HWC Tutorial - Page 1 - Introduction
Did you ever need to figure out the weekday of a date when there was no calendar around? Here is a fun, fast, friendly, and efficient way to find the day of the week for any date past, present, or future on our current Gregorian calendar. (That's the civil calendar we use everyday in most of the Westernized world.) With a couple of slight adjustments, it is equally useful for dates in the old style Julian calendar which preceded the Gregorian. This system literally puts a perpetual calendar at your fingertips. Your left hand becomes a surprisingly fast and easy-to-use calendar "abacus."
The Handy Weekday Counter (HWC, pronounced "hook") uses counting positions around the left hand to keep track of days of the week while you jump and skip your way through centuries, years, months, and days. By offloading the weekday-tracking onto your hand (and motor reflexes), you free up the mind to concentrate on the combination of jumps you'll need to zero in on your chosen date (or "target date"). When you find the target date, the ending hand position tells you its day of the week. With a little practice, the system works with lightning speed.
Extravagant Claim: Once you've learned and practiced the Basic HWC method, you can find the day of week for any date on our Gregorian calendar, easily and reliably, within 30 seconds using only your brain and your hands. You'll only need the most basic ability to add small numbers, to count by increments such as by 100's or by 12's, and to remember a few fun facts about dates. You don't need to divide or multiply anything or find any kind of remainders.
Even More Extravagant Claim: Once you've learned and practiced the Advanced HWC method, you should be able to do the longest example within 15 seconds. And we still use only the most basic arithmetical and memory skills. We'll just include a little more information to remember. But it's all fun and easy.
In fact, I've padded these times slightly. Most of the time you should get there in less than 10 seconds, but I won't stake my claim on it.
The HWC Hand Positions
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First let's learn the HWC hand positions, as shown in the chart at left:
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An initial test drive: To gain familiarity with these positions, make a few practice circuits around your hand, using your right index finger to touch each position in turn, one after the other. Make sure you don't skip any positions, especially the Saturday and Sunday positions which may feel less familiar to you as counting positions.
Start carefully, then gradually work up the speed until you can reliably and quickly move around the hand with as little thought as possible. Don't think the weekday names as you move. Don't think finger names or anything else. As wordlessly as possible, just work up your speed touching your way around the hand without missing any positions.
When you are well-practiced moving forward (clockwise), make a few practice circuits in the backward (counter-clockwise) direction. When you are confident in the backward direction, try a few partial circuits and changes of direction until you can zig and zag your way quickly around the circuit without skipping any positions. Always touch consecutive positions. Never think weekday names while you move.
Basic HWC Summary
Here's a quick summary of the Basic HWC system for the Gregorian calendar. You can use this summary as a reference while you learn. We'll explain each of these steps in more detail afterwards.
- Year 400x = index
- +100 years = back 2 (limit 3x)
- +12 years = forward 1 (limit 8x)
- +4 years = back 2 (limit 2x, none after '96)
- +1 year = forward 1 (limit 3x)
- Pick Doomsday date for target month (no move)
- Last or Leap: January 31 or 32, February 28 or 29
- Elevator of March: March 0
- Even Steven: April 4, June 6, August 8, October 10, December 12
- Odd Job: May 9, July 11, September 5, November 7
- Move day-by-day: +1 day = forward 1, or -1 day = backward 1, to the target day.
As a shortcut (if more than seven days away):- Find the elevator: Move day-by-day to the nearest multiple of seven (0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35).
- Ride the elevator: Redefine to the multiple of seven nearest your target day (no move).
- Step out of the elevator: Move day-by-day to the target day.
- Read the ending HWC position as the day of the week.
An Example to Illustrate
On what day of the week was July 20, 1969 (Apollo 11 moon landing)?
| Think (date components) | Move (without thinking) |
| 16' | index |
| 17', 18', 19' | back 2 to palm, 2 more to pinkie, 2 more to middle |
| '12, '24, '36, '48, '60 | forward 1 per dozen to ring, pinkie, side, palm, thumb |
| '64, '68 | back 2 to side, 2 more to ring |
| '69 | forward 1 to pinkie |
| July 11 (Odd Job) | stay on pinkie |
| 12, 13, 14 | forward to side, palm, thumb |
| 21 | stay on thumb |
| 20 | back to palm |
| Ending palm position = Sunday |
If the above example is sufficient to explain the system, great. You'll probably still benefit by at least one quick reading of the explanatory sections which follow, on your way to the Julian Calendar and to the Medium and Advanced versons of HWC. But if it doesn't make sense yet, don't be daunted by the shorthand sketch of the system you've seen so far. We'll have more to say that will explain all these steps very easily. It'll just take a lot of words to do it. Don't get discouraged by the long reading. Once you've extracted the concepts, this baby flies! And don't worry about some fictional dates in this system, such as March 0 or January 32. They'll fit in very nicely at the proper time.
Yes, I did promise you a fun, fast, friendly, and efficient system, which I believe it is. But the calendar is a rather multi-layered thing, each layer having its own "personality." No system can make it altogether simple. But I don't think you'll find any system that is easier to retain than this. If you're really good at math, you might find other systems that are faster. But if you don't want to do a lot of dividing and multiplying and finding remainders, then HWC is probably the fastest way you can go.
The trade-off is, you'll have lot's of little things to remember, but each little thing is easy. Just learn the Days first, and get thoroughly comfortable with them. Then move on to the Months until you can find any day in any specific year once you know any one of its dates. When you are confident with Months and Days, expand your horizon to the Years, which will put the entire Basic HWC system under your belt (or hat, as the case may be; or is it glove?). When you've used the Basic system for a while, you might feel you are ready to speed up the process. Try the Medium HWC version, and get it working for you. When you are well-practiced at the Medium version, move on to Advanced HWC. You may never have any interest in the Julian calendar. But if you do, you can adapt any of the three versions of HWC to the Julian calendar by making a couple of slight adjustments. Above all, go at your own pace. Don't go farther than you understand all at once. If you feel overwhelmed, put it away and come back. On the other hand, don't let me hold you back if you are truly ready to breeze through and retain it all. It's up to you.
For learning purposes, let's start with the days of the month first, and work our way out to the larger spans of time. As you'll see, when we use the full-featured system, we will start at the larger spans of time and work our way down to the smaller ones. But the system is easier to learn from the inside out.