|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The IFC is supposed to be a perpetual calendar, with each day in the calendar always falling on the same day of the week (DOW). This feature of the IFC was repeatedly emphasized as a major advantage, although it is difficult to imagine what the practical benefit of this scheme might be. The average person, asked for the day of the week for a given date, has two options: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He could memorize all of the date associations, which is more work, not less. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He could just look it up, which is exactly what he does now. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Each year is supposed to start on Sunday, 1 January and end on Saturday, 28 December. Nature has never cooperated with this scheme, however, since a common year contains 365 days. The total of days in the 13 IFC months is (4713 =) 364 days. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the IFC, the 365th day is an epagomenal day called Skip Day, which is an odd sort of creature it is not actually counted as a day of any month, and is not even counted as a day of any week, but considered a "second Saturday". In effect, the fact that the common year has 365 days, and not 364, is treated as a kind of annoying failure of Nature to be properly "standardized", and the IFC does its best to ignore the 365th day. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In leap years, the same scheme is used to insert an intercalary day between June and Sol. This day, called Leap Day, is also a second Saturday and is not supposed to be part of any month or be a day of any week. Like Skip Day, it is an annoying interruption and not supposed to exist. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The rule for leap year is the Gregorian rule, despite the resolute opposition of the IFC reformers to the Gregorian calendar. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are a number of consequences of this calendar. The system of days of the week, which is a continuous and useful regular cycle, would be interrupted and restarted at the beginning of every year, so that its utility would be confined to a single year. The scheme of treating the intercalary and epagomenal days as numerically unrelated to the rest of the calendar is not really workable, since their positions must be assigned by some method which is essentially numerical. Even with the manual algorithmic methods available in the period, Leap Day would be most efficiently calculated as June 29, to place it correctly between June 28 and Sol 1. The same observation applies to Skip Day, which is essentially a December 29 for the purposes of calculation, since it falls between December 28 and January 1 of the following year. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Within each month, every week starts on a Sunday, and ends on a Saturday. Thus, every year starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. Each day of the year falls on the same day of the week in every year. The first of January is always a Sunday, for example. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A consequence of adopting this calendar would be the problem of reassigning dates for days of observance. Certain dates in the Gregorian calendar simply do not exist at all in the IFC. Where these dates have religious or patriotic significance, problems would arise. In cases where the dates exist, they do not occupy the same relative position in the IFC year, so a decision would have to be made, whether to preserve the date or the relative position in the year. The 4th of July, for example, would be celebrated on the 17th of Sol in a common year, if its position in the year were retained. If |
|
|
|
|
|