Re: The New Year

James Landau writes:
 >
 >  Where have you decided to start your new years, and in what
 > seasons? The belief that the year should change with winter (or
 > more precisely, ten days from the start of winter) seems
 > arbitrary. Rosh Hashannah occurs in September, the Julian calendar
 > if I recall began on April Fool's Day, and only the other day an
 > episode of "The Simpsons" was on in which Officer Wiggum mentioned
 > he had confiscated some fireworks from some Chinese people who --
 > get this! -- claimed they were celebrating New Year's in February!
 > If anything, I would think the obvious time to start a new year
 > would be with spring. Spring is where things begin again; in winter
 > it's just a lot of dying and washing away of The Old. (But looking
 > at my new date, the Kankonian New Year begins EXACTLY when we're
 > celebrating the beginning of spring.  Hmmmm.)

Well, the Old Persian calendar started the year on the vernal
Equinox*.  So does Rick Harrison's Vorlin calendar, IIRC.  I'm planning
to do the same thing myself (but I'm waiting for my language to evolve
itself to the point where it can produce names for months, etc. before
I do any serious work on my calendar).  I'm also considering starting
the day at... well, 06:00 in our system.

* At least, approximately.

Reply