Starship Asterisk*

There are 16 months in a year. They are,
Januaryfebruary,





February,















February,




Februarymarch,
























March,











April,












May,














June,












July,










August,





September,













October,










November,















December,



















January,












January.








With apologies to Danish poet Henrik Nordbrant, who in 1986 wrote the poem "The Year Has 16 Months". His poem goes like this, in my translation:

The year has 16 months: Novemberdecember, January, February, March, Aprilmay, June, July, August, Septemberoctober, November, November, November, November.

Ann

It does seem like winter is long; and so does summer; but I don't want to add any more months to those 2 seasons!

Well, some people think differently.

TNT wrote:Well, some people think differently.

What I meant to suggest, TNT, is that winter, and particularly January and February, seem interminably long to me. And the spring is very slow in coming. But I love May, June, July, August and September.

One thing that really, really bothers me about winter is that all color seems to go out of nature at that time of year. For me as a color freak, that is awfully, awfully frustrating. And then in spring, color seems to seep into nature so slowly. I'm quite happy with the "March" and "April" images that I found, which illustrate to me how slowly colors return to nature in the spring.

I'm also happy with my October and November images, which show how color gradually leaks out of nature during those two months. In December, color is mostly gone from nature, but of course we decorate or homes, streets and shops with so much color during December that it almost makes up for the colorlessness of nature in that month.

Ann

Ann there is beauty in winter scenes! I know it's in the eye of the beholder! I just don't like the cold.

BBRRRR!! SHIVER-SHIVER What??

The thing about spring, though, is that I have horrible, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-choo! *sniffle*, allergies. And for some reason, fall can bore me at times. Summer is my favorite season of the year because of my birthday, all the sun and heat, swimming, and the vacations our family goes on. Winter is fun, too, because I get tired of the rain and want the snow to come (especially so that I can go sledding and skiing), and there are plenty of other things to do, like making a snowman and having a snowball fight.

So that's what I meant when I said that. And if I still am misunderstanding you, I'm sorry.

orin stepanek wrote:Ann there is beauty in winter scenes! I know it's in the eye of the beholder! I just don't like the cold.

Oh, you're so right, Orin! Of course there are a few beautiful days during each winter season. I just hate winter so much that I very actively searched for winter pictures that would look ugly and depressing. First I googled "January", but I got nothing that I liked (translation: I found no images that looked sufficently depressing). So I googled "blizzard" instead. And that's where I got all my winter images, by googling "blizzard"! Of course I know that winter isn't an unbroken string of blizzards. I can't even say there is no color in nature during winter. But I'll keep insisting that during overcast winter days - and we get a lot of them here in southern Sweden!!! - absolutely all color seems to disappear from nature, and I hate it.
Also, I'll keep insisting that while the countryside may look beautiful during winter, cities so rarely benefit from snow. The snow gets packed and mixed with all kinds of dirt, and it will regularly melt and freeze again, creating horribly slippery and disgusting streets and bicycle paths. How much fun is that for a city girl (or a city woman, pushing sixty) like me? It's no fun at all, let me tell you.

But TNT, I really sympathize with you because of your allergies! They can turn anybody off spring, I'm sure.

Ann

Ann I really liked your "pretty winter pictures;" especially the one with the cardinals. When I was a kid I loved winter. We would to play fox and goose; and make snowmen; and build snow forts etc. But the older you get the colder it feels! I guess that is because metabolism slows down. Even blizzards can be beautiful if your in a safe place. I just hate the cold. Have a Hot Toddy!

Were those from octobernovember or februarymarch?

BMAONE23 wrote:Were those from octobernovember or februarymarch?

Gosh BMAONE23! I'd trade you one of your winters for one of mine! Unless it's pretty smoggy!

The closest thing Sonoma County gets to Smog is the wintertime fog that hangs around till noon unless you count the occasional "Burn Day" smokiness in autumn. But I agree with you about winters here and wouldn't want to live anywhere else

In the early '70's; we took the kids to Disney Land in Orange County! The smog didn't lift until after 12 and the mornings were pretty chilly! I've had an aversion to smog ever since! Other than that; we liked California pretty much.

Why, pray tell, do the months from Sept. - Dec. correspond, in name, to months two previous? Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. = 7, 8, 9, 10

I just hope that someone isn't taking a couple months per year away from us without being open about it.

sea otter wrote:Why, pray tell, do the months from Sept. - Dec. correspond, in name, to months two previous? Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. = 7, 8, 9, 10

The early Roman calendar, which our calendar is based on, had ten months, beginning in March. Much of winter was not assigned to any month at all. Before the egos of emperors got involved, July was Quintilis and August was Septilis. During one of the early calendar reforms, January and February were added, so that every day fell in a named month. That made March the third month, not the first, and shifted all the months ahead by two. Hence, the peculiar naming we have today.

sea otter wrote:Why, pray tell, do the months from Sept. - Dec. correspond, in name, to months two previous? Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. = 7, 8, 9, 10

I just hope that someone isn't taking a couple months per year away from us without being open about it.

As Europe Changed from the Julian into the Gregorian Calendar - since the Julian Calender couldn't keep the time, but lagged behind - it was considered necessary to simply take a couple of days away from a certain year and indeed being open about it. (I guess the fact of the pilfering of the days would be pretty hard to hide.)

As you can see from this timeline, Britain including its American colonies - because this was before 1776 - as well as Sweden were laggards when it came to introducing the new calendar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_ ... ndar_dates wrote:

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar.[1][2][3] It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter gravissimas.[4] The reformed calendar was adopted later that year by a handful of countries, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries. The motivation for the Gregorian reform was that the Julian calendar assumes that the time between vernal equinoxes is 365.25 days, when in fact it is presently almost exactly 11 minutes shorter. The error between these values accumulated at the rate of about three days every four centuries, resulting in the equinox occurring on March 11 (an accumulated error of about 10 days) and moving steadily earlier in the Julian calendar at the time of the Gregorian reform.

In addition to the change in the mean length of the calendar year from 365.25 days (365 days 6 hours) to 365.2425 days (365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds), a reduction of 10 minutes 48 seconds per year, the Gregorian calendar reform also dealt with the past accumulated difference between these lengths. Between AD 325 (when the Roman Catholic Church thought the First Council of Nicaea had fixed the vernal equinox on 21 March), and the time of Pope Gregory's bull in 1582, the vernal equinox had moved backward in the calendar, until it was occurring on about 11 March, 10 days earlier. The Gregorian calendar therefore began by skipping 10 calendar days, to restore March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox.

Britain and the British Empire (including the eastern part of what is now the United States) adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, by which time it was necessary to correct by 11 days. Wednesday, 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday, 14 September 1752. Claims that rioters demanded "Give us our eleven days" grew out of a misinterpretation of a painting by William Hogarth.

Sweden's adoption of the Gregorian Calendar was even messier, but I'll spare you. Read about it in the Wikipedia article if you are interested.

Ann

Ann wrote:Sweden's adoption of the Gregorian Calendar was even messier, but I'll spare you. Read about it in the Wikipedia article if you are interested.

Aww... c'mon Ann, don't leave out the good stuff

When in high school (long long ago ) there was speculation of a calendar with 13 even months; 52 weeks with a year day for the extra day and a world day for each leap year. Each day would always be on the same day of the week. For instance; if February 2 was on a Monday; it would be on a Monday every year. I don't know what happened to this idea; but it never bore fruit!

orin stepanek wrote:When in high school (long long ago ) there was speculation of a calendar with 13 even months; 52 weeks with a year day for the extra day and a world day for each leap year. Each day would always be on the same day of the week. For instance; if February 2 was on a Monday; it would be on a Monday every year. I don't know what happened to this idea; but it never bore fruit!

Although there was much buzz about it, it was -not to bee-, therefore never pollinated, thus no fruit.

Beyond wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:When in high school (long long ago ) there was speculation of a calendar with 13 even months; 52 weeks with a year day for the extra day and a world day for each leap year. Each day would always be on the same day of the week. For instance; if February 2 was on a Monday; it would be on a Monday every year. I don't know what happened to this idea; but it never bore fruit!

Although there was much buzz about it, it was -not to bee-, therefore never pollinated, thus no fruit.

No, no fruitful years were had out of it!






Ann

orin stepanek wrote:When in high school (long long ago :mrgreen: ) there was speculation of a calendar with 13 even months; 52 weeks with a year day for the extra day and a world day for each leap year. Each day would always be on the same day of the week. For instance; if February 2 was on a Monday; it would be on a Monday every year. I don't know what happened to this idea; but it never bore fruit! :roll:

The history of calendar reforms is a history of power. Calendars were reformed by emperors and popes (when being Pope meant something). We don't have any leaders with substantial, absolute power over most of the world anymore. There's nobody to change the calendar. (We can't even agree on changes to save the world... a new calendar isn't even on the radar!)

My favorite reform calendar is The World Calendar, proposed in 1930. It retains the current 12 month format but each quarter has exactly 3 months, 13 weeks, and 91 days. Each quarter would begin on Sunday and end on Saturday. New Year Day (World Day) (between Dec 30 and Jan 1) and Leap Year Day (between June 30 and July 1, as needed) fall outside the normal days of the week.
I think the calendar Orin refers to is known as the International Fixed Calendar.

Hey bystander! I like the idea of either one; I think it would make life simpler! I think Chris is right about the fact that it probably won't happen. No one has enough power.

bystander, would you like having your birthday always on a Tuesday?

Sure, why not? The day after my birthday is always a holiday so it really doesn't matter what day my birthday is. It's still party time.