30 Day Blogging Detritus, March Edition

Day one. Not enough time for... well, time.

3/2/2020

So leap year. You know, I've never really thought too much about why that matters before I actually started to look into it for this prompt (thanks, WdC, for broadening my horizons...)

Oh sure, I learned some interesting facts. For instance, Julius Caesar was the dude responsible for making them happen in 46 B.C. at the advice of some fancy pants Alexandrian astronomer. Later on, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decided to rework the Julian calendar (wouldn't you love to have a measurement of time named for you? Beat THAT Kanye.) by creating the Gregorian calendar also with the help of some fancy pants astronomer- this time German.

I also learned that without leap year's calendar correction, eventually, February would be in the summer. At least in the Northern Hemisphere. Now there's an interesting thought to chew on. Would we be able to get discounts on cruises in June, then? Would people take ski trips in August? Would Trump supporters and Bernie supporters meet on Wednesday nights for bowling and beers?

But being the kind of person I am, I couldn't help but gravitate directly to the question of why change from a solar calendar at all? Why fix what's probably not broken?

Unsurprisingly, I learned that even though it would've probably made more sense to keep lunar months and just let them cycle through, independently of the year just like a week does, the Romans had customs and religions which compelled them to bend the system into 12 months a year.

Guess what? Most world religions do the same thing and devise their own calendars based upon preferences and traditions.
So even though most of the world works according to the Gregorian calendar, according to recent estimates, there are about FORTY different calendars used around the world today. Religious dates, seasonal change, cultural holidays- there are all kinds of reasons why this is, it seems.

This begs the question: if I can sell it as something that's beneficial to people, can I change the measurement of time to suit my preferences? I'll let you in on a secret. I already have. I'm writing this on March 2 instead of the first when the prompt was released. Why? Because I'm a slacker. So I propose a change in the measurement of time to accommodate those of us who do what we're supposed to based upon when we get around to it instead of when we're supposed to. Imma call it the Traileus Parkurius calendar.

Slackers of the world unite!


-TPB