When the year 2020 ended, it was met with almost unprecedented derision. "Good Riddance, 2020," was a common refrain. Netflix's end-of-year comedy retrospective was titled "Death to 2020." The Washington Post even convened a panel of historians to debate whether 2020 was the "Worst Year Ever."

The expiry of the "Annus Horribilis," of course, merely marks the completion of a numbered calendar year. And a calendar in turn, is a complex (and in some respects convoluted) system for organizing and measuring time. Although we tend to think of the calendar, with its 12 month, 365 day (and leap year) system, as a constant, the reality is that it is a human construct—the product of laws and conventions. For Americans, the present calendar system is the product of colonial laws that were enacted in the mid-18th century. Conceivably, Congress and/or state legislatures could alter those laws (and thus alter the calendar) should they see fit. Indeed, not too long ago, there was a spirited attempt to do persuade Congress of the virtues of calendar "reform" (or "simplification"), rearranging our 12 irregularly-spaced months in favor of a more streamlined, business friendly system. The calendar is more malleable than might be thought.

The Components of the Calendar

The "calendar" is a system for organizing time—both time already elapsed, and time yet to elapse. Today's calendar is an amalgam of five different concepts: