Summary

The Villoro32 Calendar is a non-perpetual solar calendar created by Mirla Villoro. It has common years of 365 days, and leap years of 366 days. The year begins approximately at the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. The year is divided into four quarters of 91 days. Each quarter is divided into three months of 30, 30, and 31 days. Therefore, the year has 12 months. The extra days are added at the end of the 12th month. In common years, the extra day has 24 hours; in leap years the extra day is a double day of 48 hours. In both cases, the simple and the double day, are called day 32. All four quarters are equal within the year except for the extra day added at the end of the fourth quarter. The seven-day week cycle holds. The Human Era or Holocene Era system is used for enumerating years.

This calendar proposal aims to offer an alternative to the calendar used globally today, the Gregorian calendar.

Description

The Villoro32 Calendar is solar, that is, its largest cycle corresponds approximately to the Earth’s rotation cycle around the Sun. It is a non-perpetual calendar with a seven-day week. The new year begins on a different day of the week every year. Furthermore, in successive years the arrangement of the dates in the days of the week changes. Therefore, commemorations, holidays, and birthdays move their position in the week over the years.

The year is divided into four quarters of 91 days each. The quarters are designated Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. Each quarter is divided into three months of 30, 30, and 31 days. The months are designated M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7, M8, M9, M10, M11, and M12. Within each year, the quarters are equals except for the day 32 added to the end of the last month (M12) of the last quarter (Q4). In common years, day 365 is a simple day, of 24 hours, called day 32. In leap years, day 366 is added after 365, resulting in a double day of 48 hours, also called 32.

The cycle of the seven-day week holds. The days of the week are designated D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, and D7, where D1 corresponds to Monday in the Gregorian calendar.

In the Villoro32 Calendar, the enumeration of the years follows the Human Era or Holocene Era system, created by Cesare Emiliani in 1993. Its name derives from the Holocene geological era. In this system, the year 1 corresponds to the year 10 000 BC on the Gregorian calendar. We don’t know exactly when the Holocene Era began, nor when should be considered the beginning of human civilization, but this period of just over 12 000 years includes all recorded human history.

Representation

Since within a year all quarters are equals, then the four quarters begin on the same day of the week, that is, they are corresponding quarters. Therefore, the arrangement of the dates in the days of the week is identical in the four quarters of the year. Thanks to this symmetry, the Villoro32 Calendar can be represented in annual or full form; and in quarterly or compact form.

Advantages

1. The length of the months is regular and easy to memorize: 30, 30, 31, 30, 30, 31, 30, 30, 31, 30, 30, and 32; or it can be remembered in form 30, 30, and 31 + 1, where “+ 1” would be the extra day of the last month of the year.
2. The length of the quarters is regular: 91, 91, 91, and 92; or it can be remembered in form 91 +1, where “+ 1” would be the extra day of the last month of the year.
3. The seven-day week cycle holds.
4. As this calendar proposal is not perpetual, the rotation of the dates in the day of the week holds as the years go by. But by adding the extra day at the end of the year, the double displacement of the dates in the days of the week will be the same for all the days of the following year.
5. Day 32 is the name given to both extra days, the simple day in common years and the double day in leap years. This eliminates the leap day date and the inconvenience for people born on it. In common years Day 32 is a single 24-hour day. In leap years it is a double 48-hour day. Those born at any time during this double day are registered on Day 32 of M12.
6. The calendar can be represented in annual or full form; and in quarterly or compact form.
7. Each country or community can choose the names for days of the week and months.
8. In the Human Era system, every year is positive, which provides a better perspective of the historical continuum.
9. The Villoro32 calendar is independent of religions and ideologies. Its quarters approximate the main astronomical markers, equinoxes and solstices, which are metacultural. Almost all cultures have considered significant these astronomical events and have been taken as markers of the beginning of the seasons.

 The Villoro32 calendar takes the advantage of perpetual calendars, while remaining non-perpetual. This calendar proposal is an intermediate solution. Within a year, the quarters are identical, except for the extra days at the end called Day 32. This annual internal symmetry facilitates equivalence between accounting cycles within the same year, enables quarterly representation, and simplifies date calculations. All of this without breaking the seven-day week cycle, or losing the shift of dates across the days of the week as the years go by.