What Day is Your Birthday?

Is it on a Tuesday this year? Maybe Thursday. Admit it: you don’t know (and probably don't care either.) But the point is that it’s always different. And of course the same goes for Christmas, the 4th of July and every other day as well. 


Is that a bad thing? Well, yes and no. True, it adds diversity to our calendar. Every year, school starts on a different date, the Super Bowl is a different date, Presidents’ Day is a different date. You get the idea.


But to me, that’s also a bad thing. Think how much time and energy is spent each year, in every organization, setting up, revising, and tweaking a calendar. And think how many times there are unexpected conflicts. The county fair conflicts with the state fair this year, or Halloween is on the same day as the football game, or any of a million different scenarios.


The trouble is that the sun takes 365 days to orbit the sun. That time period is a year. That’s 52 weeks plus one day. That one day extra is what really messes up our calendar. There’s not much we can do about the sun. But we can still fix the calendar. It’s simple. We just make December 31 a “No-Day.” Really. It’s not a Monday, or a Tuesday, or any day of the week. It’s Noday.


How does that fix it? This year, January 1 was a Saturday. December 31 is also going to be a Saturday, which makes January 1 of next year a Sunday, and everything is already screwed up. In my calendar, December 30 of this year will be Friday as it’s supposed to be, but December 31 is Noday. Which makes January 1 a Saturday, just like this year. And our calendar will be the same every year! Magic.


Lest you scoff, think how nice it will be when you know exactly what day and date every day of the year will be. And once you get your organization’s calendar to work, you never have to change it. For instance, school can always start on August 24, the NFL will always have its first game on September 12, and your birthday will always be the same day. And you will never wonder if something you’re planning conflicts with something else. You’ll just know.


Of course, on leap year, will have to drop February 29 and add a December 32, and have two Nodays in a row. But we can deal with that. It’s only once every four years.


Sure the calendar can change. In 1582, the Gregorian Calendar replaced the Julian Calendar. The world went to bed on October 4, and woke up the next morning and it was magically October 15! They skipped 10 days. We’re asking for something a whole lot less disruptive than that. 


I say go for it. We can call it the Morganian Calendar. Sounds good to me.