There is a calendar in which New Year's Day and the first day of the month is always on Monday: why it is not used

Anyone who has looked at the calendar already knows that January 1, 2024, will fall on a Monday. So anyone who promises themselves to start a new life on Monday, the first of the year, or New Year's Day, will have a triple motivation that is not so common with the modern calendar. However, there is the idea of a calendar in which each month starts on Monday and has 28 days. However, it makes up for 13 months in a year.

The Inverse publication talked about a calendar that could replace the existing one and bring a little order to people's lives. Although the idea sounds intriguing, there are some reservations.

The modern calendar used by humanity was created in 1582, and many people consider it to be overwrought: months have 31 or 30 days, and there is something strange about the number of days in February. That's why it was only a matter of time before the idea of a new calendar was introduced.

So, in 1902, British railroader Moses B. Cotsworth decided to make his work easier and invented a new calendar.

The idea was quite simple and quite logical. Each month has four, seven-day weeks, making a total of 28 days. There are 13 months in a year, with a total of 364 days. A new month appears between June and July and is called Sol, in honor of the summer solstice.

This leaves one extra day (the 365th), which becomes a special day of the year. In a leap year - once every four years - there will be two such Days of the Year.

From 1924 to 1989, the Cotsworth calendar was even used at Kodak, but not widely because the company's employees still used the old calendar after hours.

The idea of the 28-day Cotsworth calendar was also once supported by the League of Nations, but eventually became forgotten, just like the League of Nations itself, which was dissolved in 1946 after the end of World War II and the creation of the United Nations.

In fact, the calendar has a number of good ideas: since the first number always falls on a Monday, 7 falls on the seventh day, Sunday. All non-transitional holidays always fall on the same day. It will be easier for accountants or statisticians to compare data because each month will have the same number of days. And, no matter how busy you are, you'll always know that the month ends on Sunday.

But all these advantages of the calendar are also its disadvantages. The authors of The Simpsons even joked about this in one of their episodes.

As you know, unlike in Ukraine and many other countries, the United States considers Sunday to be the beginning of the week, not Monday. So the first day of the 28-day calendar is also Sunday. And this means, as the authors of the animated series joked, that every month there will be Friday the 13th. Moreover, there will be a whole 13th month during which the 13th will also fall on a Friday. So those who believe in superstitions will definitely not like this calendar.

And we're not talking about ordinary people, or even big business, which shouldn't have to worry about such nonsense, but... Microsoft hasn't released the 13th version of Office, and data for 2015 showed that 574 buildings in Manhattan don't have a 13th floor. Yes, Apple did dare to release the iPhone 13, but it's more of an exception to the rule.

In addition, it's nice to know that New Year's Eve or Christmas will fall on the same day every year, but do you want to celebrate your own birthday every year (for the rest of your life) on the same day?

Earlier, OBOZ.UA also told you about the reason why all Koreans had their birthdays on New Year's Day.

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