Why bother?
The yearly marching of month, day, and date is inconsistent, causes much confusion and migration of obligations and responsibilities, and is generally responsible for considerable angst and actual problems. Basically, the reason I think it needs to be fixed is because it is, in my humble opinion, very broken.
Most attempts at this severely disturb the cycle of months, weeks, or weekdays. Consequently, they face stiff opposition from people who have a use for those cycles. I don't have any problem with that; my problem is with irregular cycles. I think that most problems arise from that irregularity, not from the various months or weekdays, which are quite functional in our society.
I suggest the following:
Each of the twelve months would have 30 days and start on Monday. There would be four, seven-day weeks of Monday to Sunday; followed by two days of Holiday (not Monday, not Tuesday — Holiday.) We can keep the same month names without causing any problems.
All non-individual celebrations are moved to the Holidays at the end of the month. No more work weeks with holes punched in them by celebrations; you want to celebrate, that's what the end of the month is for.
Twelve months of this sequence will always account for exactly 360 days. We need 365.25 (one cannot, after all, alter the time the earth spends orbiting the sun), and we'll get to that, but hang on for a moment while I elaborate on a few things.
The fourth week of every month ends with Saturday and Sunday, to which you get to add the two Holidays, so for normal working stiffs, there are four days off at the end of every month. A nice little recovery opportunity.
In non-leap years, at the end of December, there are five additional Holidays. During leap years, there are six. This provides a convenient interval for families to get together, religions to schedule their various bacchanalia, flagellations, and meditations, and for the rest of us to sleep in. Note that since this extra spate of Holiday days comes at the end of December, the two Holidays that end December are also inline, which gives you seven (or nine, if you count the days of the last weekend of the month) contiguous Holidays. In leap years, this becomes eight (or ten.)
Benefits include every month starts with Monday; Pay periods are normalized; billing periods are normalized; the ridiculous and confusing spattering of celebrations all over the calender is eliminated: You want a celebration, use one of the Holidays at the end of a month or the year. That could mean that Halloween is the same day as Columbus day, or one could be on the first October Holiday (always the 29th) and one could be on the second (always the 30th.) There is a major benefit to this, and that is those people who really don't give a flying fig about your celebration aren't inconvenienced by it because all Holidays are standardized anyway, and you don't have to concern yourself with what people do on them. The 12-month system is maintained for the vast majority of the year, all months are the same 30-day length (though we probably would need a new name for the spate of Holidays at the end of the year... perhaps "Remember" or "Renew.")
For the majority of people, life and all calender related activities would be enormously simplified.Every month:
MO TU WE TH FR SA SUEnd of Year (right after December H2):
H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8... (H8 only occurs during leap years)Payday would always be the same date and day; bills would always be due the same date and day; the 11th would always be Thursday (as every date would always be the same day of the week... think of the implications... no more figuring that nonsense out!); Your birthday would always be the same day of the week; no more celebrations that wander around the calender; a vastly improved sense of what day and/or date it is, because (for example) there are only four Mondays in the month, and if you know it's Monday, you probably know what date it is; and if you know the date, it's always the same day anyway, so you would know the day right off (after you got used to it, of course.)
The math to calculate a date would only have to worry about H8 on leap years; and even then, the fact that one is in a leap year does not affect any day or date, and the extra day is the very last thing that happens so it cannot have a cumulative effect upon other date calculations within a year. Everything else — all days, all dates — falls out the same, every year.
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