AN ALMOST PRACTICAL LUNAR-SOLAR CALENDAR

Lunar calendars are notorious for being out of sync with the solar year. 
This calendar attempts to address the problem by using an annual solar 
event to determine the beginning of a new lunar year. This re-calibrates 
the calendar automatically and reduces the discrepancy. The mechanism is 
not without its peculiarities however:

* The solar year begins on the day of the winter solstice in the 
  Northern Hemisphere at GMT.

* A lunar month begins on the first day of a new moon at GMT.

* The solstice and new moons are fixed by scientific observation.

* The first lunar month of a solar year is the first lunation beginning 
  after the winter solstice.

* That first month is January (01) in a year with 12 lunations and is 
  Luna (00), an extra "leap month", in a year with 13 lunations.

* Subsequent months are named familiarly: February (02), March (03), 
  April (04), ... December (12).

* In years with only 12 lunations, Luna and January are synonymous, 
  somewhat like February 28th and 29th in a Gregorian non-leap year.

* This would mean that a person born on the 23rd of Luna and one born on 
  the 23rd of January would some years celebrate their birthdays on the 
  same day and other years a month apart.

* Since lunar months can arbitrarily differ in length between "hollow" 
  (29 days) and "full" (30 days), the 29th and 30th of any month are also 
  subject to the Gregorian February 28th and 29th treatment.

* The traditional seven-day week is unaffected by this calendar.

* There are no intercalary days in this calendar.

* This calendar might drive accountants nuts by constantly switching between 
  12 and 13 month years, at least until their software and practices 
  adapted.

* This is not necessarily a calendar you would want to convert to but if you
  were already using it, it might not seem all that dysfunctional (unless
  perhaps you were born on the 30th of Luna)...

every@ma.sdf.org