# Weird Calendar Stuff That Somebody Ought To Fix
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 5, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729 "2005-08-05T16:31:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/21 "2005-08-06T16:41:54Z")
> [@Lillith Fair](#):
>
> I hate calendars that begin on Monday. I can’t get used to them and keep writing things on the wrong days. I’m too old to start the week on Monday instead of Sunday.
Those are broadcast calendars. The week runs Mon-Sun and the month ends on the last Sunday of the month. So although broadcast August started Aug 1, it ends on Aug 28 and broadcast September starts Aug 29. The 2005 broadcast year ends on Dec 25 this year. I haven’t seen these calendars used outside the broadcast industry.
BTW, the broadcast day runs from 6a-5:59a.
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### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/22 "2005-08-06T16:54:52Z")
We should also have a new day added to the calendar. It will be the eighth day of the week, between Sunday and Monday.
It will be called Smooday.
However, our weeks will still have the regulation seven days. The benefit of having Smooday is that _you always have Smooday off._
When somebody asks you on Monday, “Hey, what did you do yesterday?” you can say “Nothing at all! Man, it was nice.”
Nobody will _ever_ be able to call you in to work on Smooday.
You can put things on your schedule for Smooday, but the nice thing is, you never actually have to do them because it never _is_ Smooday.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/23 "2005-08-06T16:59:44Z")
I’m going to guess that there’s at least one person who doesn’t know:
If a month’s first day is a Sunday, it will have a Friday the 13th.
The quickest that a day of the month (say August 3rd) can return to the same day of the week (say Thursday) is either 5, 6, 11 or 28 years. The 28 is for February 29ths.
In every month but February it’s possible to have a “blue moon” (as defined as the same phase of the moon occurring twice in the same month). These happen on average every 2 1/2 years.
New Year’s Day used to be March 25.
There are only 14 basic annual calendars: 7 “regular years” starting on each day of the week and 7 “leap years” starting on each day of the week.
On every one of the 14 calendars, there will be at least one Friday the 13th, and as many as three.
Know any other little calendar oddities you’d like to share?
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### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/24 "2005-08-06T17:17:26Z")
In 1999 there were two blue moons-- January and March; February for that year did not have a full moon.
As for things to fix, I also thought that it would make more sense to have 13 months consisting of four seven-day weeks, and then having the extra day applied either to the beginning or the end of the year (two days in the case of a leap year). Of course this will never happen because all the computers would have to be reprogrammed (ala Y2K) and triskadekaphobiacs (sp?) would never go for it.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/25 "2005-08-06T17:23:21Z")
> [@dwc1970](#):
>
> In 1999 there were two blue moons-- January and March; February for that year did not have a full moon.
Since a “lunar month” is 29 1/2 days, February can **never** have a “blue moon” as defined in my earlier post. The full moon February might have had that year fell instead at the end of January and the start of March.
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### Author:  [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/26 "2005-08-06T17:29:30Z")
Wouldn’t it be possible, if rather unlikely, to have a blue moon on February 29th of a leap year?
Also, Daylight Saving Time is indefensibly stupid, and should be disposed of forthwith. I’m sure they’ll get around to that right after they’re finished switching all the road signs over to kilometers. Unfortunately, I’ll be dead.
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### Author:  [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/27 "2005-08-06T17:32:52Z")
…aaaaaaand ignore the first part of my post. I thought I remembered that a lunar cycle was 2 **8** 1/2 days. That’s what I get for thinking. And remembering. And not previewing. And eating too much chocolate pudding, because I’m sure that had something to do with it.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/28 "2005-08-06T17:33:28Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#):
>
> Wouldn’t it be possible, if rather unlikely, to have a blue moon on February 29th of a leap year?
It would have to involve a 29th and a 1st, but unfortunately if the first of those full moons happened at one second after midnight on the first, the second full moon would occur sometime after midnight on March 1, even in a leap year.
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### Author:  [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/29 "2005-08-06T17:33:52Z")
> [@Lillith Fair](#):
>
> I hate calendars that begin on Monday. I can’t get used to them and keep writing things on the wrong days. I’m too old to start the week on Monday instead of Sunday.
Me too, but you also have to wonder - if it’s called the **weekend** , why the hell isn’t it the end of the weekly calendar?
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/30 "2005-08-06T17:34:38Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#):
>
> …aaaaaaand ignore the first part of my post. I thought I remembered that a lunar cycle was 2 **8** 1/2 days. That’s what I get for thinking. And remembering. And not previewing. And eating too much chocolate pudding, because I’m sure that had something to do with it.
Not to worry. Unfortunately I posted before seeing your follow-up.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/31 "2005-08-06T17:39:34Z")
> [@mr bus guy](#):
>
> Me too, but you also have to wonder - if it’s called the **weekend** , why the hell isn’t it the end of the weekly calendar?
Such a wonderful example of how our language fails to keep up with reality! I suppose the Saturday (Sabbath) being the last of the seven was the origin of the term, even after Sunday got lumped in with it for the magical days off (back when that was a common occurrence.) Throwing in Friday or Monday because of how holidays have shaped up (for the most part) just adds to the mess.
At least the German for Wednesday (which translates to Mid-week, IIRC) has things in perspective.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/32 "2005-08-06T18:08:54Z")
> [@mr bus guy](#):
>
> Me too, but you also have to wonder - if it’s called the **weekend** , why the hell isn’t it the end of the weekly calendar?
Nah, it’s like this…Sunday is at the front end of the week and Saturday is at the back end of the week. Or, uh, something like that.
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### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/33 "2005-08-06T21:08:25Z")
Of course, if you start the week on Smooday, that solves another problem.
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### Author:  [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/34 "2005-08-06T22:31:35Z")
Somewhat related, what is it with schools starting in August and ending in May nowadays? Since when does _summer_ break start in May, and fall quarter start in _August_?! May is a spring month! School is supposed to end in June and start in September! We need to get our schools back on track.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/35 "2005-08-06T22:37:40Z")
> [@Yumblie](#):
>
> Somewhat related, what is it with schools starting in August and ending in May nowadays? Since when does _summer_ break start in May, and fall quarter start in _August_?! May is a spring month! School is supposed to end in June and start in September! We need to get our schools back on track.
Actually, the _New York Times_ had an article about this today. I found the online version, although you might need to register:
[As More Schools Open Earlier, Parents Seek to Reclaim Summer](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/06/education/06calendar.html)
> [@](#):
>
> As far as its public schools are concerned, Early County in rural southwest Georgia is suitably named. School started two weeks ago, on July 22. In Chandler, Ariz., a booming suburb of Phoenix, schools opened that same week. In Florida, the last county to open schools is Putnam, east of Gainesville, where classes start Aug. 16.
>
> “It’s crazy,” said Vivian Jackson, a mother of two school-age children in Marietta, Ga., where schools open in mid-August. "There’s no reason for it. I spent yesterday in the allergist’s office to get a note from the doctor because my child cannot ride in a school bus when the temperature is 90 degrees, and there’s not a day in August here when the temperature does not reach 90 degrees.
>
> \
>
> A major impetus for an early start to the school year is standardized testing. In many states, district officials contend that shifting starting dates to July or August allows for semester exams before the Christmas break and for added instruction ahead of statewide tests that are used to measure progress for the federal No Child Left Behind program.
>
> Some have added a few days of instruction, but most have shifted the academic year, traditionally from September to June, to July or August to May.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/36 "2005-08-06T23:58:06Z")
I like the idea of 13 months of 28. There would be an extra day in summer (July 29th) and in leap years there would be another extra day (Which, for tradition’s sake, would still be February 29th). Months would always begin on Sundays, and the extra day(s) would not be part of the normal week. (You can call the occasional 8th day “Bonusday” or or somesuch if you really need a name.) July 29th would be a holiday where most people wouldn’t work. I like the idea of creating a holiday called “Odd Day” where people are encouraged to act in silly, unusual ways, in celebration of the misfit nature of the day.
Oh yeah, and there would be no fucking Daylight Savings Time. Anyone who proposed adopting this scheme would be forced to spend a year living in a special facility where the clocks randomly change overnight.
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/37 "2005-08-07T01:10:36Z")
> [@Diceman](#):
>
> Oh yeah, and there would be no fucking Daylight Savings Time. Anyone who proposed adopting this scheme would be forced to spend a year living in a special facility where the clocks randomly change overnight.
Don’t worry about it; if the “new” US Daylight Savings Time survives the year I’ll be surprised. The same Congress who panicked 5-6 years before the Y2K switchover have apparently forgotten about the tens of millions of consumer devices (VCRs, ovens, clocks, watches, computers, etc.) that have the rules for DST embedded in them and can’t be easily changed.
We’ll be lucky if any two people in the country (outside the sane states that have abolished DST altogether) agree on what time it is during the two extra months (or whatever it is) of DST this year.
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### Author:  [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/38 "2005-08-07T01:53:45Z")
Maybe I should be putting this in GQ so it doesn’t get buried, but what will be the date of the extra day (367th day, since it will be added on a leap year) that will have to be added to the calendar sometime after 3000? I read about this day somewhere and they worked out what the new date would be, but I forgot. I know it’s not February 30th, since time won’t need to be made up in February but the adjustment has to come later in the calendar.
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### Author:  [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/39 "2005-08-07T03:39:19Z")
What we need is METRIC TIME.
20 hours in a day, one hundred minutes to the hour and 100 secounds to the minute. Then go with the 13 months of 28 days each.
Also, the New Year should begin on the Vernal Equinox, March 21st, because this is the beginning, Spring, rebirth. This would be Day 1 of the calendar year with the 13 months progressing from this starting point.
Wadda ya think?
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2005, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-calendar-stuff-that-somebody-ought-to-fix/315729/40 "2005-08-07T03:40:31Z")
> [@Nic2004](#):
>
> What we need is METRIC TIME.
> 20 hours in a day, one hundred minutes to the hour and 100 secounds to the minute. Then go with the 13 months of 28 days each.
> Also, the New Year should begin on the Vernal Equinox, March 21st, because this is the beginning, Spring, rebirth. This would be Day 1 of the calendar year with the 13 months progressing from this starting point.
>
> Wadda ya think?
I like your thinking and I’m sure Congress and NBC will love it, too.
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