if we shifted the calender by 10 days, could we get the 4 quarters to roughly fit with the start of....?

Question

january...april...july...october...?

wouldnt you prefer a secular logical calender that splits the year neatly into halves and quarters?

because this has an astronomical basis, it is applicable globally...and might be taken up planet wide [as new year is these days]

Answer 1

"Shifting" the calendar by 10 days, just to line up the seasons with the beginning of months would be wonderful, if that were the only thing the calendars were used for. But, you're talking about moving birthdates (George Washington was born on Feb. 11, 1732, not Feb. 22, a relic of the British empire switching from Julian to Gregorian calendars), anniversaries, the arrival of the swallows at San Juan Capistrano, and all the historical dates of the past 500 years, back to when the Gregorian calendar was invented and adopted (December 17th as Pearl Harbor Day or 9/21 for the WTC attacks just isn't ever going to make it). There is also the problem that the Gregorian calendar used by western nations is not the only calendar in the world. The Chinese have theirs, the Islamic peoples theirs, the Jewish people have theirs, and doubtless many more, of which I am unaware, are used.

As one of the previous answers says, "who cares?" It's like the use of the old British system of weights and measures as opposed to the use of the metric system. The United States tried going to the metric system beginning in the 1960's, and after almost half a century, people are still 5 feet 10 inches, weigh 180 pounds, buy gallons of milk, drive at 55 mph, and fit into shoes with sizes from 2 to 16. People, once used to anything, resist changing it and cling to the status quo, unless the status quo is hurting them. Even then, they take a lot of convincing. Our calendar is fixed forever and will be adjusted as needed over the milleniea by adding occasional leap seconds at the end of the calendar year and leap days every four years. As long as people have a choice, and currently, they do, they will not give up that with which they are familiar for that which is strange or different. It's just human nature.


When the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in the mid 1700's for the British Empire, the purpose was to more closely match the start of the seasons (solstices, longest & shortest days) with the traditional dates of March 21, June 21, September 21, and December 21, AND to introduce a more accurate calendar that would not drift as the Julian calendar had done. Those still using the Julian calendar (such as many Christian Orthodox churches), are now around 12 days late. Christmas still falls on December 25th on the Julian calendar, but on the Gregorian calendar which is used by most of the European influenced world, that day is now January 7th.

Answer 2

Would that move Christmas closer to the new year? If we could combine them that would save a lot of time.

Answer 3

I say, "who cares"? I bet 99% of the people in the world would say that. For that reason it will never happen.