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The Fixed Calendar simplifies dates and accounting because every month has the same number of days. Also, dates and days of the week are fixed – the same calendar can be used every year! To achieve this, there is an extra month called Sol in the middle of the year and two “intercalary days” (Year Day and Leap Day) outside the weekday system.

There are two compelling advantages to the Fixed Calendar. 1/ Business revenue and cost comparisons are simplified, thus reducing financial inefficiencies. 2/ Ordinary people can memorize it (see below).

Discovering the Fixed Calendar

I got tired of having to check the Gregorian calendar every fortnight to keep up with the date of rental payments. There had to be a better way, I thought. A little research revealed someone had already solved the problem. I adopted Moses B. Cotsworth’s International Fixed Calendar (see below) and incorporated the Gregorian calendar to create a printable conversion table (above). Online conversion tables are also available (see end of this report). The watermark shows the Gregorian months (not dates). I call it the Fixed Calendar. I use it for in-house book-keeping. Keep a copy handy for quick, easy reference.

My conversion table shows how distorted the Gregorian calendar is in comparison to a fixed calendar. There are three more days in the second half of the Gregorian year than the first half! The Fixed Calendar solves this.

Quarters

The Gregorian calendar quarters are not equal, as shown in the comparison table below.

The Fixed Calendar quarters are all equal in length.

Business reporting is typically done quarterly. The irregularities of the Gregorian quarters have significant on-going consequences for accounting in business and government financing. Many businesses define quarters as 3 months and ignore the difference in the number of days. Others attempt to account more accurately by defining fiscal quarters as 13 weeks. For these firms each fiscal year contains 52 weeks, which leaves out one/two day(s) a year. To compensate, one extra week is added to every fifth/sixth year; consequently, one quarter therein comprises 14 weeks. But even sophisticated investors and analysts forget to add the extra ‘leap week’! Here are some real world examples.

Background

The original International Fixed Calendar is a solar calendar proposal for calendar reform designed by Moses B. Cotsworth, who presented it in 1902. George Eastman, founder of Kodak company, promoted Cotsworth’s ‘business friendly calendar’ and his company used it for 60 years. There was significant backing from the business community in the United States and the League of Nations almost adopted it.

Other Fixed Calendars

Wikipeadia explains the pros and cons of the International Fixed Calendar and calendar reform proposals in general.

The World Calendar

The World Calendar – also a fixed calendar – has 12 familiar months and quarters, but the months do not all have the same number of days. Like the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, every first or third month has 31 days and the rest have 30 days. The World Calendar suits those whose preference is for months to fit neatly into quarters. The Fixed Calendar suits those whose preference is for fortnights to fit neatly into months. More on this below.

The World Calendar was perhaps the culmination of time-keeping innovations that accompanied the West’s expansion from the mid-19th to mid-20th century. As commerce and transport developed, the need for coordination increased. Time zones and the international date line were set in 1884 at the Prime Meridian Conference. Earlier, Italian priest Marco Mastrofini proposed a fixed calendar in 1834 (David Henkin, p. 173). Mahatma Gandhi endorsed the World Calendar, Esperanto and a uniform world currency. The World Calendar Association saw its proposal in utopian terms as somehow bringing about a more united, peace-loving world. Calendar reform receded into the background as WWII unfolded.

The Seven Day Week Cycle

A major impediment to the uptake of the International Fixed Calendar last century was complaints from ecclesiastical quarters that it interrupts the seven-day Sabbath cycle. Every year, December the 29th (Year Day) interrupts the cycle, as does June 29th (Leap Day), every Leap Year. The seven day week cycle has continued unbroken for thousands of years (David Henkin, p.7). Unlike days, months and years, which have a natural or astronomical basis, the week is a social and cultural institution. Weeks are a purely human construct for dividing months into shorter, more manageable time periods. Why seven days? The seventh day of rest comes from Biblical scripture. However, aside from that, no one seems to know precisely why seven days has stuck. Five and ten (decimal) day week cycles were tried by the Soviet and French revolutionaries respectively, but failed. The Sumerians, who possibly invented the week, had 10 day weeks, but the ancient Israelis introduced the 7 day week and it has continued unbroken ever since. Speculation for this number of days has included the limitations to human memory, food spoilage, lunation and menstruation. Why this cycle should continue unbroken and override the benefits of a fixed calendar is an argument for ecclesiastical quarters to defend.

Solving Ecclesiastical Complaints – Leap Weeks

The Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar solves the interruption of the seven day week by tacking an additional week on to every 5th or 6th year. “So, there would be an extra seven days added to the calendar in, for example, 2026, 2032, and so on. This additional week would serve the same purpose as the extra day we count in a leap year in the present system and keep the calendar in line with the seasons”, Steve Hanke, (2018).

4-4-5 Calendar

A variation of the Hanke-Henry solution is the 4-4-5 Calendar which some financial firms use to account for the odd number of days of a 3-month quarter.

It divides the standard 52-week year into four 13-week quarters. Months are made up of 4 weeks except every third month, which has 5 weeks. “Retailers are the most common users of the 4-4-5 calendar. Firms in other industries see benefits from this approach to dividing a year into reporting periods. Typical cases include firms tied to the retail trade or for which labor forms a large share of the cost structure. These include consumer goods distributors, manufacturers, and service firms.” (NAKISA) “Companies who use the weeks-based calendar often do so when there is a natural alignment with core business flows. These flows include customer traffic, shipping, payroll processing, and procurement. These firms often find that period-end cutoff is less complex for those costs, and there is better matching of costs and revenues.” However, this calendar comes with a few challenges, not least of which is the extra length of every 3rd month (see here) and it also requires a ‘leap week’ every 5 or 6 years.

The trouble is that even supposedly sophisticated financial markets forget the leap week; a surprising lack of effort on the part of investors and analysts.

Fixed Calendar Conversion Table Leap Years

Leap Years are every 4th year except years divisible by 100 but not by 400. In my conversion table, the four months (March – June) whose Gregorian endings are pushed back by a day are shown with asterisks. This is because Leap Day in the Gregorian Calendar is February 29 and in the Fixed Calendar it is June 29.

Year Day – New Year’s Eve

The last day of the year – ostensibly December 29th – is New Year’s Eve. Being the odd day out – the 29th day – Year Day is not one of the days of the week. This maintains the consistency of the equal quarters and helps eliminate accounting anomalies. I suggest religious objections to this interruption to the 7-day cycle could be ameliorated by making it an accounting-free holiday where everything is done for free, as envisaged by The Free World Charter. This gift economy day would be a day of non-material pursuits, of prayer and generosity. It would be a bank holiday. Businesses that do not want to participate in gifting goods and services could shut up shop. Essential services including power would be gifted.

In the meantime the irregularities of the Gregorian calendar will continue to confound us. Apart from sorting the mess out, another significant advantage of a Fixed Calendar is that it can be memorized.

Why a Calendar We Can Memorize?

There are three considerations. Firstly, our reliance on technology to remind us what today’s day and date is has increased since the advent of the Internet. Pre-colonial European society shared common, annual saints’ festive days that rhymed with the seasons. North American society left many of these old religious notions behind and in its place the week became preeminent – diary-writing became very popular in the mid-19th century. In time entertainment, news schedules, commercial and leisure activities became anchored to the days of the week. Now these have been dramatically liberated by social media apps, streaming services and meeting platforms that eliminate time and distance. This is true for all except perhaps the most regimented routines such as school days. We all knew which day of the week it was and only needed our wall calendars to look ahead. The irregularities of the Gregorian calendar add to this new psychological distance we now have to week days and each other. The common beat of the weekly cycle has been replaced by a different, more desicated [sic] form of connection in which we can lose ourselves down any number of siloed rabbit-holes. A fixed, easily memorized calendar would restore a common social bond.

True, when something big happens in the news, we all hear about it one way or another. However, our dependence on IT narrows ours resilience as a society in the face of potential disruptions to the digital age from electro-magnetic bombs and solar flares. Rare as they may be, they would be devastating. Our resilience and independence as organic creatures is strengthened by a calendar we can easily memorize.

Thirdly, the affect on our brains of out-sourcing everyday functions is in question. Turning to a smart phone for calendar, spelling and directions assistance leaves me with a sinking feeling, because I have a good, long memory of living without any need for them. That might be my hippocampus warning me; use me or lose me. We can lose skills, such as using maps and doing mental arithmetic. Studies show our memories can be impaired (Johansson, A, ABC ‘Our Brain’). Anna Johansson puts it well in her article We need to reduce our dependence on technology if we want to keep innovating:

Instead of introducing a gradual improvement or iterative form of assistance, we’re overwriting entire functions of our brains and bodies. As a metaphor, shoes serve to protect your feet from the dangers of walking on questionable terrain, but if you rely on a wheelchair when you don’t truly need one, your leg muscles would eventually atrophy.

https://thenextweb.com/news/we-need-to-reduce-our-dependence-on-technology-if-we-want-to-keep-innovating

Uptake

Since the Information Revolution, calendar (and spelling) reform movements have receded into the background. Smart phones among other devices, have taken over the memorizing for us. Few people born after the 1990s have lived without the aid of digital technology and therefore barely notice the inconvenience of the Gregorian calendar. It seems some technologies are actually serving to stifle innovation of some internationalized habits such as calendars and spelling. Reform movements have evolved in response to changes in power structures and modern technology, which has made innovation more distributed. While once it was governments that debated calendar and spelling reform, now these changes are coming directly from the general public.

Uptake of a new calendar could emerge from below, rather than from utopian, top-down visions of a world united in peace by a common calendar. Businesses are trialing solutions to the real-life, everyday problems the Gregorian Calendar causes by using alternatives such as the 4-4-5 calendar. This evidences that there is genuine motivation to break old habits. However, social habits are powerful.

Quarterly reporting periods are important for businesses and accountants, but wage-earners, renters and many others are affected by fortnightly accounting periods. Quarters that don’t coincide with months, as in the Fixed Calendar, are no impediment to accountants, whose job it is to be numerate. However, fortnights that always start on Sunday the 1st and Sunday the 15th are simple for lay people. For this reason, the Fixed Calendar would seem to have more utility for the general population.

By the way, whether the first day of the week should be Sunday or Monday is a separate discussion, seesawing between American Puritanism (a strict, purist adherence to biblical scripture) and the conventional view of Sunday as part of the weekEND – days of rest that follow work (David Henkin, p. 34).

Uptake of the Fixed Calendar will necessarily involve a transition period in which the Gregorian calendar is used alongside. This will be the most difficult phase to overcome. I have lived with the Fixed Calendar for more than 10 years. I have integrated into my daily life. My modest income (from rent) and home book-keeping is maintained for tax purposes on a spreadsheet based on the Fixed Calendar. I have a rain gauge, a weekly medicine tablet box and an exercise routine set to the Fixed Calendar. These help me remember when fortnightly events occur such as when the recycle bin goes out and the rent is due.

The Fixed Calendar is fit for purpose for both business and the general public. The conversion table I’ve created is for grass-roots change-makers. Any business, big or small can adopt it for their in-house accounting purposes. Us ordinary folk can use it to keep track of wages and rent. If it works for you, use it! What matters at this point is that people learn the options available and start putting one of them into practice to see which one works best for them. I’m betting the calendar with the broadest application and appeal will be most likely to succeed.

Fun facts:

• Every 7 years the weekdays of the Fixed Calendar are the same as the Gregorian calendar. In those years only dates need to be converted. The next years will be 2029, 2036, 2043, etc..
• One full orbit of Earth around the Sun takes approximately 365.24 days.
• The Fixed Calendar has 13 Friday the 13ths, throwing down the gauntlet to the superstitious!
• 13 months align more closely with the moon and some believe this lunar cycle is more compatible with our biorhythms.

• Sol means Sun and names the month in the middle of the year when the northern hemisphere faces the Sun, making it northcentric. While those of us ‘Down Under’ may not like it, the majority of the world’s land mass and population are in the northern hemisphere.
• Others have created conversion tables – see the one by Jeremy Aldrich and another by freexenon.com.
• I started developing my Fixed Calendar conversion table in 2008 and first posted it in 2016. It gets a steady stream of views from the United States.
• Every 6 or 11 years you can reuse your Gregorian calendar – see Repeating Calendar
• Did you know that U.S. Presidential elections are on Leap Years?

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1 October 2018 By Simon Cole