This calendar is complex with months of varying lengths and no logical pattern. It aims to remove religious and historical references but ends up being confusing. The document discusses proposals to reform the calendar in 1793, suggesting a standardized 12-month, 30-day system with months named after seasons and weather patterns. However, this system did not fully catch on due to resistance to changing traditional habits.

1. This calendar is oppressively complex.
Crucial elements of past and future, and indeed the
encompassing coherence of time itself, are obscured
from us by thickets of asymmetry.
– Robert Grudin

2. The length of a month varies,
and there's no apparent logic to it.
The seven-day week has no relationship to month-
length or any astronomical events.
30 mod 7 = 2
31 mod 7 = 3
365 mod 7 = 1

3. This nomenclature is clearly a monument to servitude and ignorance... The
astrological names of the days of the week and their cabalistic order which has
been preserved since the first Egyptians and by the impostors which profited
thereby and the blindness of men who continually preferred to suffer rather than
change any of the idiotic habits of their fathers would dishonor our Revolution if we
did not maintain the vigilance which has so successfully attacked all
preconceptions.
– Charles Gilbert Romme, 1793

4. 1793 – 1805 (and the spring of 1871)

6. Twelve 30-day Months
* Autumn:
o Vendémiaire ( Latin vindemia, "grape harvest")
o Brumaire ( French brume, "fog")
o Frimaire ( French frimas, "frost")
* Winter:
o Nivôse (Latin nivosus, "snowy")
o Pluviôse (Latin pluvius, "rainy")
o Ventôse (Latin ventosus, "windy")
* Spring:
o Germinal (Latin germen, "germination")
o Floréal (Latin flos, "flower"
o Prairial (French prairie, "pasture")
* Summer:
o Messidor (Latin messis, "harvest")
o Thermidor (Greek thermon, "summer heat")
o Fructidor (Latin fructus, "fruit")
* Sansculottides: 5 or 6 days without pants.

8. Resources
> Robert Grudin, Time and the Art of Living
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar
> Calendar conversion tool:
http://www.calendarhome.com/converter/
> OSX dashboard widget:
http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/jlmartinmas/repcalendar/calendar.html