Twelve is good, but thirteen is ungood
A full moon will appear 13 times during the coming year -- twice in August. This raises the question of why the calendar lists only 12 months if each month is meant to honor the lunar time period.
Here are some things to consider:
Society considers 12 to be good, but 13 is not. Therefore, society chose a 12 month year, even though that does not fit easily into a 365 day year. Rather, based on a 30-day month, that totals a 12-month year of 360 days. That's five days short of a full solar year of 365 days.
To resolve that, children are taught to chant this:
"30 days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31, save February, which has 28, unless it's Leap Year, when it has 29."
So that's four months of 30 days, seven months of 31 days, and one of 28, but even that's not enough.
Consider this: The lunar cycle has 28 days, and if you divide that into the solar cycle of 365, one gets 13 months, with just one day short of a full solar year. That's a closer match than a five-day shortage in the traditional calendar. And society can devote one day each year to celebrate whatever they choose.
But 13 is ungood, so society opted for the more complicated method for the calendar year, to avoid having to deal with the perceived ungood number.
The downside of this method is the risk of having an occasional Friday the 13th, an especially ungood day. This happens if each week begins on a Sunday, despite the popular habit of referring to Monday as the beginning of each week.
This can be resolved by starting each calendar week on Monday, and using the more accurate yearly calendar described above, there will never be a Friday the 13th.
Consider all this as you watch the full moon this week.
A full moon will appear 13 times during the coming year -- twice in August. This raises the question of why the calendar lists only 12 months if each month is meant to honor the lunar time period.
Here are some things to consider:
Society considers 12 to be good, but 13 is not. Therefore, society chose a 12 month year, even though that does not fit easily into a 365 day year. Rather, based on a 30-day month, that totals a 12-month year of 360 days. That's five days short of a full solar year of 365 days.
To resolve that, children are taught to chant this:
"30 days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31, save February, which has 28, unless it's Leap Year, when it has 29."
So that's four months of 30 days, seven months of 31 days, and one of 28, but even that's not enough.
Consider this: The lunar cycle has 28 days, and if you divide that into the solar cycle of 365, one gets 13 months, with just one day short of a full solar year. That's a closer match than a five-day shortage in the traditional calendar. And society can devote one day each year to celebrate whatever they choose.
But 13 is ungood, so society opted for the more complicated method for the calendar year, to avoid having to deal with the perceived ungood number.
The downside of this method is the risk of having an occasional Friday the 13th, an especially ungood day. This happens if each week begins on a Sunday, despite the popular habit of referring to Monday as the beginning of each week.
This can be resolved by starting each calendar week on Monday, and using the more accurate yearly calendar described above, there will never be a Friday the 13th.
Consider all this as you watch the full moon this week.
Perhaps my perspective might be a bit hard, but I like 13 and I'll tell you why. 12 has this wonderful symmetry so they say, but what is missing in symmetry, is a movement beyond itself. Take a circle versus a spiral. A circle comes around to the same place. A spiral comes around and it's slightly off in its place. One thing that can be said about life is that no matter how similar a cycle returns to something is different. And I kind of like that.
ReplyDeleteMake a list of how often societies around the world use twelve to organize things. My list ran to three pages. Then remember Apollo 13, which was launched at 13 minutes past 1 p.m. (1313 hours at Mission Control) and disaster struck on the 13th day of the month, two days after launch. Also, ask police and health care professionals how they feel about people's behavior on a Friday.
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