Why Pearl Harbor Should Not Be Mentioned Today

Don’t believe the hype.  It might be December 7th, but today has nothing to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Yes, the attack did take place on December 7th, 1941, however, the 7th here has less meaning than we usually suspect.  The date simply refers to the seventh day in December, but that doesn’t make all December 7ths the same.

What the difference?! The Newburyport Daily News highlights it quite well, despite writing about it on the wrong day:

In the early morning hours of that sleepy Sunday morning, waves of Japanese fighters and bombers descended on the unsuspecting U.S. Pacific fleet…

The difference is, the attack on Pearl Harbor happened on a Sunday, not a Friday.

9-to-5ers didn’t hear about it at work.  It happened on a day known more for picnics and driving slow.  Furthermore, the day after wasn’t a Saturday.  The American people didn’t reflect on the meaning of it all while off the clock, because December 8th in 1941 was a Monday!

When should we be commemorating this infamous event?  This year, the answer is Sunday, December 9th, soon to be better known as Element 410…

The problem with regular calendars is that, given the year, any day of the month can fall on any day of the week.  This year December 7th is a Friday.  In 2013, it will be a Saturday.  And then, in 2014, it will be on a Sunday and the days of December will fall as they did in 1941.

The discrepancy can be solved using the Periodic Calendar, which is built on the notion that there are seven different types of years, each with a distinct layout of days, weeks and months.  1941 was a Wednesday Year, meaning it started on Wednesday, Jan 1, and featured a Thursday Christmas.  Meanwhile, 2012 is currently a Monday Year, with Christmas soon to fall on a Tuesday.

Before the Periodic Calendar, there was no way to keep track of these things and the years went by with birthdays and holidays seeming to fall randomly on whatever day they wanted.  Now that we have the Periodic Calendar though, the world is faced with a question.  Are we going to continue to ignore this meaningful aspect in our shared conception of time or are we ready to unlock a new facet of the fourth dimension?

Really, the question is much easier than that.

All you have to ask yourself is, do you want this calendar?

Or do you want this calendar?

The Periodic Calendar is now available on Indiegogo.

First-edition prints start shipping next week.