Today I Learned @lemmy.world Aurelius @lemmy.world 9mo ago

The ancient Romans made many attempts to fix the calendar year before landing on 12 months and leap years

www.bbc.com Why Julius Caesar's Year of Confusion was the longest year in history

To tame a hopelessly disorganised Roman calendar, Julius Caesar added months, took them away, and invented the leap year.

I edited the title because my grammar is terrible

Neat - For neat stuff you found @lemmy.world Stern @lemmy.world 8mo ago

Why Julius Caesar's Year of Confusion was the longest year in history

www.bbc.com /future/article/20240227-how-julius-caesar-made-the-longest-year-in-history-and-brought-us-leap-years

10 0

49 comments

bastards could have at least not fucked up october november and december
- I mean, March used to be the first month. Traditionally, New Year used to be a spring holiday. In Ukraine, the original lyrics of the Carol of the Bells sing about the spring beginning
  
  March or April being the first month honestly would make so much more sense
  
  Ukraine recently moved it back though to align with the Western New Year celebrations if I recall correctly. More of a "fuck Russia we're gonna do our own thing" cultural move.
- "But my ego demands I name a month after myself and I'll be damned if it's one of those bloody cold months at the end of the year!"
  
  It’s two months. July: Julius. August: Augustus.
- Let's see, if we had 10 months we'd need 5 months of 36 days and 5 of 37 days. Each month is a little over 5 weeks, which is 35 days. Maybe 10 months of 35 days and a special month of 15 days.
  
  (I still prefer 13 months of 28 days with 1 extra day, but superstitious people don't like 13.)(I also like my personal idea of 6 day weeks with 4 days working and 2 days off. That leaves 1 odd week of 5 days.)
  
  Alright, hear me out. We go with the 10 months of 35 days and a special month of 15 days, but the 15 days is just one giant celebration. Just 15 days of nothing but arts and crafts and hanging out with friends.
  
  Yeah, 4-day working week is long overdue
If we are making up calendars why don't we have 13 months of 28 days leading to 364 days. This means every month has 4 weeks of 7 days and an extra day a year which we can make a celebration day that doesn't land on a day of the week. So every year every day lands on the same day of the week and an extra day (or two on leap years) that aren't part of the typical week
- So every year every day lands on the same day of the week and an extra da
  
  Can you imagine never getting your birthday off?
  
  wow, until becoming attached to the current calander in my youth i had always believed this would be more efficient, you really gave me a great reason for the Gregorian
  
  Children may have the closest weekend assigned as birth date
  
  Like in East Asia where people technically change their age all at the same date: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_age_reckoning
  
  That's a great point. Imagine being a Monday birthday
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar
  
  I knew it had a name.
- Calendar app devs will love the migration project.
  
  A lot of devs can't even handle timezones right, I wouldn't trust us with calendar migration either
- I've been saying this exact thing for years, but good luck selling the idea to people who are either superstitious idiots, hate prime numbers, or both. "Oh noes, we can't divide 13 into halves and quarters whatever shall we do?" Might as well keep using the stupid thing we've always used. Never mind that I'm 45 and still haven't bothered to learn which months have 31 days vs. 30 days. Because I know how to look at a calender/phone.
  
  Who knows what months have 31 days? Psychopaths that's who
- You don't have to stick to 7 day weeks. Personally I'm a fan of 6 day weeks, with 4 days work 2 days off. And then you have more weeks and weekends.
- What about 10 months of 36 days each. Change weeks to 6 days with 2 day weekends. Equinoxes, solstices, new years, and leap years get their own days outside of months and weeks.
  
  I've always said that we should get the 12 days of the summer and winter solstice off every year. Got to rest in opposite ways
Our calendar still kind of sucks.

It's off by 6hrs/yr.

The Persian calendar is off by 1sec/yr.

But it's year zero is about the Prophet Muhammad....

So only Iran and Afghanistan use it.
- Humans sure are strange. Mathematical astronomical geniuses but still stupid enough to believe in superstitious fairy tales they call religion. But perhaps that's part of the (evil) genius too. The people who create religions are the ones who know how to psychologically control the masses.
  
  that’s kinda a cringe and edgy opinion ngl
- It looks like the Iranian calendar would have each year of a different length, since
  
  The Iranian New Year begins at the midnight nearest to the instant of the northern spring equinox, as determined by astronomic calculations for the meridian (52.5°E)
  
  This would make this kind of calendar extremely complicated to handle especially when not using computers
The ancient Roman is what?
- Made
And that ancient Roman's name? Julius Caesar.

Not kidding. My preferred source
- ha ha ha! i knew it was gonna be HC!
A fun watch: https://youtu.be/vunESk53r5U?si=D_capAX5nr9ccQGZ
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  https://piped.video/vunESk53r5U?si=D_capAX5nr9ccQGZ
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Reminder that we work for free tomorrow.
- 😳
  
  Edit: never mind, I'm not a victim of this. I guess there are some benefits of being an HOURLY capitalist slave.
  
  You're apparently a salaried capitalist slave.

49 comments