THE CALENDAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 187, 9 August 1930, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE CALENDAR.

The'earliest known time measurements were made by the "jyptians. The Babylonians had previo .sly referred to a year as the year of a special event. In the forty-second century, 8.C., the Egyptians divided the year into twelve equal months of thirty days each. Five feast days were kept at the end of the year to bring the total lengL: of the year to 3Gj days. Julius Caesar iixea uie mc:.n length of the y.ar at S6SJ days. ,Fe decreed that every fourth .year should have "366 ys, the others-' having 303. lhe .first Julian year began on-January 1 °* %ty-sixth year before the birth of - Christ. In the distribution of the days-he adopted a more -simple plan than the confused system wllch preceu.. the Julian ordered that January,. JVlarch, May, July, September and November should have' thirty-one days, and the others thirty, except February' which should usually hav> twenty-nim/ but thirty .a every fourth year. This order was changed later by Augustus, so that the month of August should have as many days as ./, which was na:n.J after Julius Caesar. February thus lost a day. September and No- :'jvr also each lost a day. ... £?