What patients believe about time has much to do with their notion of health and medicine.
Traditional time is circular, a regular repetition of events and ideas.
Traditional time is driven by the environment in that planets, stars, and spirits appear to control the cycles of nature. Traditional time leads to a static, stable world. The present Christian calendar is the product of 16th-century attempts to unify the calendrical expectations for the apocalypse held by diverse Christian sects and to rectify the discrepancies between the old calendar timing of Christian holy days and the natural seasonal cycles. Ann Intern Med. Author and Article Information From State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.