The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-12-13
The Year and the Calendar.

On the day after the 4th of October
1892, the people of Italy, Spain, and
Portugal wrote the date October 18th
Ten days had been dropped altogether
This was because of the adoption Of what
is known as the Gregorian calendar, be-
cause it was decreed by a bull issued by
Pope Gregory XIII.
The early division of time was very
irregular and inaccurate. The reckoning
by months did not bring out even years,
and 1t was onl y when astronomy became
something like an exact science, that the
exact length of the year was known. In
the time of ancient Rome, there were but
ten months, and the Roman kings fixed
the length of the year at three hundred
and filty-fve days. When this inexact
division caused trouble, an extra month
was inserted here and there to restore
the system to degree of order. We owe
1t to julius Cesar that the year was fixed
at three hundred and sixty days, with
an additional day once in four years
The fourth year in which the day is
added is bissextile, or as we call it, lean
year. The year OF 365 IA days is known
as the Julian year.
But even this is not accurate. The
true solar year is 365 IA days, 5 hours,
48 minutes, and 1862 seconds long,
That is, it is IL minutes and 1923 sec
onds shorter than the Julian year. The
Julian calendar was adopted forty six
years before Christ, so that in A. D
1882, more than sixteen centuries later.
the error had amounted to about ten
days. 1t was this error which the Gre
gorlan calendar corrected. But in max
ing the correction it was necessary to
guard against similar accumulation of
error That object was accomplished in
this way The error amounts to very
nearl y eighteen hours in a century. Ac-
cordlngly 1t was decreed that each wear
whose number was divisible by one hun
dred should not be leap year unless it
were divisible by four hundred. Conse-
quently the year 1900 Will not be leap
year, but the year 1000 will be one
Three leap years are omitted every four
hundred years by this plan, and the re-
suit is that the average civil year differs
from the true solar year by less than
twenty-three seconds. This difference
will amount to whole day in something
less than four thousand years.
The new system was adopted grad
ually. By the Roman Catholic world it
was adopted almost at once,-the last of
the Catholic countries making the change
IN 1887. But it was not until 100 that
Protestant Germany adopted it; and in
England and America the Gregorian cal
endar was not used until 1852. The
Greek Church has never sanctioned the
change. In Russia to this day the old
style is in use, and the error, which was
only ten days in 1882, is now more than
twelve days. The Russian Christmas
does not come until nearly a fortnight
after all the rest of the Christian world
has celebrated it. 1t is also curious
fact Of which few are probably aware.
that until one hundred and thirty years
ago, the year began in England and this
country, not with the first of January.
but on the 25th of March. Before that
time, however, the practice had become
common Of indicating that there was
doubt to which year the days in the first
three months belonged. Thus in the old
Boston newspapers Of the last century
we see such dates as this: February 4,
1924, from which anybody can dis
cover that the date, according to the
Gregorian calendar, is February Is
eleven days correction), 1924.