Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-01-18
Mortestcr 9ailg spy.
LEAP YEAR.

The Necessity for and Privileges of it-Ne,c and
Old Styte-Bigoted Opposition to Reform in the
Calendar.
The year 1860 is 'leap year." and con-
sists of 500 days, one day being added to the
shortest month, February, which will, there
fore have twenty-nne days this year; and on
Its last, or additional day, is claimed by the la.
dies privilege which belongs at all other
times to the conference.-the privilege OF pop
ping the question" Leap year occurs every
fourth year, and is so called because it leaps
over day more than does any other year.
For instance, in other years, if Christmas day
or new years day fall on Sunday, it will on
Monday III 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 bsixtie-from the Latin bis,
twice, and Sertus, siXth-meaning that the
s. sixth of the calends of March corresponding
to the Oath of February was reckoned twice
every fourth year by the INTERPOLATION of
Jay. The necessity tor leap year arises from
: ne fact that the solar year does not correspond
7actly with the civil year, in consequence of
not ending exactly with a given day, but
h fraction OF a day. fit were not for
--spss arrangement Christmas i'll 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 mike 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 cal
ender must consist of complete days, these six
hours are omitted and in four years they make
up whole day, which one is added to the
year, making what is called leap year. This
however is not strictly correct, for it is ascer-
tanned by accurate calculations that solar
year is exactly 365 days, hours, 48
minutes, and 57:7 seconds consequently, iii
putting on the six hours, we add IL minutes
ia seconds in four years. This in the course
of 1888 years would amount to "a hours, or a
complete day Every year the number of
which is divisible by four without a remand
er is a leap year. except the last year of the
century, which is leap year only when divis
ible by 400 without remainder. Thus the
year 1900 will not be leap year.
The Roman year originally had but ten
months, as may be seen in the meaning of the
name December, which is "tenth month"
March was the first month of the year i'll the
time of Romulus, and December was the last
But Numa Pompilius, who knew astronomy bet
ter, added January and February.
While Romes great founder made the times his care
Ten months he chose to constitute the year;
But Numus, better skilled in astral lore,
To Romulus' months adjoined two more.
The Egyptians were the first who approx
uidlSu " lIe real lSuBlil Oh JnG year, WHICH
they made to consist Of $50 days. Afterwards
they added five days, as was done by Thales,
one OF the seven wise men of the Greeks
Jews, Syrians, Philippians, Romans, Persians,
and Arabs all had years of different lengths
The day ON Which the year commences is
also different in different countries but in all
it is held in great veneration The Jewish
historical year commences with the new moon
near the vernal equinox March 22), and the
Iu1 Will Tho tI,a
tumnal equinox The @IAhoHledans begin
their year on the day When kle sun en- .er
Aries; the Persians in TIE fhoh&h which an
swers to our June the ChineseAand Indians
with the first new moon which happens in
March and the MeXicans on the 23d of Feb
ruary, at which time the verdure in that coun-
try begins to appear. William the Conqueror
having been crowned on the first day of Janu-
airy, gave occasion to the English to begin
their year on that day, in order to make it
correspond with the most remarkable date in
their history.
Though the historical years begin in Eng
land on the festival of the Circumcision or
first day of January, on which day the Ger
man and Italian year begins, yet the civil or
legal year did not commence 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 1883 or TIA So But by
the act altering the style the civil year now
begins with the LIST of January. The old style
followed the Julian method of computing the
year, by the calendar established by Julius
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 too much.
Pope Gregory XIII. reformed the calendar
by retrenching ten days in October, 1852, in
order to bring back the vernaI equinox to the
same day as at the Council of Nice, A. d.
325. The Reformation wa4 adopted by act of
Parliament in Great Britain in 1751, by which
eleven days in September, 1752,were retrench-
ed, and the third day was reckoned the four
teenth. This mode of reckoning is called new
style Such was the tanaticism of the Pur-
tans and other Protestants at that time, that
because the reform emanated from the Pope
they denounced the change, and said eleven
days were stolen from them. Many to the
present time keep "old Christmas day." or
the day on which the festival would fall if
the style was not altered.