Twenty-Five Leap Frogs

 

Every year should have thirteen months. With thirteen months instead of twelve, every month would have exactly four weeks instead of 4.257. We could stop memorizing “Thirty days has September, April, June, and November, All the rest have thirty-one, Save February at twenty-eight, But leap year, coming once in four, February then has one day more.” Months would start on Monday and end on Sunday. Friday the 13th would disappear. I propose our 13-month year should start April first, the way it did until 1582. We’d still need an occasional leap day. It could happen at the end of March, and be an extra weekend day. The thirteenth month could fall between August and September, so September, October, November and December would go back to being the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th months, as their names imply. The new month could have the Latin name for 6th month: Sextilis. Or, we could name it for some Roman god.