Saturday, April 09, 2011

Century Calendar: Reconciling Cycles

The need to reconcile the solar and lunar cycles is a major difficulty when designing a new calendar. What if we relieved ourselves of this need?

My Century Calendar (June 12, 2007) proposed swapping current month names with those of Zodiac signs. September 23rd, for example, becomes "Libra 1", dropping the ordinal suffix.

Using Zodiac month names neatly ties the months directly to the solar cycle, so every three months we'd land on (or pretty close to) a solstice or equinox.* This keeps the days clicking properly against the solar cycle backdrop, and the months from slipping against the seasons. It also obviates the need for fixer days like extra holidays (as earlier proposed).

But what of the lunar cycle? So much of our lives still revolves around that heavenly body (moods, romance, arts, agriculture, astrology). We can't simply ignore the moon.

The track the lunar cycle in the proposed calendar, the position of the moon would be noted on the newly-named and numbered days by sub- or superscript. Thus, the day of the lunar cycle would be properly noted and reported. The naming of days would have to be changed, putting the number before the month name (e.g., "Libra 1" changes to "1 Libra"). To demonstrate what this would look like, without claiming any scientific accuracy, it might go something like . .

1 Gemini21
6 Capricorn3

Position in the lunar cycle would thus be displayed, but would not drive the main numbering system. The need to reconcile the two separate and distinct cycles--lunar and solar--would be dispensed with, but lunar cycle would be displayed for those who want (or need) to keep track.



*Getting days to land precisely would require a adjustment with help from astrology and astronomy experts. Months may grow or shrink a day at times, but how best to reconcile this with the Zodiac? Overlapping days?

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