The Story of the Almanac.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8, 23 February 1905, Page 29

The Story of the Almanac.

The alm<anac (says the San Francisco ' Monitor ') is as old as history ikself, and yet every new year brings out a new and revised edition of this ever necessary and popular literary product of the seasons. According to (Jollus, the word almanac is derived from the Arabic particle ' al,' and ' man ah/ a reckoning. Scaliger derives it from the Arabic particle ' al," ■which means ' the course of months ' ; but Vestigan ascribes it to Saxon origin, believing it to be from the compound Saxon word ' Al-monmaight,' that is, ' Allmoon.hecfd,' or, an account of every moon, wthich the Saxons are said to have Kept very carefully. f l he First Almanacs— that is to say, the fust historics — were of Arabic origin and reflected the local genius of the people in a sti iking way. They sen cd as models in other countries lor hundreds of ycais. The oldest known copy of siich a work is preserved in the British museum, and dates back to the time of Raniesc-. the Great of Egypt, who lived twelve hundred years before the birth of Christ. It is written on papyrus, in red ink, and covers a period of six years The entries relate to religious ceremonies, to the fates of children born on given days, and to the regulation oi business enterprises in accordaive with planetary influences. This almanac was found in an oli tomb, and is supposed to have been buried with its Egyptian owner when he was converted into a nrummy for future explorers 1 to dig up and dissect in the interest of science and literature. Next after this in point of age among the existing specimens of ancient almanacs are some composed in the fourth century. They are Catholic Calendars, giving the names of the saints and other religious information. The Baltic nations, which were not versevl in papyrus making, had calendars engraved on axe helve;, walking sticks, and other articles of personal use. The days were notched, with a bioad mark for Sunday, and the saints' days were symbolised in various device. such as a harp" for St. David, a gridiron for St. Lawrence, a lover's knot for St. Valentine, and so on. Ths Saxon almanacs are numerous, awl contain historical as well as ecclesiastical entries. They were prepared to meet the current demand and to constitute a system. atic story of what took place in successive periods and how knowledge increased with the advancing years Porphyry states that almanacs were known to the Egyptians before the Arabs. Montfaucon has engraved an Egyptian calendar. They were constructed by the Alexandrine Greeks, about, the time of Ptolemy. Instruments of wood or other material, inscribed with various symbolical figures md characters to serve the

purposes of an almanac, were used in early times by the Northern nations, especially the Danes, who introduced them into England, 'ihe Anglo-Saxons calculated by the increase of the moon, set do™ on square pieces nauTt a a l0nS) imd these thCy Called lmi> - The Wc?d Year, as it exists in the Teutonic languages, is said to have its origin in the word Yra, wjii?h. in the Swedish language, means a ring, and is pcnhaps connected with the Latin gyrus— a circle formed by wheeling round The ancients marked the return of the seasons by the rainy and the dry seasons, or summer and winter ; al^o by the migration of the different Kinds of birds. The rising and setting of certain stars also served to indicate thl different portions of the year; thus, the rising of the Pleiades in the evening showed the approach of winter an n *£ hdiacal rising of Sirius, which the Egyptians called Sothis, coincided with the rising of the Nile Hesiod directs the husbandmen when to plough a nd when to reap by the setting of the Pleiades. By B f ch TU(ie observations it , was afterward determined that the year consisted of 365 days. Herodotus says that the Egyptians claimed the honor of discovering this number of days in the year which they asserted they learned from the stars. Ihe Jews also had a similar reckoning at a early period By this mode of computation the seasons would not return exactly to the same months of the civil year, but, instead of being fixed to certain months, after a lapse of time winter would be .found i n tne autumn months and summer in the spring months Ihe Roman calendar, a term derived from the Latin calendar, was very rude in its structure until the time of Julius Caesar. The ancient Roman year consisted of ten months, which, by the reformation of Numa Pompihus, was made to consist of twelve. W,hen Caesar became dictator, by the advice of Sosigenes, an eminent Alexandrian astionomcr and mathematician, he adopted the mode of mtercalculation of one day in four years which we still retain. This mode of computing time is called old style, ana the calendar containing the account of time according to the Julian method of reckoning is called 6 The Julian Calendar, which came into use on January 1, B.C. 45 The Julian epoch is that period included fiom the time the Julian calendar w a s first instituted to the time of Christ i c forty-siv years before Christ The day of new moon immediately following the winter solstice in the 707 th year of Rome was made the first of January of the first year of Julius Caesar. December 25th of his forty-fifth year is considered as the date of Christ's nativity, and the forty-sixth year of the Julian calendar is counted the first of the Christian era. The >car preceding the birth of Christ is called by cjironologists the first year before Christ, but by astro.nomeis it is called the year 0 In order to introduce the new system as established by Julius Caesar it was necessary to enact that the pre\ious year, ie 46 BC, should consist of 415 days, for v\hkh reason that year was called the ' year of confusion,' but by Macrol.ius, more appropriately, the ' last year of confusion.' The Gregorian Year or calendar was establisbed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 for the purpose of correcting the errors' of. the .'i'liiin calendar. To this end Pope Gregory, aided by the most, celebrated mathematicians of Jus time, ordained thai a day should be added to the month of Fcbrua.y fi/ce in every four years, and that the IROUth \ectr t! the Christian era and e\erv fourth century thereafter should be a leap :. car ; thus every ' \ear divisible by four without a remainder should contain only ■iO.') days, but all years not divisible by -100 without a remainder should contain only 365 days. By this rule the error amounts to less than a aay in 3GOO years, which may be avoided by extending the rule ; that is] to make all years not divisible by 4000 consist of 365 days, which would m a ke an error of only a single day in 100,000 years. This mode of computation is called The Gregorian, or New Style, and is now in general use in all the countries of Europe except Russia. The civil year :s that which has been established by government for civil purposes, which consists of an even number of days., the odd hours and minutes not being reckoned. It consists of 365 days, except every fourth year, which contains 366>. Albatoginius, an Arabian prince, made observations at Aracte, in Chaldea, toward the beginning of the tenth century, and by comparing his observations with those of former astronomers he fixed the length of the tropical year at 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds. In the year 1252 Alphonsine X. of Castile obtained the assistance of the best astronomers of his age to arrange a series of astronomical tables, hi which we find .the length of the year to be 365 days, aT hours, 49 minutes, and 16

seconds, a very near approximation to the truth. These observations weic called the Alphonsine tables. Each year of our calendar, which is almost exclusively in use throughout Chnstendom, consists of twelve unequal months ; but the Turks and Jews mane their years to consist of twelve lunar months, or 354 days.