Introduction
In the Facebook group on Calendar Reform someone posted a link to the World Season Calendar which was originally created by the world renown science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov the creator of the world famed Three Laws of Robotics. I found this reform idea really interesting, partially due to my IFC bias, but also because of a new feature it proposes that I had not thought of.
If you are not familiar with Calendar Reform at all then this list might not make as much sense to you. If that is the case then please check out my Calendar Reform post to get you acquainted with this topic.
World Season Calendar
The World Season Calendar (WSC) has the following qualities:
- Calendar Year starts where Dec 21 (grc) is now, which is approximately the day of the Winter Solstice
- 7 days for each weeks
- no months
- breaks calendar into four 13-week (91-day) quarters/seasons (364 days)
- quarters/seasons are labeled as such: A , B , C, D for northern hemisphere seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall
- days are numbered according to quarter (A-D) and day of quarter (1-91) such as A-35
- intercalary day for Year Day after quarter A (Winter) which becomes day A-92
- intercalary day for Leap Day after quarter C (Summer) which becomes day C-92
This is basically the International Fixed Calendar (IFC), which I wrote about in depth in my Calendar Reform post (see link above), abstracted out one level to remove months (and use quarters), and then just move the beginning of the calendar year.
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Last Thoughts
Asimov was such a forward thinker. For my Reformed International Fixed Calendar idea I may have to consider moving the beginning of the year like this does. I had not considered that. Although, starting the new year, a time for change and renewal and to begin again, in the dead of winter does not sound so good, so maybe bump it up to the Spring Solstice? Perhaps there will be psychological advantages to starting the year in April instead of December – like Spring Cleaning plus people actually keeping their New Years Resolutions? Much to think about.
As a part of my Reformed International Fixed Calendar, I am actually considering having the beginning of its year begin at the Spring Equinox which might give us long term psychological gains by having the beginning of the new year coincide with:
- the wonderful weather of spring and the cleansing of spring cleaning
- actually be a part of the season of renewal
- being past the holidays and cold weather so that might also make it more likely for people to keep to their New Years resolutions too, especially since we are past the holidays which are really difficult for some people especially with food and family being everywhere.
