The
sun actually takes over 365.25 days to make its circumlocution. A circle
of 360 units is useful because it can easily be divided by 2, 3, 5, and
their multiples. For mapping and measuring, this is presumably preferable
to a circle of 364 units, which is divisible by 4, 7, 13 and their multiples.
A deck of standard playing cards can be used to count the days of the year using the latter system. Each card represents a 7 day week. The suits represent 4 seasons of 13 weeks each: 7 x 4 x 13 = 364. One Joker counts the otherwise uncounted day each year. The other Joker counts the leap days as they accumulate into whole days, to make up for the .25 and then some days still left over.
The former system is used in The Puppeteer's Cosmic Puzzle. To account for an ideal year of 360 days, each of the 36 key cards counts for 10 days. To account for an ideal year of 365 days, 35 cards each count for 10 days and the Puppeteer counts for 15 days - the extended fingers of the Puppeteer add up to 15 = 1+2+3+4+5. Back to Codex