Welcome to Calendar 13, a website devoted to a version of the 13 month, 28 day calendar developed by me (Cody Jassman).
It is a free concept for anyone's use or adaption as it is itself a borrowed idea. It is based on the 13 month, 28 day diagram created by John Michell in his book “The Dimensions of Paradise”. You can also find the “Osiris Diagram” in Scott Onstott's documentary film Secrets in Plain Sight as at 2:20:03.
13 months. 28 days each. Simple.
The 13 month, 28 day calendar evenly divides the months into 28 days consistently which the Gregorian calendar fails to do. 13 x 28 equalls 364 days. Then, the “day out of time“ at the end/beginning of the year (example: 2012.0.0) which occurs on the Gregorian calendar translation of December 21 in the Calendar 13 system. This date was chosen to mark the winter solstice, as it was logical to choose an astronomically significant day of the year for day zero. This also means that January 1 in Gregorian format syncs up nicely with Calendar 13 format 1.11 and the Gregorian leap day of February 29 is easily remembered as it is the “pi day”: 2012.3.14. Both of these dates (and I'm sure many more) make for good, easy-to-remember points of reference.
What about the leap day?
Leap years will be one day offset from the Gregorian calendar on February 29 forward for translation because the extra day added for leap year in Calendar 13 occurs at the end of the year rather than the illogical placement of the end of the second month. In Calendar 13 format, this once-in-four-years* occurrence follows the notation of xxxx.0.4. An example can be found on the Gregorian date December 20, 2012.
You will notice that the 4 year* leap day cycle is depicted in the calendar in the corners of the square base. Here, you will see year one through year four displayed in a counter-clockwise pattern starting from the red year at the bottom of the calendar. The reason the years go counter-clockwise is because of the positions of the colored heptagram points in relation to the corners of the square. It made perfect logical sense to continue the pattern of red/yellow/blue/purple for years as well as days. This results in years progressing in counter-clockwise fashion in opposition to the clockwise cycles of months and days.
Is there really a need for calendar reform?
I will let you be the judge on this one. The purpose of this blog is to document many of the intrinsic patterns in the 13 month calendrical system as evidence to the fact that this system is objectively better than other human systems for charting the status of the Earth's revolution around the Sun, the sole purpose of a calendar. All numerical division of different aspects of reality is merely a symbolic reference to the underlying reality. The numbers do not make the reality, but some numbers, ratios, and patterns necessarily fit the referenced pattern/cycle/aspect of reality better than others. A calendar, ideally, should follow a circular pattern as this is the symbolic depiction of the concept which it seeks to measure. Think of it as a year clock.
If you are one of those that take seriously appeals to tradition, I don't expect to persuade you that Calendar 13 is a better system than the Gregorian calendar. If you are like me and believe that long-standing traditions are not necessarily justifiable and good and that the universe should be in a constant state of re-creation, you might find reason to adopt or partially adopt the calendar into your own life.
My goal is simply to demonstrate a better system. What other people choose to do or not do with it is up to them.
Also, feel free to use any of the graphics on this site for any of your own projects. These ideas don't belong to me... and I don't happen to be a firm believer in this "intellectual property" doctrine either, so the creative content of this website is free for your use as well.
*Leap days occur once every four years except on years that are multiples of 100 but are not multiples of 400 (1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years but 2000 was)