"Things You Wouldn't Know If We Didn't Blog Intermittently."
09 November 2009
"30 days hath September..."
If you can't remember the verse, look at your knuckles. The peaks are 31-day months, the valleys (ignore gap btw hands) are 30-day months plus February.
This is how I taught my daughter to remember the number of days in each month. I don't remember where I learned it, but I read it somewhere back when I was young.
I use one hand to count this off. Just do the first seven months as usual and then return reusing the last knuckle as August. That way I can use my right finger to point the way so I don't get lost.
I use one hand to count this off. Just do the first seven months as usual and then return reusing the last knuckle as August. That way I can use my right finger to point the way so I don't get lost.
That's just the first two lines. Here's how I learned it:
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty-one (Except February, which has twenty-eight, or twenty-nine on Leap Year).
When I was a kid, it used to make me nuts that the last line didn't scan or rhyme.
The poem is harder to remember than just remembering the month lengths in the first place. We could have a system where every month is the same length: 13 months, each consisting of 28 days. With 1 day every year "out of time" as the big new year celebration. WHY is the Gregorian so accepted? Please find the answer/solution TYWKIWDBI man!
I certainly don't know "why" except that it has "always" been that way. But your question did lead me to an interesting graph of leap shifting. Thanks.
If our world would just use a Natural Time calendar, we wouldn't have this silly problem. http://www.13moon.com/
ReplyDeleteThis is how I taught my daughter to remember the number of days in each month. I don't remember where I learned it, but I read it somewhere back when I was young.
ReplyDeleteI use one hand to count this off. Just do the first seven months as usual and then return reusing the last knuckle as August. That way I can use my right finger to point the way so I don't get lost.
ReplyDeleteI use one hand to count this off. Just do the first seven months as usual and then return reusing the last knuckle as August. That way I can use my right finger to point the way so I don't get lost.
ReplyDeleteA little poem helped me,
ReplyDelete"Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November"
And by that, you know the rest!
That's just the first two lines. Here's how I learned it:
ReplyDeleteThirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one
(Except February, which has twenty-eight, or twenty-nine on Leap Year).
When I was a kid, it used to make me nuts that the last line didn't scan or rhyme.
The poem is harder to remember than just remembering the month lengths in the first place. We could have a system where every month is the same length: 13 months, each consisting of 28 days. With 1 day every year "out of time" as the big new year celebration. WHY is the Gregorian so accepted? Please find the answer/solution TYWKIWDBI man!
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't know "why" except that it has "always" been that way. But your question did lead me to an interesting graph of leap shifting. Thanks.
ReplyDeletestan
Glad to hear Stan.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for deeming you "TYWKIWDBI Man" just thought it appropriate since I was calling on you to utilize your "superpower"
In Portugal, where I come from, that's a very common trick. I think most of the kids around here learn the days of the months by their knuckles :)
ReplyDelete