3 ms·
The word "month" descends from the Indo-European "mehns" which also translates as Moon so if we are to be true to the meaning of the word a month of 28 days mak
by cutler 3y ago
The word "month" descends from the Indo-European "mehns" which also translates as Moon so if we are to be true to the meaning of the word a month of 28 days makes no sense given that the Moon's sidereal period is 27.3 days and its synodic period is 29.5 days. The synodic period makes much more sense as a basis for a calendar as there are 12.3 lunations in a solar year. Man's earliest observations, looking at the night sky, would have been the 12 lunations in the year. We forget this when discussion veers off down the inevitable blind alley of pure numerical reasoning. Nature is showing us the way if we can see it.
- mikelward 3y agoAre you proposing 29.5 day months? How would that work?
- BlueTemplar 3y agoThe year used to start with spring, then counting the moons from then - except in winter, at which point nobody really seemed to care about precision.
- dendrite9 3y agoThe Ethiopian Calendar uses twelve 30 days months, plus a short 13th month to make up the difference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_calendar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_calendar
- globular-toast 3y agoJust start the months between days. Why do they have to align? The month is currently a completely useless measurement of time and only used to tell the approximate time of year. It doesn't matter if the next month starts half way through a day (which, of course, it does).