Alternative calendar

[Reverend Conehead]

A really long time ago, they had a 360-day calendar, but they noticed that the seasons moved around. That's because the Earth doesn't take 360 days to circle the sun. It takes 365 and a fourth days. So they switched to a 365-day calendar with a 366-day one every fourth year to take care of that extra fourth. That's why not every month is 30 days. They have some 31-day months and one month that is 28 days, except for leap year when it's 29.

However, our current calendar is not the only one they considered. They considered using a calendar that has all 30-day months. Of course, that would only make 360 days, so they need 5 more days, or 6 more days if it's leap year. They therefore simply added an extra 5-day time period that was in no month. On leap year, it would have been an extra 6-day time period. Imagine using that calendar. Every month would be exactly 30 days, but then you would finish all the months, but the year would not be over. There would be five days. Would they call them normal days like "Monday" and "Tuesday" or would they have to have special names? And what would they call the time period? Maybe call it the 5-day jump or the 6-day jump. Or maybe call it goofy week. It would have made company budgets weird. Or maybe a tradition would have evolved where everyone takes the jump days off.

I think they chose the right calendar, but the alternative one would have been interesting.

 

[Flamma]

Wouldn't it have been easier if they just made December 35 days? Then they can continue to call it the regular days of the week, and continue to call it December. Why make it more complicated? Or does that line of thinking throw something off?

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Wouldn't it have been easier if they just made December 35 days? Then they can continue to call it the regular days of the week, and continue to call it December. Why make it more complicated? Or does that line of thinking throw something off?

That could have worked too. As far as I know, no one back then proposed it, but we don't know everything that was said back then. It's totally possible that someone suggested doing it that way, but we just don't have it on record. But, you're right. That could have worked. It would have made December a strangely long month, especially during leap year, when December would have had 36 days.