For years, I have had this idea brewing on calendar reform that I believed to be unique: A 13-month calendar.
The 13-month calendar I envisioned would be based on the existing Gregorian calendar’s seven-day week, 365 day year, and quasi-quadrennial leap year.
My idea: add a thirteenth month (as of yet unnamed), allot 28 days (that’s four seven-day weeks) to each — which totals 364 days — then create one free day at the end of the year that belongs to no month or week and which is not one of the seven regular days — bringing the number of days in the year to 365.
As with the Gregorian calendar, every four years, a leap day is added. However, in my calendar, this leap day is not added during the month of February; instead, a second free day is added at the end of the year — the 366th day.
Consequently, in my calendar, the seven days of the week each appears four times every month and never shift sequentially from year to year; every year, each month begins on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday.
Unfortunately the 13-month calendar is not divisible into four quarters of three months each; instead it is divided into four quarters of — this will boggle your noggin — thirteen weeks each.
I’ve long been proud of “my” calendar idea and had dreams of blogging about it in a grand reveal someday for the world’s delight and enlightenment (delightenment?).
I’ve occasionally reveled in the quirky exclusivity of my invention while entertaining the blank stares and incredulity of friends and coworkers with whom I’ve shared it.
It was all for naught. The idea exists and has been tested and tried — most notably by the Eastman Kodak Company from 1928-1989.
Behold the International Fixed Calendar designed by Moses B. Cotsworth, who presented it in 1902.
Much to my own surprise, I never once Googled “13 month calendar” until I set myself to the inaugural blog post about it.
I’m more than a century late, but — like the Windows 7 commercial says — it was my idea.
So, what now? Do I see a Google Calendar API project in my future?
