Hopkins Professors Propose New Calendar
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- This year, it was convenient for many people to celebrate the holidays since they fell on a weekend. Well, what if that happened every year? Two local professors are hoping to change the calendar so every holiday would always land on the same day of the week.
Andrea Fujii explains the idea is gaining momentum.
New Year's Eve always on Saturday and Christmas Day always on Sunday? It's a consistent 364-day calendar year proposed by Johns Hopkins economics professor Dr. Steve Hanke and astrophysics professor Dr. Richard Henry.
"If we had our calendar and the Orioles had a home game on July 4, it'd always be on Wednesday. July 4 is Wednesday forever," Hanke said.
It's called the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar. Some months would lose a day but in turn create consistency that could eliminate tedious planning.
"It reduces the amount of wasted time people have to devote to rescheduling a calendar every year," Hanke said.
The problem is, no one is in charge of changing the calendar year so the doctors hope counties will spontaneously adopt it. They say leaders in Russia and China have expressed interest.
People we spoke with were curious, as well.
"I like the idea of having New Year's and Christmas on Sunday every year," said one.
"I like consistency, so I would say it'd be good to keep it the same," said another.
The current Gregorian calendar has been around since the sixteenth century, so change may be difficult. Still, Hanke hopes people will consider the idea in due time.
"It turns out there are a lot of people who realize that we're in a cylindrical mess with the calendar that we have," Hanke said.
The professors recently published a journal article in the publication "Globe Asia" and they may introduce the idea to the United Nations.
