Do you think that the length of the months should be altered....?

Question

So that February gets 30 days and some of the 31-day months come down to 30, to even things out?
There would then be 5 months with 31 days, not 7.
Put one 31-day month in each quarter, keeping the one extra day in, say, the third quarter.

does it matter? Is it important?

Answer 1

February used to have 29 days and 30 - in leap years - before Augustus Caesar's ego messed it up.

The Roman year began in March and February was the 12th month. After June came Quintus (the 5th month) of 31 days and Sextus (the 6th month) of 30 days. Followed by September (the 7th month), Julius Caesar decided to name Quintus after himself and we now know of it as July.

Then when Augustus Caesar became Emperor he decided he would change the name of Sextus and name it after himself. As that would mean his month has one day less than July and imply he was a lesser emperor than Julius Caesar had been, he decreed that August should have 31 days not 30 and he therefore lopped a day off February,

So your proposal merely seeks to restore us to the calendar as it was prior to Augustus Caesar's interference,

The Babylonians with their sexagesimal (base-60) counting system which gave the world 360 degrees in a circle, also had 360 days in a year and 12 months of 30 days, Unlike the French solution, they added their extra days in the form of a 13th month, once every 6 years.

The French Republican calendar was a thorough overhaul of the system, introduced in the context of the world's first metric system, and involved not only 12 30-day months but 3 10-day weeks in a month, 10 hours in a day. 100 minutes in an hour and 100 seconds in a minute. The months had new names, the year began in the autumn and Year 1 was the date of the Declaration of the French Republic

Clocks were built to tell the time by these rules but they did not catch on. Napoleon officially abandoned the calendar on 1st January 1806, after little more than 12 years of use. It briefly resurfaced and re-emerged again at the time of the Paris Commune in 1871, but it has not exactly attracted swarms of advocates before or since.

My conclusion is that people are set in their ways, see no great pressing need for change and that as there is no exact, mathematically neat solution to the fact that a year is not an exact number of days (nor is a lunar month either) whatever system we use will be a bit inelegant, and acknowledging that, most people would say "let's stick with what we have got. It's easier. Then we don't have to learn anything new."

Inertia, apathy and habit will all argue against change, I fear! However logical the change may be.

Answer 2

Not really. For one thing, I don't know of any reasons for the change that aren't purely aesthetic. And on the minus side, the whole world (and all of its software and calendars) knows the calendar as it currently is. Everyone would have relearn the calendar (not a huge deal for an individual, but adding up that little bit of trouble over billions of people would cause problems). Moreover, you'd have to rewrite all the world's software (again... y2k anyone?) to reflect the change. You'd have to ensure that pokey old software which still is being run for god knows what reason could still interoperate with the newer software. And then there's the matter of people's birthdays. Suppose you lop off a day from July. All those people born on July 31 might be kinda upset. And again, this would cause all kinds of record keeping issues.

So, basically, if right now we didn't have a calendar at all, or if the current calendar had some kind of severe problem (for instance December being in the winter one year and then many years later being in the middle of summer...), then I'd say, yeah, go for it. But as we have a calendar, and it basically works pretty well, the benefits from regularizing it a little bit I think are far outweighed by the costs and nuisance of performing the change. Basically, why bother?

Answer 3

A normal luteal phase stays constant each cycle. If it was ever to vary, it would only vary by 1 or 2 days. If you experience brown spotting either before your period or from 6 days onward in your cycle, it could be an indication of a problem with your luteal phase. This should be brought to your doctors attention. Spotting before menstruation can be considered normal if it follows at least 10 days of high temps without spotting. Otherwise, it can be an indication that your body is not producing progesterone long enough- which causes a premature shedding of the capillaries in the uterine lining. Doctors can use progesterone cream, HCG injections or clomid to increase and support your luteal phase. Regardless, if your spotting consistently lasts longer than a few days, you should see your doctor. Your doctor would need to check to investigate and determine if you have any of the following: thyroid problem, fibroids, endometritis or endometrial polyps.

Answer 4

there should be 6 because 30 days in half a year and 31 days in the other half

Answer 5

Why not. During our french revolution ther were 12 months of 30 days + 5 supplementary days

Answer 6

It does matter, because that would alter the length of a year. This would throw off our internal clocks, since our year is the length of one rotation. Our seasons would be messed up, as they would have to go with the year, all though it doesn't really feel like it, tempurature wise.

Answer 7

I think attempting to make such an alteration would only create confusion and chaos.