3.5 Non-religious calendars

As we have seen, almost all calendars are religion–based. But there have also been calendars that were explicitly non–religious. The Indian Civil Calendar, mentioned above, is not itself religious, but it honours tradition by retaining many month–names and so on from older, religious calendars.

Other calendars have been explicitly anti–religious. During the French Revolution of 1789, a new calendar was created that would have no religious overtones at all. It did not last long, but if it were still in use today, then 19 June 2004 would have been called 2 Messidor an 212 de la Révolution (the 2nd of Messidor in the year 212 of the Revolution). But today, the French again use the same (Gregorian) calendar as most of the world.