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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Year One//Mars Calendar Considerations - ...(from French Revolution, 9/22/1792)

*The other thread pertaining to Marsian calendar considerations has collapsed.    I'm starting this one.

Shaun asked me a question in the prior thread, which I answered.  Here's our discussion so far:

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Shaun:  "Hi Cindy!
   Please excuse me if this is a silly question (it's late at night again! ), but does 'Vendemiaire' correspond to October?"

My response:  "Well, Mr. Woodward didn't give a correspondence with the original calendar (unfortunately), but as Year One began in September, I presume "Vendemiaire" pertained to September.

But since the change was adopted on the 22nd of September (far into the month), perhaps it was a "skip ahead" to the next month...October."

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My 2nd response to Shaun:  "French Revolution Calendar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Rev … y_Calendar

Shaun, here is a breakdown of the months.  I fortunately was able to find it very quickly on Google (I was anticipating a rather difficult search). 

Interesting that they opted for 10-day weeks.  Hmmmmm."

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My original post:

"Two evenings ago I read about the calendar adopted by the National Convention of France, during their Revolution (which brought this thread -- long since abandoned -- to mind).

Consider it food for thought:

The NC declared September 22, 1792 "Year One."  The leaders of the NC wanted to make a complete break with the past and all former official holidays (both religious and secular).  The old calendar was struck down and "Year One" was announced.

The NC stuck with 12 months of the year, but with these differences:

1.  Thirty days in each month.
2.  Three 10-day weeks.
3.  Five days a month reserved for republican festivals.

The names of the months were changed; the new ones were (sorry, don't have access to those little accent dillybobs): 

Vendemiaire (Vintage Month)
Brumaire (Month of Mists)
Frimaire (Freezing Month)
Nivose (Snow Month)
Pluviose (Month of Rains)
Ventose (Windy Month)
Germinal (Plants Begin to Germinate)
Floreal (Month of Flowers)
Prairial (Time of the Hayfields)
Messidor (Harvest Moon)
Thermidor (The Hot Season)
Fructidor (Month of Fruits)

Such lovely names!   

I read this information in _Tom Paine:  America's Godfather_ by W.E. Woodward (published 1945).  A really excellent book.

I'm wondering, once a colony proper is established, if they will consider going the "Year One" route and breaking with Terran ties altogether."

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

dickbill

Member

Registered: 2002-09-28

Posts: 749

Re: Year One//Mars Calendar Considerations - ...(from French Revolution, 9/22/1792)

I am wondering, since time on Mars is different than the time on Earth, and because all this is related to different orbital properties, if the most simple solution would be to keep a local, latitude and orbit-based cyclic time, wherever you are, and a secondary universal time. That universal time would not be cyclic but it would be purely numerical and linear, with suppression of all references to months and days. It would just keep the second as a universal unit and probably hours and minutes (But the scale could be decimal-based too, which would be preferable actually).
I don't see the point to keep the "day" as a unit since it is not derived from these units. Time 00.00 would be soon in the future (to please all nations), and negative times would mean before that time 00.
Is that linear representation has been proposed already ?

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Year One//Mars Calendar Considerations - ...(from French Revolution, 9/22/1792)

*I wonder if the 10-day week of the French National Convention was based on the metric system.

It (the metric system) had been introduced in France just a few decades prior (the 1760s?).

I'm wondering how a 10-day week might be more feasible than 7 days, regardless.  I'm not implying it's a bad or weird idea...I'm just wondering what benefits there might be to three 10-day weeks versus four 7-day weeks...if any, and how it might be related to the metric system.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)