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I’ve never given any real thought to the calendar on my desk. Wow. That was some work to pull it all together! Thanks for the new information in the new year!

Your “learn unlearn relearn” resolution is sort of like “red pill blue pill” from the matrix, at least that’s what I thought of when I read it.

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Thank for the great feedback. It was an adventure and was one of the more effortfull but it was fun tracing it all. There were so many other rabbit holes that kept sucking at me!

I think of Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn as the step you take after the red pill. When you've woken up and realize the world then you can hack into a few concept. But then, maybe the red pill is the Unlearn so that you can Relearn?

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Jul 2Liked by Michael Woudenberg

Very insightful!

I wonder with the Julian-Gregorian calendar still dominates most nations date and time-keeping, why nobody challenges to change or reform it? The Roman empire is completely destroyed for hundreds of years and, yet nobody questions to follow their calendar.

The part when you mentioned Exodus 12:1-2 of where the 1st day of the month should be, I wonder why Christians of today, would not reorganize the months or create the months, but wait!

If the months were moved around, we would lose clues of the origins of the 1st month. Look at September, October, November, and December. All four months have numerical prefixes: Sept = 7, Oct = 8, Nov = 9, and Dec = 10. If we counted down the number to 1, we would end up in the month of March, where the Spring equinox is at.

I feel the calendars needs to be re-evaluated at some point, and I may not want to follow the Roman calendar.

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It is a crazy mess isn't it? I'm not even sure how we'd redo it without pissing everyone off :)

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Jul 2Liked by Michael Woudenberg

Fuck euphemisms! Throw the truth in their faces and have their say. Many people born today, are not even aware of this calendar dilemma.

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This piece of writing is brilliant! I have often thought about who decides when the new year is and why, and it has been explored so well.

As a New Zealander everything does feel very opposite to the rest of the world. It’s the height of summer here.

We also have Matariki (Māori new year celebrations) in winter (June/July) depending on when the Matariki constellation (Pleiades) appears in the sky. We get two new year celebrations about 6 months apart.

Thank you for such an informative piece!

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So glad you enjoyed it. And welcome! It's great to have you from the odd side of the earth where all the holidays are slightly off. It's got to be weird to celebrate everything from the inverse. Christmas songs have got to be weird.

I won't deny, finding how many people live north of the equator shocked me when I was researching.

Thanks for the add about Matariki. That one is 'summer' but lines up with the southern hemisphere's winter solstice.

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Thanks! And yes, Christmas songs are very strange, but slowly a growing number of summer Christmas songs are being written down here.

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Oh please share!

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Thank you Michael for this comprehensive post. We would love to share the New Year celebrations of the Edo people, https://open.substack.com/pub/nextgenbronzes/p/happy-igue?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2qmrk6. Like many ancient cultures, they also use a lunar Calender and have a vibrant history. Thank you again for the wonderful content that you provide and have a great New year

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Fantastic add! Thanks for sharing. I loved the sound clips baked in.

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@Michael Woudenberg Love the in-depth calendar info, but am focusing on the "learn, unlearn, relearn." idea. Brilliant use of your logo and infinity advice. I always focus on what I want to learn for the new year ... this is asking me to think about what I want to unlearn and relearn. Thank you!

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Awesome to hear. I found the Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn to be very transformative for me. The second two are hard as well! Thanks for the kind feedback!

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