The Origins of our Calendar
I've always wondered why our calender was such. Why are there 365 days a year? Why 12 months? Where did the names of the months and days come from? Why is February so short? Well, I set out to find answers to these questions today.
The 365 days a year wasn't always there. Different cultures had different number of days for their year. The origins of our modern Gregorian calendar came from the Romans. Early Roman calendars had 304, 355 and even 366 days, which resulted in much confusion. Hence, Julius Ceasar developed the Julian calendar to solve the problems of the previous calendars. He fixed the mean length of the year at 365 1/4 days, and decreed that every fourth year should have 366 days, the other years having each 365, hence the leap year.
Most of the 12 months came from previous namings in the previous calendars and Julius Ceasar decided to simplify the number of days per month by ordering that the odd months, that is January, March, May, July, September and November, should have each thirty-one days, and the other months thirty, excepting February (to preserve the March 25th vernal equinox), which in common years should have only twenty-nine day, but every fourth year thirty days. But this was changed in the time of Augustus Ceasar, who wanted the month named after him (August) to have equal number of days as July (named after Julius). Hence, a day was taken from February and given to August. Why it was taken from February I don't know, I guess the Romans must have something against a person named Feb or something.
The reason why there are 7 days a week came from much earlier in the ancient Near East, while the 24 hours a day came from Egypt and our division of the hour into minutes and seconds is derived from the sexagesimal system of the Mesopotamians.
The namings of the days came from the Egyptians who assigned heavenly bodies (Sun, Moon, Mars, etc) to hours of the day. The common order of the wandering heavenly bodies was Saturn-Jupiter-Mars-Sun-Venus-Mercury-Moon. The first hour of the first day was assigned to the sun, and the next hour Venus and so on. The names for the days were then derived from which hour the day started on (hence Sun-day, Moon(Mon)-day, Saturn(Satur)-day). The modern English variations on these names are due to substituting Nordic or Saxon gods for some of the Roman names: Tiw for Mars, Wotan for Mercury, Thor for Jupiter, Frigg for Venus.
Well, if you want to know more you can look at the following article. It's quite long so be prepared. But today is a Frigg-day so we can all relax a little. Have a nice weekend everyone!
Click here for the full article.
The 365 days a year wasn't always there. Different cultures had different number of days for their year. The origins of our modern Gregorian calendar came from the Romans. Early Roman calendars had 304, 355 and even 366 days, which resulted in much confusion. Hence, Julius Ceasar developed the Julian calendar to solve the problems of the previous calendars. He fixed the mean length of the year at 365 1/4 days, and decreed that every fourth year should have 366 days, the other years having each 365, hence the leap year.
Most of the 12 months came from previous namings in the previous calendars and Julius Ceasar decided to simplify the number of days per month by ordering that the odd months, that is January, March, May, July, September and November, should have each thirty-one days, and the other months thirty, excepting February (to preserve the March 25th vernal equinox), which in common years should have only twenty-nine day, but every fourth year thirty days. But this was changed in the time of Augustus Ceasar, who wanted the month named after him (August) to have equal number of days as July (named after Julius). Hence, a day was taken from February and given to August. Why it was taken from February I don't know, I guess the Romans must have something against a person named Feb or something.
The reason why there are 7 days a week came from much earlier in the ancient Near East, while the 24 hours a day came from Egypt and our division of the hour into minutes and seconds is derived from the sexagesimal system of the Mesopotamians.
The namings of the days came from the Egyptians who assigned heavenly bodies (Sun, Moon, Mars, etc) to hours of the day. The common order of the wandering heavenly bodies was Saturn-Jupiter-Mars-Sun-Venus-Mercury-Moon. The first hour of the first day was assigned to the sun, and the next hour Venus and so on. The names for the days were then derived from which hour the day started on (hence Sun-day, Moon(Mon)-day, Saturn(Satur)-day). The modern English variations on these names are due to substituting Nordic or Saxon gods for some of the Roman names: Tiw for Mars, Wotan for Mercury, Thor for Jupiter, Frigg for Venus.
Well, if you want to know more you can look at the following article. It's quite long so be prepared. But today is a Frigg-day so we can all relax a little. Have a nice weekend everyone!
How do we keep track of time? When do we plant our crops, how do we know when to observe religious holidays? Societies need some way to keep track of time, and complex calendars (the word comes from the Roman term for the beginning of the month) were developed early in human history.
In agricultural societies the seasonal cycle of the Sun is crucial, but for shorter periods the lunar cycle suggests itself as well. Historically the problem was that the year does not contain a whole number of days or months. The mean interval between successive vernal equinoxes (365.2424 days), is about 11 minutes less than 365 1/4 days; the synodic period of the Moon (the time between successive full moons or new moons) is about 29 1/2 days, and thus 12 months add up to about 354 days.
Constructing a calendar that incorporates both the movements of the Sun and Moon is therefore not a simple business. Various solutions have been tried.
Click here for the full article.
posted by CS at 8:35 AM
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