OUR CALENDAR

Evening Star, Issue 23770, 28 December 1940, Page 6

OUR CALENDAR

SiMEUGHTS ON ITS HISTORY [Written by Abchaiccs, for tie ‘ Evening Star. 1 ] • A calendar was originally the account book (calendarinm) in which Homan creditors entered the names of their debtors, and the various sums which they owed. It was so called 'because the interest on borrowed money in Rome was due on the “ kalends,” or first of the month. The “ melancholy first ” is frequently referred to in the literature of the republic. The word was subsequently used to indicate a register on the lines of the modern almanac or calendar. . . Like so much else, our calendar is in part an inheritance from Rome. For a Long time the Roman year began with March, the month of Mars, the protecting deity of a race of warriors, whose birthday fell on the first of the month. April, or Aprilis, was the second month of the old Roman year. It might be translated as the “ opener,” since at this time in the Mediterranean world the buds of spring began to open, the sea became again safe for shipping—ships were normally laid up in winter when the rough and frequently starless weather arrived—and the ( ground thawed out, and was ready for sowing. The origin of May is somewhat doubtful. Ovid, a Latin poet who died in 17 A.D., and from whom we learn most about the Roman calendar and the Homan method of reckoning time, frankly confesses his inability to judge winch of the current explanations was tha true one. He is*therefore silent on the subject. Macrobius, a grammarian of the fourth century, who wrote up the story of the calendar as part of a holiday diversion, mentions some of the more plausible theories. One belief was that May gets its name from Maia, the mother of Mercury, since in this month the merchants (mercatores), who specially honoured the god Mercury, all sacrificed to Maia for success during the incoming business year. Many scholars think that M*y means simply the tl month- of growth,” in which case we have another indication of the agricultural origin of the Roman calendar. June (Junonius) preserves the name of the mother of the gods, Juno. After the death and deification, of Julius Gseaar, the month Quinotihs—i.o., the fifth month in the old calendar, on the twelfth day of which in b.c. 100 or 10a he -was born, was consecrated to him, and renamed Julius, our July. August, formerly designated Sextjlis, simply the sixth month, was named in no. 8 after Augustus the Emperor by the Senate because it was in this month that he had entered upon his first consulship, had celebrated three triumphs in Rome, had subjected Egypt to his rule, had made himself generalissimo of all the Roman legions, and had put an end to the civil war. The months which for u* are ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth—September, October, November, December —‘bear the Roman names of "seventh month,” "eighth month,” “ninth month,” and “tenth month” for reasons already indicated. It is highly probable that the original Roman ten-month calendar outlined above omitted the period from midwinter to spring as being for a primitive agricultural community the dead part of the year when there was nothing for the farmer to do but rest. January and February were added at a very early period in Roman history to span the gap. January was named after Janus, the “ lord of beginnings, while February preserves the name of the purification festival of. the goddess Februa with which the original year closed. There are good grounds for supposing that the change to January 1 as the official first day of the rear took place in b.c. 153. It was on this date that the Roman consuls began to enter on their duties on the first of January instead of on the first of March. , , The disparity between the sun s year which is 066 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds, and the year of moons, which is 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 33 seconds was tolerably well compensated for for several centuries ov the so-called _ four-year cycle in which a year of 355 days was followed by a second of 355 plus 22, a third of 3&5, and a fourth of 355 plus 23. the extra periods being inserted after February 23. Had February been reduced from 24 and 23 to 22 and 21 day* in the alternate years of intercalation, the cycle would have been 1,461 days in lieu of 1,465, making the average length of the year 366 i days. But the intense religious conservatism of the Romans forbade them to interfere with the festival of the god Terminus occurring on February 23. The god could not be called upon to surrender his feast for all the mathematics in the world. The .arrangement above mentioned puts us in mind of our extra day every four years in February. Even this device, however, was not perfect, and by 46 b.c. the calendar was badly out of harmony with the sun and moon; January of that year falling in late autumn. Now undisputed master of tha Roman world, Julius Caesar employed his authority at Pontifex Maximus, or formal head of the _ state religion—he was an avowed atheist—to remedv the dislocation. For this purpose He availed himself of the services of one Sosigenes, a peripatetic philosopher and a scribe named Marcus Flavius, though he himself' too, was well versed in astronomy, and the reputed author of a work on the subject. His scheme for bringing the calender dates into correct relation with sun and moon was to prolong the-year 46 n.C. to 445 days, and then to commence n.c. 45 with the new system according to which the v«tr consisted of 365 days with one day added after February 23 every fourth year. This is the Julian Calendar. In 1582 the Julian Calendar was corrected bv Pope Gregory NTH. The 10 davs hv 'which the year had become retarded in the course of centuries owing to a slight defect in the Julian calculations were, struck out, hv a regulation that the day after the fourth of October in that year should he called the fifteenth. It was provided in the Thill of Gregory XIII. that the Julian intercalation of one dav (February 20) every fourth year should be omitted.in tho lost vear of those centuries which are divisible without remainder by 100. hut not hv 400. The Gregorian Calendar was adopted by the Protestant nut inns in the eighteenth century. It was introduced into Enalaud in 1752. The 'Roman weeks were of eight days, and evidently.followed on continuous’' - without regard +r> divisions of months and years. The r.cven-dav week was not used hv the Greeks or Romans. It is to be noted that it was not an exclusively Jewi'h institution, but was in vogue among Eastern nations generally, especially the Babylonians and the Egyptians. The name of ono of the ohmets. Saturn, the Sun. Moon. Mars. Mercury. Jupiter. Venus, pvic assigned Ao each. The Saxons had taken it from some Eastern people, and renamed Mars-

day (Fr. Mardi) Tiw’s-day; Mercury’sday (Fr. Mercrcdi) Wodeu’s-day; Jupi-ter’s-day (Fr. Jeudi) Thor’s-day; Venusday (Fr. Venredi) Friga’s-day. It is probable that the seven-day week was adopted in Rome with the growth of Christianity. It was known as a Jewish usage as early as the time of Pompey in the first century, b.c. About a.d. 138 J'ustin Martyr, an early Christian father, gives a celebrated description of Christian worship on “ the day called Sunday.” It was definitely established by Constantine on his rather dubious “ conversion.” The “ first day of the week,” the “ Lord’s Day,” is noticed very early as a day of special Christian worship. It was as an “ Easter Da.v in every week ” that the “ Christian Emperor’s Day ” first secured its religious importance. There is no historical face that enjoys better proof than that the observance of the day by intermission of toil and by special religious exercises was the constant practice of the Christian Church from the Apostolic era. The civil laws, when the secular arm was extended to the church, tell the same tale. Constantine forbade lawsuits on it; the courts were to be closed. Secular business of a more private kind was also strictly forbidden, though ploughing and harvesting were at first exceptedffrom the prohibition. Christian soldiers were required to attend church. The spirit of man is tidal, and the,soul wins its victories as the sea wins hers.” It appears as a scientific fact that the man who habitually refuses to rest one day in seven is living on his reserve. Ho is literally working himself to death. Why do we have 24 hours, subdivided into 60 minutes, and again into_6o seconds? Simply because there existed in Babylonia a system which counted in sixties. No number has so many advisors as GO. The Babylonians dividedthe sun’s daily journey into 24 parasangs. Each parasang (or hour) was subdivided into 60 minutes. The method of obtaining this was as follows:—The Babylonians compared the progress made by the sun during one hour at the time of the equinox, to the progress made by a good walker during the same time, both accomplishing one parasang. The whole course of the sun during the 24 equinoctial hours was fixed at 24 iparasangs, or 360 deg. This theory was handed on to the Greeks, and introduced into Europe by the philosopher Hipparchos (150 B.o.) Ptolemy (a.d. 150) gave wider currency to this method of measuring time. It was carried along the quiet stream of traditional knowledge through the Middle Ages. Strangely enough, the French Revolution, which subjected weights, measures, coins, dates, etc., to the decimal system, had some respect for our watches and clocks, and allowed their dials to remain sexagesimal. Another instance, perhaps. of the mysterious coherence of tho world. The history of our calendar shows that the living are governed by the dead whether they will or not.