American Calendar for the year 2023
The American Calendar was implemented by the revolutionary government during the 1920s in a drive to better rationalise the year, and divide up each month to ensure pays and rents were equal for equal work. Both Saturdays and Sundays were put aside as days of rest, something that has continued into the modern era. While working on both days happens in the service sector, the pay schedule for these days demands double, and all workers have a mandatory two-day period each week they must have off. This extends even further to it being illegal for workers to work more than five days in a week - though this leads too many working in the informal economy for some days. The government also tackled the age-old problem of calendar drift by adding in a 13th month - Libertas - and set it aside as a celebration of the worker. Every 4 years a 6th day in the month is added, except every 100 years unless it is divisible by 400 - the exact method the Gregorian calendar uses. Like the other days of the month - it also is a holiday.
During the reform period, a number of old American holidays were simply thrown away and reorganised. The calendar was also secularised, something done to appease the more anti-clerical members of the revolutionary government. This had mixed results, which we will see later. The government sought to highlight important parts of American history, as well as to celebrate the worker. When the calendar was inaugurated in the 1920s, it was not complete with its assortment of holidays:
New Year's Day: A celebration of the dawn of a new year. Originally intended to become the "big holiday" after Christmas was abolished.
Hamilton's Birthday: A holiday from before the revolution, it celebrated the day that the nation's first President Alexander Hamilton was born. Hamilton remained a figure of the revolutionary government, and his image and philosophy was massaged to fit the narrative.
Heroes Revolt Day: In the 1880s there was an attempted revolt against the capitalist government and the oligarchy which controlled the United States. It was brutally suppressed by private security agencies, with hundreds of people murdered in the aftermath, including women and children of those who had revolted to send a message to the workers. Their sacrifice was honoured by the revolutionary government, and elevated to the pantheon of American greats.
Burning Day: A holiday from before the revolution, the day commemorates the British burning of the District of Columbia along the Potomac. Often celebrated with burning British flags, effigies, or in recent years bonfires. Holiday was banned under British occupation of the northeastern United States.
May Day: Partially a holiday before the revolution. May Day was celebrated on 1 May in colonial Virginia as a celebration of the springtime. It was made a formal holiday during the revolution to replace Easter, and is celebrated to mark the arrival of spring.
Reform Day: Celebration of the first major reforms won by organised labour through strikes and conflict with private security organisations. Informally celebrated before the revolution.
Baltimore Day: One of the most important pre-Revolution holidays, this was the day that the Battle of Baltimore took place during the American Revolution (against the British). Defacto celebrated as an independence day prior to the Revolution. (There was no Independence Day prior to the adoption of the American Calendar).
State's Day: Another pre-Revolution holiday, it celebrates the union of states that created the United States. Traditionally each state simply called it "%state% Day" and celebrated themselves, while the Federal Government celebrated all the states. Today, with little true state association and more association with the Federal Government, the tradition of individual state days has fallen out of favour.
Liberty Day: The first day of Libertas, celebrates the Liberty granted to the people of the United States. If you think this is rather vague and esoteric, it is. All of the Libertas days are like this.
Labour Day: The celebration of Labour, often marked with community gatherings.
Celebration Day: Officially celebrates being an American, however informally it is used by people and families to celebrate important milestones in their life or events that happened in the past year. You might get an invitation from your niece after she got engaged a few months back, that sort of thing.
Memorial Day: Celebration of the fallen war dead in the United States, primarily the socialist revolutionary dead.
Independence Day: Celebration of the formal independence of the United States, a more low-key day than we know Independence Day. It was only first implemented under the socialist government.
Patriot's Day (6 Lib): Only celebrated during Leap Years, Patriot's Day is a celebration of the American patriot.
Revolution Day: Celebration of the first day of the Revolution, the very first strikes were called this day after disagreements with management across the country.
Martyrs Day: Celebrates the fallen Martyrs who died in the early days of the socialist revolution, similar to Heroes Revolt Day, only this was the first day of extreme bloodshed.
Victory Day: Celebrates the symbolic final day of the socialist revolution, when the last pro-Government Army surrendered to the Worker's and Soldier's Army in 1918.
As time wore on, days were added to the calendar to bring us to today's assortment of holidays. They were added as follows:
1930s:
Worker's Day/Soldier's Day: The traditional founding day of the Worker's and Soldier's Army was turned into a two-day holiday to commemorate the armed forces which won the bloody struggle against the American government. Very militaristic holiday in its early days, but has mellowed in the years since.
1940s:
Celebration of Winter: After a nearly three-decade long struggle and crusade against Christmas, the government created the "Celebration of Winter," which is celebrated on the winter solstice. Nearly everyone in the country calls this "Christmas," so the government only succeeded in making the small pagan population of the United States happy and moving Christmas.
1960s:
Proclamation Day: To celebrate 50 years since the revolution, a holiday was made of the day Dzhan Waeht was proclaimed as leader of the United States in the midst of the Revolution.
1980s:
Continental Day: To celebrate the country's bicentennial in 1987, a pre-Revolution holiday was brought back that celebrated the date the first Continental Congress was held (which was not held in 1787), it was simply adopted as a new patriotic day.
2000s:
Women's Day: The most recent holiday, this is a cross between (irl American) Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. Celebrates women, their achievements, and their liberation (gender differences do exist in modern America, but they were "officially" abolished during the revolution). It was first celebrated in 2006, and many consider that it was done to distract from the 2005 Currency Revaluation.
