Modern Calendar

The Modern Calendar is a calendar reform proposal featuring an eight-day week and nine of its ten months exactly five weeks of 40 days each. The final month, December, would be less than a week in length.

The calendar uses an eight-day week with a new day, Remday, added between Friday and Saturday. The working week runs from Monday to Friday while the weekend is Remday, Saturday & Sunday. Remday is short for Remembrance Day. All public holidays would be celebrated on a Remday.

The first nine months (January, March, April, May, July, August, September, October and November) each have five weeks totalling 40 days. Each month begins with a Sunday.

The months of February and June are dropped from the calendar, and December is five days long in common years and six days long in a leap year. It is a holiday period not belonging to any week.

The first nine months of the Modern Calendar look like this:

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Rem	Sat
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32
33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40

The final month of the Modern Calendar, December, looks like this:

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Rem	Sat
1	2	3	4	5*	6**

• * The year ends on Thursday, Dec. 5 in common years. The next day is always Sunday, Jan. 1.
• ** The year ends on Friday, Dec. 6 in leap years. The next day is always Sunday, Jan. 1.

Features

• Every year starts on the same day, Sunday, January 1st.
• Each week except the one in December is eight days long.
• A new day is added, Remday, derived from “Remembrance Day”, which falls between Friday and Saturday.
• The workweek, is as now, Monday to Friday.
• The weekend is now three days long: Remday, Saturday and Sunday.
• Each month (except the last) has five weeks, which translates into 40 days in a month, and 10 months in a year (we drop February and June).
• Every month has the same number of days!
• Every month starts on the same day, Sunday the 1st!
• The first nine months end on the same day, Saturday the 40th.
• December becomes a very short but very special period of five days, or six days in a leap year. These five or six days are considered a very special time for cultural observances, including Christmas on Sunday, December 1 (the old December 27, and remember the current December 25 probably has no connection to Christ’s actual birthdate.)
• Current federal holidays would now all fall on Remday, as would all days of remembrance. With 46 Remdays a year, many new official days of remembrance could be approved without debate over “giving” up another workday. *Most federal holidays long ago lost their connection to the historical event by exact date. Now holidays would occur on precisely the same date and day every year (just like your birthday).

The negatives?

• You have to get used to “losing” days at the end of the year. You go from Thursday on the last day of the year immediately to Monday on the first day of the next year. On a leap year, you go from a Friday to a Monday.
• People who believe the 7-day week is religious dogma will be upset.
• Astrology fans would be upset, but this certainly isn’t the first time the calendar has changed!
• We "lose" about 23 workdays total during the year (factoring in federal holidays). Who’s complaining? The "hit" to companies seems reasonable compared to the overall benefits to society of a little extra time off, truly relaxing weekends, and a sensible, logical calendar. With 46 3-day weekends available to the consumer, travel and retail businesses would probably see a boom in revenues.
• Some people might be compelled to work six days a week. But that’s true today. Many, many people work more than a 40-hour week, because they (1) love their work, (2) are by nature workaholics, (3) are avoiding an unattractive home life, (4) must work longer hours to keep a company competitive, (5) must work longer hours to pay the bills at home (whether just to get food on the table or to lead a more expensive, but not essential, lifestyle), or (6) are being coerced to work longer by a demanding boss, peer pressure in a workaholic work culture, etc. This will not change whether the week length is 7, 2 or 20 days long.
• Some people with February or June birthdays would have to get used to new birth months.
• Months wouldn’t correlate exactly into quarters or seasons, but they never did precisely anyway.

Assuming there is no change in the new year's day months would begin relative to the Gregorian Calendar thus:

         Common Year      Leap Year
January   aligned          aligned
March     19 days early    20 days early
April     10 days early    11 days early
May       aligned           1 day  early
July      21 days early    22 days early
August    12 days early    13 days early
September  3 days early     4 days early
October    7 days late      6 days late
November  16 days late     15 days late
December  26 days late     25 days late

External links

A Modern Calendar