East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1860-01-19
LEAP YEAR.
The Necessity for md Privileges Of Il
NsO and Old Styh-B,goted Opposition
TO Reform the Calender.
From the New York Herald.


consists of 366 days, one day being added
to the shortest month, February, which
will, therefore, have twenty-nine days
this year; and on its last, or additional
day. is claimed by the ladies a privilege
which belongs at all other times to the
gentlemen = the privilege of popping
the question" Leap Year occurs every
fourth year, and is so called because it
leaps over a day more than does any or
dinary year. For instance, in other years,
if Christmas day or New Years day fall
on Sunday, it will fall on Monday in
the following year; but in Leap Year it
will fall on Tuesday, being thus two days
later in the week, instead Of one. 1t is
also called bisscxtile-lrom the Latin bis,
twice, and sertns, sixth - meaning that
the sixth of the calends Of March (cor
responding to the oath of February
was reckoned twice every fourth year by
the intercalation of day. The necessi-
ty for Leap Year arises from the fact that
the solar year does not correspond exact
ly with the civil year, in consequence of
its not ending exactly with a given day,
but with fraction of a day. If it were
not for this arrangement Christmas in
course of time would be in midsummer,
and the Fourth Of July in the depth of
winter
The true year consists of the time it
takes for the earth to make one revolution
around the sun, which is determined by
its coming back to the same point in the
zodiac from which it started; and this is
accomplished in 365 days and nearly six
hours; but as the calender must consist
of complete days, these six hours are
omitted, aud in four years they make up
a whole day, when one is added to the
year, making what is called Leap Year
This, however, is not strictly correct, for
it is asccrtained 10y accurate calculations
that a solar year is exactly 365 days, )
hours, 4S minutes and 57.7 seconds; con-
scquently, in putting on the six hours,
we add ii minutes l2.i seconds in four
years. This in the course of 1881 years
would amount 10 twenty-four hours, or a
complete day. Every year the number
of which is divisible by four without a
remainder is Leap Year, except the last
year Of a century, which is Leap Year
only when divisible by 400 without re-
mainder. Thus the year 1900 will not
be Leap Year.
The Roman year originally had but
ten months as may be seen in the mean
ing of the name December, which is
"renth-month." March was the first
month of the year in the time of Romu-
lus and December was the last. But
Numa Pompilus, who knew astronomy
better, added January and February.
While Romeo great founder made the time his care
Ten months he chose TO constitute the year,
But Numa, better skilled In astral lore,
To Romuu- months adjoined two more
The Egyptians were the first who ap-
proximated to the real length of the year,
which they made to consist Of $50 days.
They afterwards added 5 days as was
done by Thales, one of the seven wise
men of the Greeks. The Jews, Syrians,
Ethiopians, Romans, Pcrsians and Arabs
all had years of different length.
The day on which the year commences
is also different in different counties, but
in all it is held in great veneration. The
Jewish historical year commences with
the new moon near the vernal equinox
March d. and the civil year with the
new moon near autumnal equinox. The
Mahomedans begin their year on the day
when the sun enters Arvies; the Persians
in the month which answers to our June;
the Chinese and Indians with the first
new moon which happens in March; and
the Mexicans on the 23d of February, at
which time the verdure in their country
begins to appear. William the conqueror
having been crowned on the first day of
January, gave occasion to the English to
begin their year on that day, in order to
make it correspond with the most re-
markable date in their history.
Though the historical year began in
England on the festival Of the Circum.
cision, or first day of January, on which
day the German and Italian year begins,
yet the civil or legal year did not COM
mence till the day of the Annunciation
of the Virgin, the 25th of March. The
part of the year between those terms
was usually expressed in both these ways:
either 174S-9 or Ia so. But by the
act altering the style the civil year now
begins with the 1st of January. The
old style followed the Julian method of
computing the year, by the calender
established by Julias Caesar, in which
every fourth year consists of 366 days,
and the other years of 365. This Julian
arrangement of time makes, as we have
seen, eleven minutes and some seconds in
a year to much.
Pope Gregory XIII. reformed the cal
erder by retrcnching ten days in October
1882, in order to bring back the vernal
equinox to the same days as at the Coun-
Gil of Nice, Al 325. This reformation
was adopted by act of Parliament in
Great Britain in 1851, by which eleven
days in September, 1852, were retrenched
and the third day was reckoncd the four
teenth. This mode of reckoning is called
new style. Such was the fanatcism Of