Time to Change the World for the Better
One day at a time
On this 21st day of December, I hereby again proclaim and advocate for the entire world to adopt the following calendar.
Each month has 30 days. At the Winter Solstice there is a two-day Yule which does not belong to any month. What is currently December 21 would be Yule 1, the last day of the old year. What is now December 22 is Yule 2, or New Year’s Day.
At the Summer Solstice there is a three-day period, which also does not belong to any month.
In either case, these days are celebrated as a time of shared good will, thanksgiving, and festivals, both solemn and celebratory.
Current holidays like Ramadan, Chanukah, and the Twelve Days of Christmas are based in astronomical calculations and could continue as usual even if name of the specific day, in the case of Christmas and Epiphany , would be altered.
On leap years, the extra day is added to the SUMMER holiday, where it would be most welcome, or the “Lithe” as those days were called by Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, who invented this calendar for his hobbits of the Shire.
This has always appealed to me greatly since I first learned of this most sensible way of reckoning the days of the year.
For more info than you probably want about Shire reckoning, see
https://psarando.github.io/shire-reckoning/#gondor-reckoning-notes
As if one could ever get too much info on Shire reckoning and such like. We humans, like hobbits, take delight in such things, providing “they were accurate; they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.”
Thank you for the awesome link!