A 13 Month Year Makes Sense

Here at NerdBeach we will often talk about hacking something for a practical result, and every time I use a calendar this comes to mind. So let’s hack our everyday life and explore the advantages of going to a 13 month calendar.

Simple Idea

The 13 month year idea is a simple one, break the year down into 13 regular time periods of 28 days each. (Yes, I’m saying no more need of doing the silly but effective knuckle trick to find out if this month has 31 days or not.) And to just keep things extra simple, each month could start on a Monday, and end on a Sunday.

Those of you that are math smart have already done the math in their head, and 13 x 28 = 364. Years have 365 days, so that extra day would be New Years Day, with it’s own special slot on the calendar. The next day would be Monday for the first day of the new year. And we would still have a leap day ever 4 years, with it preferably being the day after New Years Day as a nice way to celebrate.

So far it’s making just too much sense for us to actually do it, I know. And important events, like Birthdays and Anniversaries, will always fall on the same day of the week. No more mad panics to the calendar to organize things when the time rolls around again. As in that old poem, a Monday’s Child remains a Monday’s Child for life.

Moon Phase Locked in

We wouldn’t have to keep track of the moon phase either, since this would match up with the naturally occurring lunar cycles. People do tend to get more, well, creative during a full moon, so it would not be a surprise when it shows up. And it could help society in general to form a stronger connection with the natural cycles of the Earth and Nature, since everything would be on the same schedule.

It could also go to correct some things about the calendars that are simply wrong today. Suspiciously so. For example, September is currently our 9th month. Yet the root of the word, “Sept”, means 7. The same offset goes for October (“Oct” means 8, it’s 10th) and November (“Nove” means 9, it’s 11th.) Even December, aka Deca, means 10 and it’s riding out the end of the year at the 12th position. (It’s almost like they’re supposed to be in a different location.)

So instead we could realign those to the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months, and let January, February, and March fill out the 11th, 12th, and 13th positions. Yes, the end of the year would be in March. But why would we want that? Simple, we could then let our officially recognized trip around the sun start at the Spring Equinox, with new blooms and everything refreshed for the brand new year.

I think this works much better than having winter straddle across years and putting Spring in a random part of the year after it has already commenced.

A 13 Month Year Really Makes Sense

I’m convinced that a 13 month year would be a huge step forward in keeping things organized in modern life, and ranks for me as an awesome life hack. But the action to make it happen may prove to be daunting, especially when you censer we can’t even manage to do away with Daylight Savings Time. But at least we can dream. Now, how many days does this month again (looks at knuckles…)