What about being born on Monday, the 1st of Shakespeare?
Or having your wedding day on Saturday, 20th of Aristotle?
Beautiful dates, a bit exotic to our ears. But not for the ones of the french Auguste Comte who in 1849 invented the so called “positivist calendar”.
He took the Gregorian model and changed it slightly. To 13 months of 28 days he added one day to honor the dead at the very end of each year that had no weekday. So every month started on Monday. And on a leap year, a second complementary day was added as an equivalent to December 32nd to honor holy women.
Comte proposed that this new calendar would start with Year 1 in the year of “the great crises” aka the French Revolution, in 1789.
What an interesting idea!
What I love about this is that this calendar is totally centered around great people. We are not used to this. March is not a person, nor is November.
Comtes months were all called after people who were famous for their art or deeds or who changed humanity to the better, like: Homer, Saint Paul, Gutenberg, Dante or Descartes. People that are worth to be remembered all the time. To give us a proper role model and help us to hold high visions.
But he did not stop there. He wanted to honor not only “the rich and famous”, but all people. Regular people without education or privilege, but with courage and a sense of justice and for liberty, equality and fraternity. These people stood up to end abuse by the opportunistic regime of the Bourbon royal family.
So not even great men and women of all kinds of nationality found their way into it – which was revolutionary in itself at that time.
But even the common people are celebrated here for the Year 1 is all about them.
I personally would love to use a calendar like this!
I would love to be reminded of fabulous people all the time.
Imagine there was a month named after you.
Not to polish your enormously precious ego…
But because you as a regular person let your light shine so brightly and beautifully that it lights up other people’s days, even after you are gone.
What would you change in your life to be that person?
How would you act differently?
And what would you love to stand for?
I wish you a refreshing summer and lots of time to relax.
And, if you like, to ponder these beautiful fundamentals.
With so much love,
Anselma
