World Calendar facts for kids

The World Calendar is a special idea for changing our current Gregorian calendar. It was created by Elisabeth Achelis from Brooklyn, New York, in 1930. The goal was to make a calendar that is easier to use and more fair for everyone.

How the World Calendar Works

The World Calendar is a 12-month calendar that is always the same, year after year. It has equal parts called "quarters."

Each quarter starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. All quarters are the same length. They each have exactly 91 days, which is 13 weeks or 3 months. The months in each quarter have 31, 30, and 30 days. For example, January, April, July, and October all start a new quarter with 31 days.

The World Calendar also has two extra days. These days help the calendar stay aligned with the Gregorian calendar's new year.

• Worldsday: This is an extra day at the very end of the year. It comes after Saturday, December 30. This day is marked "W" and is called Worldsday. It's meant to be a worldwide holiday. After Worldsday, Sunday, January 1, starts the new year.
• Leapyear Day: This extra day is added in leap years. It comes at the end of the second quarter, after Saturday, June 30. It's also marked "W" and is called Leapyear Day. After this day, Sunday, July 1, begins.

The World Calendar treats Worldsday and Leapyear Day as a 24-hour break. These "off-calendar" days are not given a weekday name. They are meant to be holidays.

Because the pattern of days repeats every three months, the World Calendar is very easy to understand:

This image shows how the World Calendar is set up, with months repeating in each quarter.

History of the World Calendar

The idea for the World Calendar comes from an earlier proposal by Abbot Marco Mastrofini. He suggested a calendar that always started on Sunday, January 1. It also had equal quarters of 91 days. The 365th day would be an extra holiday at the end of the year. In leap years, a second extra day would follow June 30.

Around 1887, a French astronomer named Gaston Armelin suggested a calendar very similar to the World Calendar.

Elisabeth Achelis started The World Calendar Association (TWCA) in 1930. Her goal was to have the World Calendar used all over the world. This group worked for about 25 years. In the 1930s, the League of Nations (which came before the United Nations) started to support the idea. Achelis also began publishing a magazine called the Journal of Calendar Reform in 1931. She wrote five books about the calendar idea.

After World War II, Achelis asked for support for the World Calendar from countries around the globe. The idea became popular internationally. However, in 1955, the United States held back its support at the United Nations. They said they would only support it if most US citizens wanted it. Because of this, the plan for worldwide adoption was delayed.

In 1956, Achelis closed The World Calendar Association, Incorporated. The group continued as the International World Calendar Association. It was active again in 2013, trying to get the calendar adopted in 2017 and 2023.

Why Change the Calendar?

People who support the World Calendar say it has many good points compared to our current calendar.

Benefits of the World Calendar

• Simple to Use: The calendar's structure is very simple. Every date always falls on the same day of the week each year.
• Easy to Compare: Since all four quarters are the same length, it's easier to compare things like business reports or school grades from one quarter to another.
• Saves Money: Because the calendar is always the same, you wouldn't need to print new calendars every year. Only the year number would change.
• Consistent Schedules: Work and school schedules would not need to be changed every year. This would save a lot of time and effort.
• Easy to Learn: The World Calendar can be memorized easily, just like you learn to tell time on a clock.

Challenges and Objections

The main people who disagreed with the World Calendar in the 20th century were leaders of religions that follow a seven-day week for worship. For many faiths, like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, specific worship days are very important.

• Jewish people observe Saturday as Shabbat, their day of rest.
• Most Christians worship on Sunday, which they call the Lord's Day.
• Muslims have their main prayer, jumu'ah, on Fridays.
• Seventh-day Adventists also worship every Saturday.

Followers of these religions worried that the extra "Worldsday" and "Leapyear Day" would mess up their traditional seven-day week. If there was an extra day, a week with Worldsday would be eight days long. This would mean their special worship day would shift by one day each year (or two days in a leap year) compared to the calendar. Their day of rest would no longer be on the weekend.

These concerns were a big reason why the United States government decided not to support the calendar reform at the United Nations in 1955.

Supporters of the World Calendar know about these concerns. They suggest that Worldsday and Leapyear Day could be treated as "double" holidays. This way, people who want to keep their seven-day week could still do so.

International Standards

The World Calendar is different from the international standard ISO 8601. This standard is based on the Gregorian calendar but has some differences. For example, ISO 8601 starts the week on Monday, while the World Calendar starts on Sunday. Also, ISO 8601 does not use extra "intercalary" days like Worldsday. However, the World Calendar changes the Gregorian calendar less than some other reform ideas.

See also

In Spanish: Calendario Mundial para niños

• List of calendars
• World Season Calendar, an idea by Isaac Asimov in 1973, similar to the World Calendar
• International Fixed Calendar, another 13-month calendar idea from around the same time
• Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, a calendar idea that uses an extra "leap week" to avoid religious objections