Winter is my favorite season, but there is one thing about it that I have difficulty understanding.
Why the hell do we celebrate the 'New Year' during the coldest, deadest time of year?
I understand the semantics of it: the Romans had a calendar with fewer months, and used to open the new year in Spring, until the emperor decided to totally mess it all up by adding two more months.
What I don't get is why, as a collective society, we figure there's a need to schedule our lives around some dead Roman's (probably) drunken whimsy?
Oh sure, individually we are free to observe whatever system we like, but try telling the tax man/phone company/your friends that you observe the Mayan lunar calendar, and won't pay for another three cycles!
This is simply another fine example of the rediculous sheepism that pervades 'modern living'.
After all, how modern are we to mark the days of our lives in a system that has to add an extra day every four years to correct itself!?
Why the hell do we celebrate the 'New Year' during the coldest, deadest time of year?
I understand the semantics of it: the Romans had a calendar with fewer months, and used to open the new year in Spring, until the emperor decided to totally mess it all up by adding two more months.
What I don't get is why, as a collective society, we figure there's a need to schedule our lives around some dead Roman's (probably) drunken whimsy?
Oh sure, individually we are free to observe whatever system we like, but try telling the tax man/phone company/your friends that you observe the Mayan lunar calendar, and won't pay for another three cycles!
This is simply another fine example of the rediculous sheepism that pervades 'modern living'.
After all, how modern are we to mark the days of our lives in a system that has to add an extra day every four years to correct itself!?
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