Re Japanese desertion of the Chinese (lunar) calendar (via):
Usually civil servants in Japan had their salary paid annually. But in 1872 the Meiji government changed it to monthly payment. However the Chinese calendar is lunar, with 12 months. So it only has 354 days, less than a full circle around the sun. What they do is add a whole intercalary month so the calendar doesn’t drift too much from the seasons. As it happens 1873 in the old calendar had an intercalary month, so 13 months in total. That means 13 salaries for the Japanese civil service. And that’s something that the recently established Meiji government couldn’t afford. By adopting whitey’s calendar, the next year would only have 12 months. And the new calendar was to start in January 1st 1873, which coincided with December 2 of the old calendar. By changing the calendar, the month of December would disappear, so that’s another month worth of salaries they could save! 2 months in one strike, imagine that. The government loved the idea, published the law in a hurry, probably promoted the guy who came up with it. And fucked everyone else.
I used to get an extra month in Holland, which made about as much sense to me as ducking witches, but which helped that oppressed class, the accountants.
Similar posts
- Catalan government insolvent, up $hit creek, etc etc
But leaking the news just after the Mavi Marmara incident meant hardly anyone noticed. - Triskaidekaphobia
Ah, how we all laughed at mad old Arnie! Mr Schoenberg, who was born on the 13th and feared the number - Recentralising Spain’s health care system
The gov that dares not speak its - Drongos from Mars
There’s a good post over at Confrontación about the current Telefónica hard sell, which involves pestering hapless consumers with something worse - When the Japanese ruled Spain
Linguistic evidence for Japanese domination, with several field reports of a more general nature.
Comments