It makes an even better job than the Gregorian calendar when it comes to approximating the calendar to the solar year.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Wikipedia tells me it was come up with in 1923, long after both global trade and the industrial revolution. You need all the countries to agree on the same calendar system or commerce is really hindered. It was way too late to change in 1923.

    The French tried to change the calendar to something more sensible and closer to metric after the French Revolution. It did not last long.

    Things seem to work just fine with the calendar we have anyway.

    Also, it could be worse. The Mayans had three different calendar systems- a solar calendar, a lunar calendar, and a 260-day calendar which we don’t know the origin of, but I like Dr. Ed Barnhart’s theory that it’s very close to a human gestational period.

    • Flax
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      5 hours ago

      I don’t think the french calendar would have ever worked, as humans seem to always divide their working into 7 day weeks.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        It was never popular even in France, for a simple reason: the week became 10 days but the weekly rest day was still only 1.

      • ComradeMiao@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        That’s a bold statement. This was a western invention that spread from Greece around the 5th century. Not always

        • Flax
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          3 hours ago

          It’s literally recorded in the Torah, which was at least 1000 years before that

          • ComradeMiao@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            The Torah is still in the west dog. You think the whole world is Europe and the Middle East? China divided them into weeks of ten.

            • Flax
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              2 hours ago

              Thought you were talking about in general, my bad

              • ComradeMiao@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                I was responding to you saying humans seem to always divide by 7. It’s an interesting point you make that it’s been done for a long time but we are saying two things.

                You actually made me think of something I’m gonna go ask the Hebrew specialist, did 7 days in the Hebrew Bible mean 7. I know 7 is their number for a lot just like 10,000 in Chinese. :)

                • Flax
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                  2 hours ago

                  My lemmy client only shows the comment without context, so unless I have a good memory, etc.

        • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          A week is one quarter of a moon cycle. Basically we either have to choose solar or lunar and solar makes more sense because of seasons. Problem is we chose both.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        It would have worked if the rest of the world (or at least the major European powers) were on board. But since most of them were still ruled by kings, that wasn’t going to happen.

        • Flax
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          4 hours ago

          And Christianity being a major religion in Europe which teaches a 7 day week, and I believe Islam in the east does the same. China also used the 7 day week at this point, too.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            Very much so. They were never going to get the Pope on board, and without the Pope, they wouldn’t have had much of Europe on their side.

  • kava@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    look at the chaos that Y2K was. one doesn’t simply adopt a new calendar.

    it’s too ingrained. it’s like ripping out the foundations of a house to build a new one. it would have to be one hell of a calendar

    • CMLVI@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah. There aren’t any REAL issues with the current calendar. Months aren’t equal, we have leap year. But it doesn’t break anything, it’s just annoyances you live with.

    • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      There is a pretty fucking solid one:

      13 months exactly 4 weeks long. 364 days. Two unique days: New Years Day and Leap Day. Just put them together.

      Now every month is the same length. Every numbered day is the same day of the week in every month for the whole year.

        • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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          2 hours ago

          Either A) New Years Day is a day of the week and your birthday changes every year (but in a vastly more predictable way; NYD will make next year’s dates one weekday ahead), or B) New Years Day is a completely separate day and all years are identical, and you choose your birthday to be celebrated on the closest agreeable weekend if that matters to you