It makes an even better job than the Gregorian calendar when it comes to approximating the calendar to the solar year.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Wikipedia tells me it was come up with in 1923, long after both global trade and the industrial revolution. You need all the countries to agree on the same calendar system or commerce is really hindered. It was way too late to change in 1923.

    The French tried to change the calendar to something more sensible and closer to metric after the French Revolution. It did not last long.

    Things seem to work just fine with the calendar we have anyway.

    Also, it could be worse. The Mayans had three different calendar systems- a solar calendar, a lunar calendar, and a 260-day calendar which we don’t know the origin of, but I like Dr. Ed Barnhart’s theory that it’s very close to a human gestational period.

    • Flax@feddit.uk
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      12 days ago

      I don’t think the french calendar would have ever worked, as humans seem to always divide their working into 7 day weeks.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        It was never popular even in France, for a simple reason: the week became 10 days but the weekly rest day was still only 1.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        It would have worked if the rest of the world (or at least the major European powers) were on board. But since most of them were still ruled by kings, that wasn’t going to happen.

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          12 days ago

          And Christianity being a major religion in Europe which teaches a 7 day week, and I believe Islam in the east does the same. China also used the 7 day week at this point, too.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            Very much so. They were never going to get the Pope on board, and without the Pope, they wouldn’t have had much of Europe on their side.

      • ComradeMiao@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        That’s a bold statement. This was a western invention that spread from Greece around the 5th century. Not always

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          12 days ago

          It’s literally recorded in the Torah, which was at least 1000 years before that

          • ComradeMiao@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            The Torah is still in the west dog. You think the whole world is Europe and the Middle East? China divided them into weeks of ten.

              • ComradeMiao@lemmy.world
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                12 days ago

                I was responding to you saying humans seem to always divide by 7. It’s an interesting point you make that it’s been done for a long time but we are saying two things.

                You actually made me think of something I’m gonna go ask the Hebrew specialist, did 7 days in the Hebrew Bible mean 7. I know 7 is their number for a lot just like 10,000 in Chinese. :)

                • Flax@feddit.uk
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                  12 days ago

                  My lemmy client only shows the comment without context, so unless I have a good memory, etc.

        • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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          12 days ago

          A week is one quarter of a moon cycle. Basically we either have to choose solar or lunar and solar makes more sense because of seasons. Problem is we chose both.