The Calendar Is a Fallacy

The Arbitrariness of Units of Time

In the Gregorian calendar, 1 January marks the new year. It is not the new year in the dozens of other calendars that exist. This is not insignificant. Although the “new year” is celebrated with fanfare and increased alcohol consumption, aside from hangovers, absolutely nothing changes between 31 December and 1 January. Nature does not know that it is a new year, nor does it care. Even if we humans care about delineating a new year, there is nothing that indicates that 1 January should be the first day of a new year. Why not on 1 August? Why not any other month? Why not winter solstice or spring equinox, which are actually astronomical events? Non-Gregorian calendars consider the new year to begin on these or other dates.

How we measure time is largely arbitrary. Only two units of time are connected to tangible events. We define the year as 365 days (except when it isn’t: a leap year). We define a day as 24 hours long. But these are the least arbitrary of our time measurements because they are based on astronomical events relative to Earth. What tells us that a week is seven days long? That September has 30 not 31 days? That the day is to be divided into 24 hours? An hour into 60 minutes? A minute into 60 seconds? Then, why suddenly do we switch to base 10 for counting time periods less than a second?