Our Calendar

a-A Calendar is a method of distributing time into certain periods adapted to the purposes of civil life, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc.

b-The only natural divisions of time are the solar day, the solar year, and the lunar month.

c-An hour is one of the subdivisions of the day into twenty-four equal parts.

d-The true solar day is the interval of time which elapses between two consecutive returns of the same terrestrial meridian to the Sun, the mean length of which is twenty-four hours.

e-The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions, a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity.

f-The lunar month is the time which elapses between two consecutive new or full moons, and was used in the Roman calendar until the time of Julius C?sar, and consists of 29d, 12h, 44m, 2.87s.

g-The calendar month is usually employed to denote an arbitrary number of days approaching a twelfth part of a year, and has now its place in the calendar of nearly all nations.

h-The year is either astronomical or civil. The solar astronomical year is the period of time in which the Earth performs a revolution in its orbit about the sun or passes from any point of the ecliptic to the same point again, and consists of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 49.62 seconds of mean solar time. Appendix A.

i-The civil year is that which is employed in chronology, and varies among different nations, both in respect of the seasons at which it commences and of its subdivisions.

* * *

Day-The subdivision of the day into twenty-four parts or hours has prevailed since the remotest ages, though different nations have not agreed either with respect to the epoch of its commencement or the manner of distributing the hours. Europeans in general, like the ancient Egyptians, place the commencement of the civil day at midnight; and reckon twelve morning hours from midnight to midday and twelve evening hours from midday to midnight.

Astronomers, after the example of Ptolemy, regarded the day as commencing with the Sun's culmination, or noon, and find it most convenient for the purpose of computation to reckon through the whole twenty-four hours. Hipparchus reckoned the twenty-four hours from midnight to midnight.

The Roman day, from sunrise to sunset, and the night, from sunset to sunrise, were each divided at all seasons of the year into twelve hours, the hour being uniformly one-twelfth of the day or the night, of course, varied in length with the length of the day or night at different seasons of the year.

Week-Although the week did not enter into the calendar of the Greeks, and was not introduced at Rome till after the reign of Theodosius, A. D. 292, it has been employed from time immemorial in almost all Eastern countries; and as it forms neither an aliquot part of a year nor of the lunar months, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss to assign to it an origin having much semblance of probability. In the Egyptian astronomy the order of the planets, beginning with the most remote, is Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon. Now, the day being divided into twenty-four hours, each hour was consecrated to a particular planet, namely: One to Saturn, the following to Jupiter, third to Mars, and so on according to the above order; and the day received the name of the planet which presided over its first hour. If, then, the first hour of a day was consecrated to Saturn, that planet would also have the 8th, the 5th and the 22d hours; the 23d would fall to Jupiter, the 24th to Mars, and the 25th or the first hour of the second day would belong to the Sun. In like manner the first hour of the third day would fall to the Moon, the first hour of the fourth to Mars, of the fifth to Mercury, of the sixth to Jupiter and the seventh to Venus. The cycle being completed, the first hour of the eighth day would again return to Saturn and all the others succeed in the same order. See table on the 17th page.

It will be seen by the table, and it is also recorded by Dio Cassius, of the second Century, that the Egyptian week commenced with Saturday. On their flight from Egypt the Jews, from hatred to their ancient oppressors, made Saturday the last day of the week. It is stated that the ancient Saxons borrowed the week from some Eastern nation, and substituted the names of their own divinities for those of the gods of Greece. The names of the days are here given in Latin, Saxon and English. It will be seen that the English names of the days are derived from the Saxon.

LATIN. SAXON. ENGLISH.

Dies Solis. Sun's Day. Sunday.

Dies Lunae. Moon's Day. Monday.

Dies Martis. Tiw's Day. Tuesday.

Dies Mercurii. Woden's Day. Wednesday.

Dies Jovis. Thor's Day. Thursday.

Dies Veneris. Friga's Day. Friday.

Dies Saturni. Seterne's Day. Saturday.

Month-The ancient Roman year contained but ten months and is indicated by the names of the last four. September from Septem, seven; October from Octo, eight; November from Novem, nine, and December from Decem, ten; July and August were also denominated Quintilis and Sextilis, from Quintus five, and Sex, six.

Quintilis was changed to July in honor of Julius C?sar, who was born on the 12th of that month 98 B. C. Sextilis was changed to August by the Roman Senate to flatter Augustus on his victories about 8 B. C. In the reign of Numa Pompilius, about 700 B. C., two months were added to the year, January at the beginning, and February at the end of the year. This arrangement continued till 450 B. C., when the Decemvirs (ten magistrates) changed the order, placing February after January, making March the third instead of the first month of the Roman year.

Year-If the civil year correspond with the solar the seasons of the year will always come at the same period. But if the civil year is supposed to be too long (as is the case in the Julian year) the seasons will go back proportionately; but if too short they will advance in the same proportion. Now, as the ancient Egyptians reckoned thirty days to the month invariably, and to complete the year, added five days, called supplementary days, their year consisted of 365 days.

They made use of no intercalation, and by losing one-fourth of a day every year, the commencement of the year went back one day in every period of four years, and consequently made a revolution of the seasons in 1460 years. Hence the Egyptian year was called a vague or erratic year because the first day of the year in the course of 1460 years wandered, as it were, over all the seasons. Therefore 1460 Julian years of 365? days each are equal to 1461 Egyptian years of 365 days each.

The ancient Roman year consisted of twelve lunar months, of twenty-nine and thirty days alternately, which equals 354 days; but a day was added to make the number odd, which was considered more fortunate, so that the year consisted of 355 days.

This differed from the solar year by ten whole days and a fraction; but to restore the coincidence, Numa ordered an additional or intercalary month to be inserted every second year between the 23d and 24th of February, consisting of twenty-two and twenty-three days alternately, so that four years contained 1465 days, and the mean length of the year was consequently 366? days, so that the year was then too long by one day.

As the error amounted to twenty-four days in as many years, it was ordered that every third period of eight years, instead of containing four intercalary months, two of twenty-two and two of twenty-three days, amounting in all to ninety days, should contain only three of those months of twenty-two days each, amounting to sixty-six days, thereby suppressing twenty-four days in as many years, reducing the mean length of the year to 365? days.

Had the intercalations been regularly made the concurrence of the solar and the civil year would have been preserved very nearly. But its regulation was left to the pontiffs, who, to prolong the term of a magistracy or hasten an annual election, would give to the intercalary month a greater or less number of days, and consequently the calendar was thrown into confusion, so that in the time of Julius C?sar there was a discrepancy between the solar and the civil year of about three months; the winter months being carried back into autumn and the autumnal into summer.

A table of the order and the names of the planets in the Egyptian astronomy illustrating the origin of the names of the days of the week:

Saturn,

Saturday. Jupiter,

Thursday. Mars,

Tuesday. Sun,

Sunday. Venus,

Friday. Mercury,

Wednesday. Moon,

Monday.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

* * *

In order to put an end to the disorders arising from the negligence or ignorance of the pontiffs, Julius C?sar, 46 B. C., abolished the use of the lunar year and the intercalary month, and regulated the civil year entirely by the Sun. With the advice and assistance of the astronomers, especially Sosigenes of Alexandria, he fixed the mean length of the year at 365? days, and decided that there should be three consecutive years of 365 days, and a fourth of 366.

In order to restore the vernal equinox to the 24th of March, the place it occupied in the time of Numa, two months, together consisting of 67 days, were inserted between the last day of November and the first day of December of that year. An intercalary month of 23 days had already been added to February of the same year according to the old method, so that the first Julian year commenced with the first day of January, 45 years before Christ, and 709 from the foundation of Rome, making the year A. U. C. 708 to consist of the prodigious number of 445 days, (i. e. 355 + 23 + 67 = 445). Hence it was called by some the year of confusion; Macrobius said it should be named the last year of confusion.

There was also adopted at the same time a more commodious arrangement in the distribution of the days throughout the several months. It was decided to give to January, March, May, July, September and November each thirty-one days; and the other months thirty, excepting February, which in common years should have but twenty-nine days, but every fourth year thirty; so that the average length of the Julian year was 365? days.

Augustus C?sar interrupted this order by taking one day from February, reducing it to twenty-eight and giving it to August, that the month bearing his name should have as many days as July, which was named in honor of his great-uncle, Julius. In order that three months of thirty-one days might not come together, September and November were reduced to thirty days, and thirty-one given to October and December.

In the Julian calendar a day was added to February every fourth year, it being the shortest month, which was called the additional or intercalary day, and was inserted in the calendar between the 23d and 24th of that month. In the ancient Roman calendar the first day of every month was invariably called the calends. The 24th of February then was the 6th of the calends of March-Sexto calendas; the preceding, which was the additional or intercalary day, was called bis-sexto calendas (from bis, twice, and sextus, six), twice the sixth day. Hence the term bis-sextile as applied to every fourth year, commonly called leap-year. Appendix B.

* * *