The Modern Khemetic Calendar

In the past revolutionaries have inaugurated new dating systems from the point at which the ancient regime collapsed - but this was a feature of the bourgeois revolution, it happened during the French Revolution, and there were even moves in that direction during the Russian Revolution. Our proposal means adopting a calendar which is already nearly four hundred years old. It derives from the ancient Egyptian calendar - Khem being a name for Egypt and from which the word chemistry is derived. Cheikh Anta Diop described the Calendar in his book Civilization or Barbarism (1981, English translation 1991, p279):
"[The Egyptians] invented the 365-day year, breaking it down as follows: twelve months of 30 days, plus the five intercalary days, each one corresponding to the birth of one of the following Egyptian gods: Osiris, Isis, Horus, Seth and Nephthys. These are the same gods who will give birth to the human race and inaugurate the cycle of historical times: Adam and Eve are only belated Biblical replicas of Osiris and Isis.

This year is divided into three seasons of four months, the month into three weeks of ten days that do not overlap the months; the day into 24 hours. The Egyptians knew that this calendar year was too short, that it was lacking a quarter of a day in order for it to correspond to a complete sidereal revolution. Also in 4236 B.C. (the imagination remains transfixed), they invented a second astronomical calendar founded precisely on this time lag, this delay, of a quarter of a day per year, in the 365-day calendar year as compared to the sidereal, or astronomical, calendar. The time lag thus accumulated at the end of four years is equal to one day. Instead of adding one day every 4 years and thus instituting a leap year, the Egyptians preferred the masterful solution that consists of following this time lag for 1,460 years.

Consequently, it is the very cause of the leap year that is at the basis of the Egyptian sidereal calendar; the Egyptians preferred to "rectify" every 1,460 years instead of every 4 years; he who can do more can do less, therefore contrary to popular opinion, they knew the leap year very well. But what is still more amazing is that the Egyptians had equally (observed?) calculated that the period of 1,460 years of the sidereal calendar is the lapse of time that separates two heliacal risings of Sirius, the most brilliant fixed star in the heavens, located in the constellation Canis Major; thus is designated the simultaneous appearance of Sirius and of the sun at the latitude of Memphis. Thus the heliacal rising of Sirius, which takes place every 1,460 years, coinciding with first day of the year in both calendars, is the absolutely chronological reference point that is the basis for the Egyptian astronomical calendar."

In effect this meant that Egyptian system had a terrestrial or civil calendar which rotated over a 1,460 year cycle as regards the astronomical or celestial calendar. The two calendars coincide precisely when Sirius rises alongside the sun, as seen from Memphis. History tells us that such a heliacal rising took place in A.D. 139, and so it follows that the next cycle commenced in A.D. 1599. This date coincides with the inauguration of the modern era, the advent of science and capitalism. Thus we call our current calendar the Modern Khemetic Calendar (MKC) and we have reached year 398. As yet the finer details of the calendar have yet to be resolved, and we call on all genuine revolutionary communist organisations to involve themselves in the Anti Millennium Alliance to work on these finer points.

 

How can we expect the working class to take us
seriously when we still use
the superstitious calendar of
the Christians imposed by the bosses?

 

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