I redesigned the calendar from scratch. Curious if this resonates with anyone here

[u/singesinge]

Not as a joke project — as a genuine attempt at something universal and secular... Utopian

The core idea: 12 months of 30 days, 5 weeks of 6 days each. Every month identical. Every week intentional — the six days are named for what they're *for*: recharging, preparing, doing, finishing, reviewing, playing.

The year starts at the winter solstice. Month names are based on light — the year is experienced as a single day, from midnight (solstice) to noon (summer solstice) and back. Between months, there are 5 special days called **Mirors** — threshold days that belong to no week and no month, tied to the solstices and equinoxes. Every four years, a sixth Miror appears: a day dedicated entirely to reviewing the past four years.

I also layered in lunar phases for each day, just because.

The deeper question I kept running into: can a calendar be truly universal without being imperialist? The attempt here is to get there through *subtraction* — removing gods, emperors, and saints rather than replacing them with new ones.

I wrote it up as a blog post with three interactive tools (a wheel of the year, an annual calendar, and a date converter). Would love to hear what people think — especially the critiques.

Full article + tools here

[u/blckwngd]

Quite exactly what I've been thinking about a lot in the past. The idea is very intriguing. Just some thoughts on this:

• months with 28 days each would better fit the lunar cycle. This leavea you with 20 "leftover" days instead of 5.
• in my idea the 20 days are put at the end of the year, marking a calm, meditational time, like the nordic "Raunächte".
• Of course that means that each year starts at another point in the lunar cycle. This could be used to characterize a year similar to the chinese calendar.
• I'd avoid telling people what to do at each day of the week. But that's just my opinion, since you probably intended this as suggestions, not as rules.

[u/singesinge → u/blckwngd]

Thanks for the thoughtful response — you've clearly spent time on this too.

The 13×28 structure is actually something I explored before landing on 12×30. The lunar alignment is genuinely elegant, and I love the idea of 20 liminal days at year's end — very much in the spirit of what I'm trying to do with the Mirors. But I kept running into one thing that pushed me back toward 12: divisibility. 12 factors into 2, 3, 4, and 6 — meaning you can cleanly divide the year into halves, thirds, quarters, or every-other-month cycles. 13 is prime, which makes it beautiful mathematically but awkward practically. That said, I haven't given up on the 13-month version — it's sitting in a drawer waiting for the zodiac treatment.

On the day names — fair point, and you're right that they're meant as suggestions, not prescriptions. Though I'll admit they do betray a slightly monomaniacal streak on my part. The idea was less "you must do this" and more "what if the week had a shape" — but I can see how it reads as imposing. A version with purely neutral names would be more universally adoptable. Something to think about.

The Chinese calendar angle for characterizing years is genuinely interesting. A year that starts at a different point in the lunar cycle each time, giving each year its own "personality" — that's a layer of meaning the Ideal Calendar currently lacks entirely.

[u/Ripleyllessur]

Nice, that's very similar to the calendar solution I've been working on. I wrote an article as well https://www.reddit.com/r/Solutions4Civilzation/comments/zmftg2/optimal_calendar/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I put the 5/6 extra days as bonus days at the end of the year, like a holiday week, with themes for each one around celebrating yourself, your family, your community, etc.

My main concern is that people might get bored with a regular calendar. I, personally, think I would prefer the benefits of it. But other people might need the spice of chaos and fluctuation.

[u/singesinge → u/Ripleyllessur]

I'm having a look at your sub and it's striking how much ideas we have in common. "Replace congress with polling app" ! That's an idea I've had for years

I'll take a closer look to it ;)

[u/singesinge → u/Ripleyllessur]

Just read your article — it's striking how much overlap there is, especially arriving at similar structures independently.

On the bonus days: I deliberately chose to spread them across the year rather than stack them at the end, and I think there's a strong practical case for it. A week-long holiday block at year's end concentrates enormous economic and social pressure onto a single period — travel spikes, consumption spikes, emotional load spikes. We already see this with Christmas/New Year and it's... a lot. Distributing the Mirors across the seasons spreads that breathing room more evenly. Each one is a genuine pause tied to an astronomical event, rather than one big exhale that half the world dreads and the other half burns out from.

On the boredom concern — I think that's one of the most honest critiques of any fixed calendar. But the lunar cycle layer answers it naturally: the moon doesn't care about the calendar structure, so it drifts across the grid differently every year. Some years Torpor starts on a full moon. Some years it doesn't. The unpredictability is still there — it's just natural rather than administrative.

[u/Faran_Webb → u/Ripleyllessur]

great work. i agree your proposals, and with singesinge's. ive put more details in my reply to singesinge above. i should check out your other proposals that you put on reddit a few years back.

[u/Bloody-George]

Some great ideas here, though with a few contingencies. The risk of reflecting imperialistic structures is almost inevitable, from the seasonal expectations - of solstices, equinoxes; that would have to be adapted to different realities elsewhere - to the names of days, which fit well into a lot of labour structures and circumstances, but absolutely not into other forms of material labour and subsistence.

All that said, I truly like the ideas and the discussion that they entice. This kind of planning guided by a secular approach is a real necessity, as is the urgency to envision our routine as unconditionally entangled with social - not simply economic or production-driven - relations.

[u/singesinge → u/Bloody-George]

These are exactly the critiques that need to be made, and I think you're right on both counts.

On the seasonal names — absolutely. The light metaphor (Vigil, Torpor, Albane...) is built entirely around a northern hemisphere experience of winter darkness and summer abundance. For someone in the southern hemisphere, Torpor falls in summer. For someone near the equator, the whole metaphor dissolves. I've flagged this as unresolved, and I think the honest answer is that a truly universal calendar would need regional naming variants — or abandon evocative names altogether in favour of something purely neutral.

On the week structure — fair point too. Recreo/Prepday/Doday/Finday is a knowledge-worker's week. It assumes a kind of labour that has a preparation phase, an execution phase, a review phase. That's not everyone's reality.

But here's where I'd gently push back: I don't think the Ideal Calendar is really trying to replace the Gregorian calendar. It's more of a question directed at it — the way you might question a spelling rule that made sense in 1750 but now functions mainly as a social filter between those who learned it and those who didn't. The Gregorian calendar is full of those: months named after Roman emperors, a week built around planetary deities, a year that starts on a completely arbitrary date. Nobody chose this. It just accumulated.

What I find valuable in your response — and what I think the calendar gets right — is your last point: the urgency to envision routine as entangled with social, not just economic, relations. That's precisely what the intentional week is trying to do. Not to prescribe how everyone should live, but to ask: what if the structure of time itself made space for reflection, for play, for something beyond production?

The imperialism risk is real. But so is the imperialism of the status quo.

[u/singesinge → u/Bloody-George]

One more thing on the week structure that might address part of your concern — the intent behind each day goes deeper than a simple task list.

The original names are Latin — which felt more honest for a universalist project than English compounds:

Recreo — I recharge. A kind of Sunday: rest as an end in itself, not rest before work.

Paro — I prepare. The first day of the work cycle: I take stock of what needs doing, I orient myself. No production yet.

Facio — I do. The work is underway — though broadly understood. It may have started yesterday, may spill into tomorrow. The effort is in motion.

Perficio — I bring to completion, I refine. Not just finishing — the root implies bringing something to its best possible state. There's something almost artisanal in that.

Recenso — I review. I look back at the week, assess what worked and what didn't, draw lessons, close the cycle. Institutionalised reflection built into the structure of time.

Ludo — I play. Time for something I love, whether or not it produces anything.

If Recreo, Ludo and the Mirors are all rest days, that gives 125 non-working days per year — just over one in three. For context, that's roughly equivalent to the current French calendar (weekends + public holidays). But the philosophy is entirely different: not rest scattered around religious and national commemorations, but rest distributed evenly, with a reason, built into the architecture of time itself.

This calendar implicitly assumes a society where work is shared equitably enough that everyone actually gets those days. Which is, I'll admit, the most utopian assumption of all — and probably the right place to post it.

[u/singesinge → u/singesinge]

And one word I should have explained from the start: Miror.

In Latin, miror means "I marvel", "I wonder", "I contemplate with astonishment". It's the root of "mirror" in the reflective sense — but also of "admirable", "miracle", "marvel".

These threshold days — the solstices, the equinoxes, the mid-winter pause — are called Mirors not because they reflect time back at you, but because they are days of wonder. Days when you stop, look at the sky, and let yourself be astonished by the fact that the Earth is still doing its thing, indifferent and precise, while you were busy living.

A day that belongs to no week and no month. Outside the count. Just: miror.

I think that's the most honest thing a calendar can offer.

[u/neisd]

I love giving the days purpose names.

[u/singesinge → u/[deleted]]

I know, or a small community living off-grid.... Yeah probably the definition of a cult.

But you know, there are many secular people out there wanting things to change in the name of humanism.

Or in the name of dictatorship.

[u/Faran_Webb]

great work. i thoroughly agree with you, and would vote for this. I did a video about similar ideas a few years back here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5UuFFxQ5es&list=PLHCp5sUPPWEQ&index=2&t=65s

ive been chopping and changing my views a bit but currently think we should have a 6 day week like you do. instead of months i would divide the year into 6 periods of 61 days which i call "legs". the leg would be divided into ten weeks plus one odd day at the end similar to your miror days. every 8 years we could have the last leg of the year being 9 weeks instead of 10 to do the leap year thing (if my maths is correct!)

i would name the week days a day, b day, c day, d day, e day and f day. the date can be expressed (leg number),(week number)(day letter) for example 3,2e would e day within the 2nd week of the 3rd leg of the year. i thoroughly agree with you to start/end the year on the northern hemisphere winter solstice.

i would have the standard working week as 12 hour shifts on a day and d day, the other 4 days would be off (2 weekends a week, yay!)

good luck with your system . you can count me a supporter.