On This Leap Day Can Our Advanced Technological Society Finally Get The Calendar Straightened Out?

February 29, 2020 – Why does February normally have 28 days, and then 29 once every four years? How did we come up with four months of 30 days, and seven months of 31 days? Here we are in the 21st century with atomic clocks that give us time accuracy to the nanosecond, yet every year we have to remind ourselves if this month ends on the 30th or 31st, or in the case of February, 28 days or an added Leap Day?

The Moon and the Sun have never quite aligned when it comes to our yearly calendar. The global default is the solar calendar. But China, Hindu, Muslim, and Jew have a lunar calendar based on the monthly four phases of the Moon (7 days per phase coincides with our week). The solar calendar reflects the annual journey of the Earth around the Sun which approximates 365, 24-hour days. But the annual orbit doesn’t take 365 days, but rather 365.256 days which means approximately one-quarter of a day greater than our calendar year. Hence every four years we add Leap Day in February.

A legacy of the Roman Republic borrowed by Julius Caesar from Pharaonic Egypt, the solar calendar plus the once-in-four-years Leap Day has been with us with some adjustments over time to deal with that 0.006 remainder has guided us to this day. In 1582, that 0.006 remainder had shifted our months in opposition to the seasons by more than ten full days. So the Roman Catholic leader, Pope Gregory XIII, instituted eleven Leap Days at once going from October 4th to the 15th, and then settled on fixing the once-in-four-years Leap Day permanently to the end of February.

Our year today remains guided by decisions made in pre-Industrial society. And some have questioned its logic in an age when the world is increasingly lit up with few areas still dependent on the waxing and waning of moonlight, and the daily rise and fall of the Sun.

What if we were to change the calendar so that every month is 30 days? That would leave a year-end 5-day holiday every three years, and a 6-day holiday on the fourth. Would such a calendar be more efficient? With such a system every month would begin on the same date. Everyone’s birthday would be on the same date. I was born on January 8th which would fall on a Sunday every year. For most Christians, Christmas Day would fall on a Sunday in perpetuity, the exception being the Orthodox Church which established Christmas based on its Julian past. So it would fall on Saturday, January 7th until 2101 when the Julian adjustment would move it to Sunday, January 8th. The 5 Leap Days and the extra Leap Day in the fourth year would be given their own names: Leap Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 or something a little more colourful. We could even have a worldwide naming contest for those Leap Days.

Of course, the lunar calendar observance by many on the planet would remain which for Christians will mean that Easter will still jump around since it since the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD or CE based on your preference, determined that the holiday fall on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. The Jewish High Holidays and other festivals would move around as they always have, with extra lunar months added to keep lunar observance aligned with the solar year. Hindus would do the same kind of adjustments as Jews in determining festival dates. But Muslims would still see Ramadan and other festivals move year-round with no adjusting lunar months.

So as you settle down to enjoy this year’s Leap Day, consider what I am proposing as a 21st-century solution to remove an anachronistic method of marking the months every year based on a world before we introduced it to advanced technologies and days and nights that remain perpetually lit.