The whole thing is rather odd
I was putting together the monthly Top 3 + 1 newsletter over at MuddyUm when I remembered one of my pet peeves — why do months come in odd sizes? If each week has 7 days, and there is no variation, why can’t each month have 28 days and just be done? Why the extra drama of adding one, two, or three days?
The Romans apparently quoted some stuff about an odd number of days in a month being lucky and even numbers being unlucky and so forth. It all seems pretty vague to me. I don’t buy that logic. There is a deeper reason here.
As I was tossing around how I would feel if each month had 28 days, I realized there would be extreme predictability. For example, if 1st Jan is a Monday this year, it will continue to fall on a Monday every year. Each month will be the exact replica of the previous month and the next month just like the first 28 days of March mirror February right now. All would be well with the world because simplicity rocks. Hmm! But something isn’t sitting right.
After years of deliberating about why months come in odd lengths, I think I may have unearthed the real reason.
Let’s start with my birthday. Which day would it fall on? Assuming someone did an ’only 28 days in a month’ reset this year, my birthday would fall on a Tuesday. I see. That’s neither here nor there. Moreover, it would fall on a Tuesday every year henceforth. The whole predictability thing is not looking so great now.
There is no fun in a Tuesday-only birthday. It is the day people reluctantly start getting into the mood for work during the work week. Who will remember to wish me? What if I wanted to party? Will anyone join the fun? Who can take time off on a weekday morning or even evening?
What if my birthday fell on a Saturday? Would that work better on a regular basis? I suddenly see myself transported back to school. No school on Saturday. None of my school classmates get to wish me. I will never be able to take toffees to class and distribute it to everyone. Oh man, I feel terribly sad. What sort of a birthday would I have— sitting at home alone and wishless?
As I think of more use cases, the sorrier I feel for people who really like to celebrate their birthdays. If your birthday falls on say Tuesday or Wednesday, there is really nothing to look forward to each year. You cannot take a day off mid-week. Take a day off and do what? No one else would be available to party with. Ever. Not just this year or the next. Ever.
Since each week is perfectly identical forever, you can’t hope that next year, you will have a weekend birthday and party hard. Always the same. Groundhog day-ish.
I think the Romans foresaw this calamity. A world bereft of hope — hope that our birthdays will fall on random days of the week and can be celebrated in the right spirit each time. Saturday — cool, party all night. Sunday — awesome, take off on a picnic with friends. Monday — perfect, something to take away the drudgery of Monday blues. And so on.
A fixed 28-day cycle would strip away this charm. Children and adults all over the world will no longer grab the New Year calendar and look up what day their birthday falls on this year. No element of mystery there and definitely no excitement.
To prevent this and possibly all the resulting gloom, those Romans took the brave call to mix up the number of days in a month and made vague noises about why months should not all end with 28 days. Since they didn’t want anyone to figure out the real reason, they added a twist with 29, 30, and 31 days. Such a huge contribution to global happiness and no one knows!
Quite an elaborate charade if you ask me. But I am suddenly happy with the way things turned out. My birthday is on Saturday this year. I am going to be out partying with friends, extroverted Romans, and countrymen!
Anu Anniah Writes 