chelsea cookThe first week of January is not over and one can already tell the days are getting longer. This is enough to boost one’s spirits even if it is still cold enough to , umm, do all those dreadful things one has learned to say a long time ago.
Even though I have not been successful (as yet) in getting Bunny Cake Day added to the nation’s, or world’s, calendars, now that the days are increasing in length it is time to start making plans for that auspicious occasion. Another good thing is that we haven’t had a mass shooting in over a month so I guess winter is good for something.
Even though I am still working on the other date, there is one more change I would make to the world’s calendar. The new year should not start in the dead of winter but on the first day of spring. This year will be Sunday, March 20 and that may be a little late - or maybe a little early if you want to be a purist.
Personally, we here at First Day International think the first day of a new year should be on April 1st. By that day we have gone through four seasons in all continents and almost every continent.
Even Canada could celebrate going from winter winter to late winter before settling into July and winter. If you are looking for someone to blame for all this mess, some old guys like Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory plus mankind’s inability to accept change or ideas without causing a ruckus.
Old Julie (as we used to call him) had a good idea but after time passed and the time for his years did not correspond to any calendar, things needed to be changed.
As I am sure you know from paying attention to the riveting lessons Coach Smedley taught in history class, the world was mostly agricultural and peasants planted when the days matched the crop to be planted.
Since no one knew or cared about months, reading or wine tasting, it wasn’t a big deal until someone tried to change the calendar to fit real life. The Catholic Church would not allow monks to investigate “secular time” and it wasn’t until 1582 that our calendar came from Pope Gregory.
Actually, it came from the Council of Trent’s recommendation but old Gregie Boy put it into use. Jullie’s calendar was only 10 days off, so what was the big deal? T
he more conservative people did not like it. They weren’t scientist but they wanted things to remain the same. Then the Protestants got all huffy and called Gregie names and made up naughty songs.
But today, most of the world uses the Gregorian calendar and even it has had to be tweaked. I’m not even going to talk about the imperfection of our earth going around our sun in a manner that isn’t perfect or consistent enough for a man born in 100 B C.
But my question remains, why January 1st as the new year? Believe it or don’t, I have thought of this since I could first think and it still doesn’t make sense to me to put a new beginning in the ending. But I have figured out a little something.
Back in the pre-history days, mankind celebrated a new year on the shortest day of the year (which just happens to be my birthday and I shall warn against snarly comments). Then some bright person said: “Hey, I know, let’s name the months!”
As people kept looking around and muttering, “What’s a month?” they told their masters, “Good idea, very good idea.” But, as the Earth’s orbit was not as equal as these brilliant leaders thought it was, time got mixed up and even the less educated discovered it didn’t work very well to plant wheat in January.
Those people who said, “But we have always done it this way,” were unelected by stoning or burning at the stake.  But good old Pope Greg got it almost straightened out and it worked for a while. But... as things usually do when politicians get involved, a correction need to be made. So, every four years, as the world turns, a day is added to February.
Now, your job is to tell me why February has only  28 days and all the rest have 30 or more. Why is that?