendar if both calendars are not used simultaneously for a trial period. Simultaneous use for a trial period is a possibility as the calendars are easily translated one to the other. A date in one always has only one equivalent date in the other and these are the same day of the week in both.) Astronomically related names were chosen to be recognized world wide: JOVE was used for brevity, TERRA was used for distinguishment, SUN not used to avoid confusion with Sunday, MOON not used to avoid confusion with Monday, SATURN not used to avoid confusion with Saturday, and MARS was not used to avoid confusion with old March (and to have only one month name start with letter "M"). Each month name starts with a different letter (in English). The names were chosen for their relationship to astronomical features, not for any mythological source significance. The names should be easy to learn and they have some educational value about our Universe.

Other languages might well select different but equivalent names. For example in France some of their weekday names have much similarity to English month names above. They might use their equivelant of Hermes instead of Mercury and Selene instead of Luna to escape the possible confusion in those two examples, etc.

Of the two proposed improved calendars, I personally prefer the 13-month Cosmic Calendar as being more "sensible" and "user-friendly". This is the more radical change from the present, however, and thus harder to "sell". The ends of business quarters (each having 91 days or exactly 13 full weeks, and the same number of weekends) would not fall at a month's end except at the end of the year.

Some have brought up the problems encountered in trying to introduce the metric system in the U.S. as being comparable to problems in making this improvement. But this is a poor comparison. These ideas are not a new, totally different, system but are basically only an improvement on the existing calendar. Most people should grasp the ideas quickly, and in the case of the 13-month system, should be able to memorize all the weekday date possibilities in minutes.

As nations adopted an improved calendar they could, if desired, schedule all national holidays to fall on a Monday. For nations recognizing Christmas, the old-style December 25 falls on Monday, December 25, in the Common Era Calendar - or on Monday, Cosmos 22, in the Cosmic Calendar. Calendar Day, when it occurs (in Long Years), would probably be recognized as a national (and world) holiday.

In 1912, in a letter to the International Chamber of Commerce, the Vatican's Papal Secretary of State wrote:

"The Holy See declared that it made no objection (to an improved civil calendar) but invited the civil powers to enter into accord on the reform of the calendar, after which it would willingly grant its collaboration in so far as the matter affected religious feasts."

Possibly Christian churches would be moved to adopt a fixed Easter Sunday date.

In 1926, a representative at the League of Nations (Peru had brought up Calendar Reform) said:

"We do not expect calendar reform to be forced on the League by an aroused public demand. That would be asking too much. In the past, reforms of this sort have always been imposed from above. If the improvement has to wait for public opinion to insist, it will never be realized."

In proof of his point: The U.N. Economic and Social Council had calendar reform on its agenda in 1954 through 1956 (introduced by India) but dropped it, saying, "The idea could be put forward again at some future time if any major change in the climate of public opinion took place." The U.N. (and the U.S.) must lead on this. IT'S ABOUT TIME!

                                12 Month
                           COMMON ERA CALENDAR

       1  JANUARY             2  FEBRUARY             3  MARCH
X  M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
N  1  2  3  4  5  6  7          1  2  3  4  5                1  2  3
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   6  7  8  9  10 11 12   4  5  6  7  8  9  10
   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   20 21 22 23 24 25 26   18 19 20 21 22 23 24
   29 30                  27 28 29 30            25 26 27 28 29 30 31

N = New Year Day

       4  APRIL                 5  MAY                6  JUNE
   M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
   1  2  3  4  5  6  7          1  2  3  4  5                1  2  3
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   6  7  8  9  10 11 12   4  5  6  7  8  9  10
   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   20 21 22 23 24 25 26   18 19 20 21 22 23 24
   29 30                  27 28 29 30            25 26 27 28 29 30 31

        7  JULY               8  AUGUST             9  SEPTEMBER
X  M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
C  1  2  3  4  5  6  7          1  2  3  4  5                1  2  3
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   6  7  8  9  10 11 12   4  5  6  7  8  9  10
   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   20 21 22 23 24 25 26   18 19 20 21 22 23 24
   29 30                  27 28 29 30            25 26 27 28 29 30 31

C = Calendar Day (Long Years Only)

        10  OCTOBER          11  NOVEMBER           12  DECEMBER
   M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
   1  2  3  4  5  6  7          1  2  3  4  5                1  2  3
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   6  7  8  9  10 11 12   4  5  6  7  8  9  10
   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   20 21 22 23 24 25 26   18 19 20 21 22 23 24
   29 30                  27 28 29 30            25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Year Quarters are 91 days (13 weeks, 3 months) long. Each Quarter has the same number of weekends. Quarters start on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. New Year Day and Calendar Day (Long Years only) are intercalary days, not part of week, and take no number date other than the year. Numerical notation would be: (D/M/Y) 00/01/XX and 00/07/XX. Long Years are any year evenly divisable by 4, except that years ending in "00" are Long Years only if they are divisable by 400. (Same as Leap Year system in present calendar.)

There is always only a single equivalent date in the 13-month Cosmic Calendar below to any date in the Common Era Calendar and, of course, vice versa. Equivalent dates are always the same day of the week. For example: December 25 in Common Era Calendar always equals Cosmos 22 in Cosmic Calendar and both dates are always a Monday. Both calendars are perpetual, i.e. they are the same year after year.

Both calendars could be in use simultaniously for a trial period if that was thought desireable. Because of equivalent dates it is fairly simple to translate from one to the other. Differing month names would identify which calendar a date comes from. New Year Day and Calendar Day (when it occurs) fall on the same solar day along in the year in both calendars and are therefore equivalent dates in both.

THIS ABILITY TO HAVE BOTH CALENDARS IN USE AT THE SAME TIME COULD HAVE IMPORTANT SIGNIFICANCE FOR GETTING U.N. CONSIDERATION AND ACTION. IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS ONLY TENATIVE CONSIDERATION WAS GIVEN TO 'CALENDAR REFORM' WHEN IT WAS ON THE U.N. AGENDA IN '54 TO '56 WAS THAT EACH CALENDAR, 12 MONTH OR 13 MONTH, HAD THE SUPPORT OF ROUGHLY HALF THE DELEGATIONS IN THE 'ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL' AT THAT TIME. BY BEING ABLE TO RECOMMEND BOTH FOR A TRIAL PERIOD (50 YRs?), THEY COULD ESTABLISH THROUGH USE, WHICH CALENDAR THE USERS IN ALL COUNTRIES PREFERRED. A COMPROMISE SOLUTION.

                              13 - Month
                            COSMIC CALENDAR
            (See below for explanation of Month Name selection.)

       1. HELIOS              2. MERCURY              3. VENUS
X  M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
N  1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14
   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28

N = New Year Day

         4. TERRA               5. LUNA               6. ARES
   M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
   1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14
   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28

       7. JOVE               8. KRONOS              9. URANUS
X  M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
   1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14
C  15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28

C = Calendar Day (Long Years Only)

       10. NEPTUNE            11. PLUTO              12. GALAXY
   M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S    M  T  W  T  F  S  S
   1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7    1  2  3  4  5  6  7
   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14   8  9  10 11 12 13 14
   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   15 16 17 18 19 20 21
   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   22 23 24 25 26 27 28

                              13. COSMOS
                          M  T  W  T  F  S  S
                          1  2  3  4  5  6  7
                          8  9  10 11 12 13 14
                          15 16 17 18 19 20 21
                          22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Year Quarters are 91 days (13 weeks) long. Each Quarter has the same number of weekends. Quarters start on Helios 1, Terrra 8, Jove 15, and Neptune 22. New Year Day and Calendar Day (in Long Years) are intercalary days, not part of a week, and take no number date other than the year. Numerical notation would be (D/M/Y): 00/01/XX and 00/07/XX. Long Years are computed in the same way as for Common Era Calendar.

Possible U.S. holiday schedule (all Mondays):

               M.L.K.       Pres.       *Vet's       Mem.      Indep.
                Day         Day          Day         Day        Day
12-month 
Calendar >    Jan. 15     Feb. 20       Apr. 8      May 27     July 1
13-month   
Calendar >   Helios 15   Mercury 22    Terra 15     Ares 8     Jove 15


               Labor          Columb.        Thanks.        Xmas
                Day            Day            Day           Day
12-month
Calendar >    Sept. 4         Oct. 8         Nov. 20       Dec. 25
13-month
Calendar >   Uranus 22       Pluto 15       Galaxy 15     Cosmos 22

* Veterans Day moved to second quarter of year for better balance of holidays in all quarters. Independence day equals old July 3rd. New Year Day and Calendar Day are also holidays.

Elections could be scheduled for Saturday & Sunday, November 4 and 5 in the Common Era Calendar and/or Pluto 27 and 28 in the Cosmic Calendar. These are equivalent dates in the two calendars.

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Comments may be directed to:
William H. Becker
BillBecker@msn.com