# Starting a new calendar **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 1, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771 "2000-08-01T23:34:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/21 "2000-08-03T18:36:50Z")
I agree with the re-arrangement of the Calendar, especially regularizing it, so the months, at least, are uniform. As for a starting date, I propose (what is currently known as) 9000 BCE. This is the (approximate) date that humans had reached Tierra del Feugo (sp?) and had covered the globe. Of course, we don’t have an exact date, but from the archeological evidence, humans finally transversed all of the Americas. This is a secular event that recognizes HUMAN achievement rather that an event special to one culture. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/22 "2000-08-03T19:48:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Freyr \* > \*\* > As for a starting date, I propose (what is currently known as) 9000 BCE. This is the (approximate) date that humans had reached Tierra del Feugo (sp?) and had covered the globe. \*\* Hardly. Humans first covered the globe early in the 1900s (sorry, I don’t have the exact date available, but I’m sure someone can provide it) when we landed in Antarctica. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Groundskeeper_Willie)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/23 "2000-08-04T02:20:25Z")
**Freyr** wrote: > [@](#): > > As for a starting date, I propose (what is currently known as) 9000 BCE. This is the (approximate) date that humans had reached Tierra del Feugo (sp?) and had covered the globe. Of course, > we don’t have an exact date, but from the archeological evidence, humans finally transversed all of the Americas. That date is fairly close to the end of the last Ice Age, which, again, has the advantage that it could be nailed down quite accurately. IIRC, the switch happened over a period of decades at the most, possibly less. This is an event of world-wide importance as well. Bill, in the year 10500 PIC (post-ice-age) ---
**Author:** ![Ptahlis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a8b319/32.png) [@Ptahlis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ptahlis)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/24 "2000-08-04T15:04:20Z")
C’mon guys. We’ll be using Stardates in the next couple of centuries anyway, or don’t you watch TV? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/25 "2000-08-04T16:47:44Z")
Several people seem to like the “Universal Calendar” (13 months, 28 days per month, plus an intercalary day to make the year come out to 365 days). I prefer the “World Calendar”: 12 months. First month of each quarter has 31 days, the rest have 30 days. This makes it easier for businessmen who have to file quarterly reports. Also, each quarter begins on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. To make the 365-day year: Saturday, June 30 is followed by an intercalary holiday. The holiday is followed by Sunday, July 1. On leap years, add a second holiday after the last day of December. Just to annoy everyone, I would have each quarter start on an equinox or a solstice. As for the system of numbering years, the owners of the Buck Rogers comic strip once proposed starting from the year Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. That would make this the Apollo Year 31. Personally, I don’t care whither this is 2,000CE or 31AY. But as a history student, I hate having to count backwards during the BC/BCE years. I would prefer to mark 10,002BC as the zero point; 2BC would then be 10,000 with most of recorded human history on the positive side of the number line. 1BC would then become year zero of the Common Era. ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/26 "2000-08-04T23:11:42Z")
mbh, I like the 10,002 B.C. starting point. I find the rest too complicated, but maybe that’s just me. So how do we proceed? Do we start using one of our calendars, and launch the movement to get it adopted? Can we get the U.S. Naval Observatory to use our system (maybe we could name the extra month after admiral Farragut or something)? ---
**Author:** ![TampaFlyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TampaFlyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TampaFlyer)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2000, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/27 "2000-08-05T15:48:17Z")
This whole idea is a crock. ---
**Author:** ![Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Groundskeeper_Willie)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/28 "2000-08-06T01:11:02Z")
> [@](#): > > This whole idea is a crock. You’re right! The force of your argument has convinced me that this whole idea is, in your elegant words, a crock. Look, the whole point of this thread is to examine possible alternatives to the commonly accepted BC/AD system. True, the probability of a change to the calender in the next few daecades is very low, but I am sure that at some point alternative year dating systems _will_ be seriously considered. Bill ---
**Author:** ![Ptahlis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a8b319/32.png) [@Ptahlis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ptahlis)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/29 "2000-08-07T13:40:38Z")
Any point in time we number the years from will necessarily be an arbitrary one. Unless we can someday state with certainty that the universe started on Friday around 4:15 pm 15,412,368,079 years and 64 days ago, whatever point we pick will remain arbitrary. What are the advantages of choosing another arbitrary zero point that outweigh the enormous inertia of our present system? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/30 "2000-08-07T17:59:30Z")
What **Ptahlis** said. I also have to nitpick **mbh** ’s remark: > [@](#): > > **I prefer the “World Calendar”: 12 months. First month of each quarter has 31 days, the rest have 30 days.** This makes it easier for businessmen who have to file quarterly reports. Also, each quarter begins on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. > > To make the 365-day year: Saturday, June 30 is followed by an intercalary holiday. The holiday is followed by Sunday, July 1. On leap years, add a second holiday after the last day of December. > > \*\*Just to annoy everyone, I would have each quarter start on an equinox or a solstice. \*\* The two bolded conditions are mutually contradictory. The equinoxes and solstices are not distributed at exact quarterly intervals throughout a 365.25-day year (and your choice of intercalary days wouldn’t help). ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/31 "2000-08-08T02:43:38Z")
Kimstu, I stand corrected. The main idea was to get the businessman’s quarters in line with the farmer’s seasons. How about putting New Year’s day on a solstice (or some other convenient astronomical benchmark) in order to prevent the type of drift which led to the Julian/Gregorian switch? ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/32 "2000-08-08T03:44:05Z")
> [@](#): > > This whole idea is a crock. Huh…wha…where am I? Ah! The lights! My eyes have been opened! Of course…it’s a crock! **It’s…a…_Crock_!** Yes! I never thought about it that way before, but now it makes perfect sense! Wake up, my friends, wake up! We have been deluded. It’s all a crock. A _CROCK_, see? We can go home, now. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771/33 "2000-08-08T07:13:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by APB9999 \* > \*\* > This is why I would put New Year’s Day on the winter solstice rather than the vernal equinox (which might make more sense): it’s a smaller change from what we have now. > \*\* If we are talking about a world calander then the terms “winter solstice” and “vernal equinox” here are borealcentric. We are talking about a new beginning. Damn the inertia. Also, what is the reasoning behind placing the new month at the end of the year? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-new-calendar/27771.md?page=1)