TheAbysmal Calendar

theAbysmal Calendar has been developed as a replacement for the Gregorian calendar in its role as the global standard. It was developed anonymously from December 21st 2005 to December 20th 2007 in Vancouver Canada.

theAbysmal Calendar seeks to harmonise a number of different Calendars' features in order to provide the most eloquent means of translating dates between one Calendar system and another, and for communicating dates across the world's cultures.

theAbysmal Calendar (from outside circle inward):

13 constellations of the real solar zodiac
13 calendar months
64 Hexagrams of the I Ching
Phases of the Moon during 1 Lunar Month
260 Day calendar

theAbysmal Calendar's Components

theAbysmal Calendar has several components, each of which assigns numbers, numerals or names to each particular Day, such that it may be more easily grouped into weeks, months, years and other measures of Days. The components of theAbysmal Calendar include: a Chromatic Counter; the LuniSolar Calendar; the Annual Calendar; the Unnamed Calendar; and the Constellation Calendar.

In almost every case, theAbysmal Calendar begins the numbering of time periods with 0, follwed by 1, 2, 3, etc...

the Chromatic Counter

theAbysmal Calendar's Chromatic Counter will replace the Julian day number by chronologically counting each Day, Lunar month and Year in increments of 1 beginning with 0. Each Day begins at Midnight, each Lunar Month at the New Moon, and each Year a the Northern Winter Solstice.

The initial periods occur as follows:

Day 0 = December 21st 2012
Lunar Month 0 = December 12th 2012 to January 10th 2013
Year 0 = December 21st 2012 to December 20th 2013

The Chromatic Counter is designed to allow for ease of translation between any two Calendar systems, using the Chromatic number as the intermediary.

The Chromatic Counter will also record all observational aspects of the calendar, including lunar cycles, sunspot cycles, transits of planets as well as their synodic and sidereal periods and so on.

the Lunisolar Calendar

theAbysmal Calendar has a Lunisolar calendar structure, assigning 29 or 30 Days per Lunar Month, 12 or 13 Lunar Months per Year. The Lunar Month 0 is the Lunar Month that contains the Day coincident with the Northern Winter Solstice (or Southern Summer Solstice).

the Annual Calendar

theAbysmal Calendar further has an Annual structure, which divides the 365 Days of the Year into 52 Weeks and 1 New Year Day which is not a Weekday. The Weekdays remain unchanged from the Gregorian, as most of the World's cultures have their own names for these Days, which reflect an attributation to the 7 Ancient Planets: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. theAbysmal Week begins on Saturday and ends on Friday.

The New Year's Day falls on the Day equivalent to December 21st in order to represent the Northern Winter Solstice.

The 52 Weeks can be arranged as 13 Months of 28 Days or 4 Weeks, as well as 4 Quarters of 91 Days or 13 Weeks. As such, each Week, Month, Quarter and Year begin with Saturday and end with Friday.

the Leap Year Rule

The intercalation of the Leap Year Day occurs once every 4 Years, with an exception once every 128 Years when the Leap Year Day is not observed. This aligns the Calendar Year most closely with the Tropical year. The Leap Year Day falls on the Day before the New Year's Day.

The Leap Year Day is assigned a number from the Chromatic Counter, and it is a Day on the Lunar Month in which it occurs, however, it is not assigned a Weekday. This allows theAbysmal Calendar to remain perpetually aligned with the Tropical Year, with its components commeasurate.

the Case for a Calendar Conversion

theAbysmal Calendar has been devised such that implementation from the Gregorian be as smooth as possible. The first Weekday of theAbysmal Calendar falls on the Day equivalent to Saturday December 22nd 2012. As both the Gregorian Weekday and theAbysmal Weekdays are the same, the entire Year of Weekdays align, until the following New Year's Day on December 21st 2013. This should ease transition from the Gregorian to theAbysmal Calendar over the course of an entire Year, without the elimination or addition of Weekdays as has been done in the past.

Furthermore:

theAbysmal Calendar measures the Lunar Month, which is used by Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The Gregorian Calendar does not formallly measure the Lunar Month, despite its importance in calculating the major holiday of Easter.
theAbysmal Calendar takes the Precession of the Equinoxes into account.
theAbysmal Calendar Months become a fixed 28 Days or 4 Weeks, as opposed to varying between 28 and 31 Days.
theAbysmal Calendar Quarters become fixed at 91 Days or 13 Weeks, as opposed to varying between 90 and 92 Days.
theAbysmal Calendar Quarters begin and end on or about the four Cardinal Points of the Year, the Winter Solstice, the Vernal Equinox the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.
theAbysmal Months do not bear culturally specific names, which may alienate Calendar users from other cultures.
theAbysmal Calendar combines Calendar features from the Hebrew, the Hellenic, the Chinese, the Buddhist, the Mesoamericans and the Mesopotamian Calendars, which support its claim as a more globally relevant Calendar than the Gregorian.

External links

theAbysmal Calendar (weblog chronicling Calendar development and features)
Bible Gateway Book of Ezekiel