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The Romans called the first days of each month Calends
from a word meaning called.
It was on these days that the Pope called the people
together to apprise them of the days of festival in the ensuing month.
Hence we derive the name of Calendar.
Our present calendar is called the Gregorian calendar
after Pope Gregory who had time reconciled to an exact degree in 1582.
(Prior to that, the calendar was called the Julian, after
Julius Caesar.)
The divisions of time are composed of days, weeks, months and
years.
The modes of determining these divisions have been various among
the nations of antiquity and there are still variations in the modern
world.
The English names of the days of the week are derived from the
Saxons and they partly adopted these names from the more civilized
nations of antiquity.
The present English names are:
Saturday
Seterne’s day
Sunday
Sun’s day
Monday
Moon’s day
Tuesday
Tiw’s day
Wednesday
Woden’s day
Thursday
Thor’s day
Friday
Friga’s day
Tiw,
Woden, Thor and Friga were deities of the pagan Saxons.
Thor was the god of thunder, as well as the ancient Jove.
Friga was a goddess, the wife of Woden.
The names of the days yet used throughout Europe are connected
with astronomical science.
The planetary arrangement of Ptolemy was:
1. Saturn
2. Jupiter
3. Mars
4. the Sun
5. Venus
6. Mercury
7. the Moon.
Each
of these planets was supposed to preside, successively, over each hour
of the 24 of each day, in the order above given.
In this way, Saturn would preside over the first hour of the
first day; Jupiter over the second hour; Mars over the third; the Sun
over the fourth and so on. The Sun would preside over the fourth,
eleventh and eighteenth hours of the first day.
Thus, in rotation,
Saturn would preside over the first hour of the first day.
The Sun would preside over the first hour of the second day.
The Moon would preside over the first hour of the third day.
Mars over the first hour of the fourth day.
Mercury over the first hour of the fifth day.
Jupiter over the first hour of the sixth day.
Venus over the first hour of the seventh day.
So
we have the names of the days of the week in the Spanish language as:
Saturday………….Sabado
Saturn’s Day
Sunday……………Domingo
Sun’s Day
Monday………….. Lunes
Moon’s Day
Tuesday…………. Martes
Mars’ Day
Wednesday……… Miercoles
Mercury’s Day
Thursday………… Jueves
Jupiter’s Day
Friday…………… Viernes
Venus’s Day
Almost
all nations have regulated their months by the revolution of the moon.
Some united this division with the annual course of the sun by
augmenting a number of days at the end of each year or by adding a 13th
month at the end of every third year.
The Jews and the Athenians followed this latter method.
The Macedonians and some nations of Asia, assigned their months
30/31 days.
The Turks and the Arabs have 29/30 days.
The month of the Anglo-Saxons were governed by the revolutions of
the moon.
Their common year consisted of twelve lunar months, three months
being appropriated to each of the four seasons.
Every third year contained an additional lunar month that was
given to the summer season.
The names of their lunar months either had reference to their
religious ceremonies or to the natural appearances of the year.
A
considerable variation prevailed in antiquity re: the beginning of the
year.
The Jews began the civil year on the 16th
of September.
The Athenians, in the month of June.
The Macedonians on the 24th
of September.
The Christians of Egypt and Ethiopia, on
the 29/30 of August.
The Persians and Armenians on the 11th
of August.
In Scotland, the year begins on January
1st.
The Catholic world, until 1582, began
the year on 25th of March.
The Protestant world, until 1752, began
the year on 25th of March.
The Roman
Calendar, which has in great part been adopted by almost all nations, is
stated to have been introduced by Romulus, the founder of Rome.
He divided the year into ten months only:
Mars, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis (afterwards called
Julius) Sextilis (afterwards called Augustus), September, October,
November, December.
The year of Romulus was, therefore, 50 days short of the lunar
year and 61 days short of the solar year.
Its beginning did not correspond with any fixed season.
Numa Pompilius corrected this calendar by adding two months,
Januarius and Februarius, which he placed before Mars.
Julius
Caesar, being desirous to render the calendar still more correct,
consulted the astronomers of his time, who fixed the solar year as 365
days and 6 hours.
The 6 hours were set aside and at the end of four years, formed a
day. This day as called intercalary and added to the month of
February by doubling the 24th of that month.
This year was called Bissextile.
This almost perfect arrangement was called the Julian Calendar
and prevailed until the time of Pope Gregory XIII.
The Julian calendar was defective in that it subscribed the solar
year to be 11 minutes longer than it in reality was.
In the days of Gregory XIII, this difference amounted to 10
entire days.
To obviate the difference, Gregory ordained that in 1582, the 15th
of October be counted instead as the 5th.
To correct the calendar, it was further determined that the year
beginning a century should not be bissextile (added to), with the
exception of that beginning each fourth century.
Thus, the year 1700 and 1800 have not been bissextile but the
year 2000 would be bissextile.
The adoption of this change (also called the New Style), was for
sometime resisted by countries not under the authority of Rome.
England adopted the New Style by an Act of Parliament in 1752.
The year was to begin on January 1st.
Furthermore, the days should be numbered as usual until September
2 when the day following should be accounted as the 14th of
September, omitting 11 days.
The Russians still retain the Old (Julian) Style; the
French permanently changed over to the New Style in 1805.
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