Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-01-03
Tue Year and ths Calendar.

un the day after the 4th of October
i 2, the people of Italy, Spain an
P1. tugal wrote the date October Il
Ten days had been dropped altogether
TI WAS because of the adoption o
what Is known as the Gregorian calen
dar, because IT was decreei by a bul
issued by Pope Gregory XIII.
The early division Of time was yer,
irregular and inaccurate. The reckon
ing by months did not bring out even
years, and ii was only when astronomy
became something like an exact science
that the actual length of the year wa,
known.
In the time OF ancient Rome. there
were but ten months and the Roman
kings fixed the length of the year al
thle ee hundred ana filty-five days. When
this inexact division caused trouble, al
extra month was inserted here and there
to restore the system to a degree Of
order.
We owe it to Julius Cesar that the
year was fixed at three hundred and
sixty-fve days, with an additional day
once in four-ye The fourth wear il
which the day Is added Is bissextile, or
as we call 1t, leap year. The year Ol
36J IA days Is known as the Julian
year.
But even this is not accurate. The
true solar year is 365 IA days, hours.
4S minutes and 49, 62 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 AD. 1852,
more than sixteen centuries later. the
error had amounted to about ten 0avs.
1t was this error which the Gregorian
calendar corrected. But in making the
correction it WAS necessary to guard
against a similar accumulation of error.
That object was accomplished in this
way.
The erTc amounts to very nearly
eighteen hours on a century. Accord
ngly ii was decreed that each year
whose number was divsible by one hun
drei should not be leap year uRless it
were dIvisible by four hundred.
Consequently the year 1900 Will not
be q leap year b9t the year 20O0 will be
one. Three leapyears are omitted every
four hundred years by this plan, and the
result is that the average civil year diff
ference will amount to whole day Ill
something less than four thousand
years.
The new system was adopted gradu-
ally. By the Roman Catholic world it
was adopted almost at Once-the last of
the Catholic countries making the
change III 1857. But it was not until
100 that Protestant Germany adopted
IT; and in England and Ameucl the
Gregofian calendar was not used until
I752.
The Greek church has never sane
toned the change. In Russia to tins
day the cid style is in use, and the error,
which was only ten days 1852, is now
more than twelve days. The Russian
Christmas does rot come until nearly
fortnight after all the rest OF the Christ
i..Ii world has celebrated it.
1t is also a curious fact OF which few
axe probably aware, that until one hun
dred and thirty years ago, the year be-
gan IN England and this country, not
with the first Of January, but on the
twenty-ifth of March.
Before that time, however, the pTac-
tice had become common OF indicating
tnat there was a doubt TO which year the
DAYS IN the first three months belonged.
Thus III the old Boston newspapers OF
the last century We see such dates as
this: February 4, 1723 from which
anybody eau discover that the date, ac-
cording to the Gregorian calendar, Is
February 10 eleven days cOrrect1on),
17.4.
The year is varying quantity accord
ing to the standard by which it Is meas
ured. OF course, it is the time within
which the earth makes her passage
around the sun.
But If this time be measured by the
period of the earth's return to the same
apparent place in the heavens, rs seen
from the sun, 1t is a ''siderel year :
365 days, 6 hours, Q minutes, 9,6 sec
onds.
The time in which the earth makes
the circuit from her perihelion, that is,
the point of her orbit where she Is near
est to tine sun, around to the same point
again, is the ''anOmalistic" year, 36j
days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, As. 8 seconds.
The tropical year, however. is that
which astronomers have se'ected AS tee
true solar year. 1t is the time included
between two "vernal equinoxes- This
vernal equinox is that instant n the
spring of the year when the equator OF
the earth, if extended, would pass
through the center OF the sun.
Ii as also the time when the days and
nights, all over the globe, are of equal
length. The period between two vernal
equinoxes Is 365 days. ) hours, As min
utes, As. 6 seconds