The Law of Calendar Reform: We Got Rid of Year 2020, but Why Stop There?
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G THE B IN EN V C R H E S A N 8 8 D 8 B 1 AR SINCE WWW. NYLJ.COM VOLUME 265—NO. 21 TUESDAY, FEBRUAY 2, 2021 COMMENTARY The Law of Calendar Reform: We Got Rid of Year 2020, But Why Stop There? BY TIMOTHY G. NELSON hen the year 2020 ended, business friendly system. The calen- it was met with almost dar is more malleable than might be unprecedented derision. thought. “Good Riddance, 2020,” The Components Of the Calendar Wwas a common refrain. Netflix’s end- of-year comedy retrospective was titled The “calendar” is a system for orga- “Death to 2020.” The Washington Post nizing time—both time already elapsed, even convened a panel of historians to and time yet to elapse. Today’s cal- debate whether 2020 was the “Worst endar is an amalgam of five different shutterstock Year Ever.” concepts: all time units, including the base unit The expiry of the “Annus Horribilus,” Days. The day is the length of time of one second, were once calibrated of course, merely marks the comple- for the Earth to rotate. according to the length of a “tropical tion of a numbered calendar year. And The “Calendar Year.” Although a year” (using the length of the year 1900 a calendar in turn, is a complex (and “year” is considered a constant, as the base) in some respects convoluted) system the “calendar year” varies from Anno Domini. The numbering of 365 days in a normal calendar for organizing and measuring time. our years is based on the assump- year and 366 days in a leap year. Although we tend to think of the cal- tion that Jesus Christ was born on As all schoolchildren are taught, the endar, with its 12 month, 365 day (and reason for this variation is that the Year 1, originated midway through leap year) system, as a constant, the actual amount of time Earth to com- the first millennium, with the bless- reality is that it is a human construct— plete its orbit (the “tropical year”) is ing of the Church. This accounts the product of laws and conventions. approximately 365.24 days—hence for the suffix “A.D.,” meaning Anno For Americans, the present calendar the addition of a “leap day,” usually Domini—“the year of our Lord” – system is the product of colonial laws every four years, in order to correct covering years post-dating that that were enacted in the mid-18th cen- for this. Specifically, a “leap day” is event, and “B.C.” (“Before Christ”) inserted every four years except in a tury. Conceivably, Congress and/or for years preceding it. In recent year marking a century (hence, the state legislatures could alter those laws years, some have begun the suffixes year 1900 had no leap day), with the (and thus alter the calendar) should further proviso that for a century “C.E.” (“common era”) and B.C.E. they see fit. Indeed, not too long ago, year that is divisible by 400, there (“before common era”) to avoid the there was a spirited attempt to do will be a leap day. Hence, the year religious connotations associated persuade Congress of the virtues of 2000 did have a leap day. with the more traditional “A.D.” and calendar “reform” (or “simplification”), Despite this quirk, the concept of a “B.C.” rearranging our 12 irregularly-spaced year is so elemental (indeed, primal), Months. Our system of having 12 months in favor of a more streamlined, and so seemingly easy to observe, that months dates back to the Classical TUESDAY, FEBRUAY 2, 2021 era. It was first standardized under Although the Gregorian Calendar “Calendar Reform” Movements: the Roman Empire under what was was immediately adopted in Catholic From the French Resolution to called “Julian Calendar,” after Julius countries such as France and Spain, it George Eastman Caesar. The Roman origins are evi- dent not only in the Latinate names was only adopted by Britain in 1750. Pope Gregory, however, did not have of many of the months (e.g., Septem- Under the Calendar (New Styles) Act the last word on calendar reform. The ber, October), but also from the fact enacted that year, which applied “in polyglot nature of the calendar—whose that two of the months, July and and throughout all his Majesty’s weeks and months are wholly unsyn- August, are named after members dominions and countries in Europe, chronized—as well as its stubborn of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (Julius Asia, Africa, and America”—thus non-decimal numbering (seven days and August Caesar, respectively). extending to the original American a week) and uneven months, have led The calendar “month” is itself not colonies—the Act adopted the Grego- to periodic calls for rationalization. a scientific concept, but it has ves- rian calendar as and from 1752 (and A dramatic (indeed notorious) tigial links to the lunar month (the lengthy of time for the Moon to orbit directed that the period Sept. 2, 1752 attempt at calendar reform was made the Earth). through Sept. 14, 1752 be skipped, during the French Revolution. The Weeks. Our seven-day week is an in order to correct the Julian drift). Republican calendar abolished the even more ancient tradition; it As a pre-colonial law of general 7-day week in favor of 10-day weeks, is prescribed for example, in the application, the Calendar (New and created an entirely different series Ten Commandments and the era of of months. Under the reformed sys- Moses. It is a stand-alone concept tem, the years ran afresh from the The calendar is more malleable with no mathematical connection date of the Resolution (Year I = 1792), either to a year or a month. than might be thought. and months were given new names, The Legal Basis for The Calendar beginning with “Vendémiaire” (on what Styles) Act continued in force in was once September 22) and running Our calendar system may derive the United States—and had some through to “Fructidor” (occupying what from tradition but it has a firm statu- real-world implications (e.g., was once late August/early September). tory basis, tracing back to colonial although, by statute, George Washing- Each month was 30 days long, and was times. ton’s birthday has been celebrated on divided into three 10-day weeks (con- As noted above, the traditional February 22 each year, he was actu- fusingly called “decades”). The spare “Julian” calendar was the product of ally born on Feb. 11, 1731 under the days would be collected and gathered Roman Empire regulation, which in old calendar). as a series of festivals at the end of turn, was continued in European his- By the end of the 20th century, most the year. tory (including through the general countries had given up on the Julian This was all too much for most influence of the Catholic Church). In calendar, and the Gregorian calendar people. After he was made Emperor, the 16th century, however, Europeans (along with Western numbering of Napoleon abolished the Republican realized that the Julian calendar had years) for secular purposes was all calendar and restored the Gregorian slightly overestimated the length of but ubiquitous. (A relatively late con- calendar. (Ironically, however, Napo- any one year, with the result that, over vert was Russia, which only switched leon Bonaparte’s 1799 coup d’état is the centuries, the earth’s equinoxes after the revolution of 1917.) At the still remembered as “18 Brumiere,” and solstices had slipped behind present date, the Gregorian calendar because it occurred on 18 Brumaire, their proper places in the calendar by (and Western numbering) is standard Year VII under the Republican calen- approximately 10 days. Consequently, in virtually all countries, and is utilized dar (Nov. 9, 1789 under the Gregorian in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a by the International Bureau of Weights calendar).) papal bull mandating the adoption of and Measures in administering Coor- The next serious attempt at calen- a new calendar (the “Gregorian calen- dinated Universal Time, the time scale dar reform came more than a cen- dar”) that corrected the 10-day drift that forms the basis for the coordinated tury later, with an attempt to adopt and slightly reduced the number of dissemination of standard frequencies a 13-month year, with equal months leap years going forward. and time signals.” and synchronized weeks. This began TUESDAY, FEBRUAY 2, 2021 when the Pan American Conference The advantage of this system lies “Calendar Reform” And Vatican II (the precursor to the Organization in its fixity: The third day of every month would always be a Tuesday; of American States) met in Havana, After World War II, efforts were made each month would have the exact Cuba in 1928, and enacted a resolu- same number of working days. But by various governments to promote tion calling for the League of Nations the obvious mathematical chal- calendar reform within the United to convene a general conference on lenge is that it creates a 364-day Nations, again without success. In addi- “simplification of the calendar.” In urg- year (13 times 28), leaving a 1.25- tion to the 13-month model, a 12-month ing this, the Pan American Conference day shortfall each year. The reform- perpetual “World Calendar” was advo- noted the anomalies in the current ers proposed to deal with this by cated: this would have 91 days “in a calendar such as “[i]nequality in the adding an extra (or “blank”) day to rotating pattern of 31, 30, and 30 days.” length of the divisions of the year” the last (13th) month (which they “The day after December 30 was des- would call a “Peace Day,” or an (e.g., January is longer than February), ignated World Day and not assigned extra “Sabbath”), as well as retain- and that “the position of the weeks in ing a leap day every four years (but a weekday status or number; another the quarters varies each year; that is repositioning it from February to such day was tacked on after June 30 to say, the weeks overlap the divisions mid-year, and also treating it as a in leap years.” of a year in a different way each time, blank day).