Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-10-02
Concerning Calendars.

0oheNAutii-s
A definition of the word calendar is
given as method of numbering and
arranging days, weeks, months, and
years; also as mechanical continuance
for registering that arrangement.
VARIOUS nations and sects have
adopted different methods of measuring
time, dating from some real or imagin-
airy epoch in their existence. The
following are the principal calendars,
and show the place that the year 1888
will occupy in the worlds history.
Ammo mundi year of the world,
5,SS3.
Ammo Domini year of our Lord,
1883
Jewish year, 5,643.
Julian period, 6,595.
Hegira, or flight of Mahomet, | ,298.
A. L. c. foundation of Rome, 2.635.
Independence of the United States,
1867.
Reign of Queen Victoria, 1876.
Science fixes the year 1883. A. d., as
the 5,SS3d year since the creation of
the world; the Julian period places it
as the 6,595th. For all practical pur-
poses the one answers as well as the
other
The Jewish year is based upon the
calculation that the world was created
3,760 years before Christ was born,
which, added to those since the birth of
Christ, gives 5,643 as the Jewish year
of the world. The Jewish year is sup
posed to have varied at different
periods IN length, consisting of twelve
or thirteen months of twenty or thirty
days each.
The Roman calendar divided the
year into three months, comprising 3O4
days, about 73S years before Christ
This year was fifty-one days less than
the lunar year, and sixty-one days less
than the solar year, corresponding in
no degree with the present seasons.
The Julian calendar was based upon
the solar year of 365 days and six hours,
do b. G. The Emperor Julius Caesar,
acting upon the evidence and advice of
astronomers, made provision, at this
time, for the excess of the solar year
over the number of days by introducing
blssextlle or leap year, when the year
was 800 days, the name being derived
from two skies.
The Gregorian calendar commenced
in 1882, A. d. At the time of the
Julian reform the true solar calendar
was known to be composed of 800 days,
five hours and forty-nine minutes. In
1882 this difference had amounted to
ten days. To correct this error Pope
Gregory ordained that that year should
have only 800 days, by which order the
9th of October became the 18th of
October To prevent recurrence of
this difficulty it was ordered that the
first year in each century should not be
blssextile or leap year excepting every
fourth century. Thus the first years of
the eighteenth and nineteenth were not
leap years, and 1900 will not be, but
the year 1000 will be, bissextile.
In this way the difference between
the civil and the natural year will not
amount to day in 5000 years. In
Spain, Portugal, and part of Italy, the
Pope was exactly obeyed. In France,
the change took place in the same year,
by calling the 10th the Goth of Deem
her. In the Low Countries, the change
was from the 18th of December to the
25th; but it was resisted by the Protest
ant part of the community till the year
100. The Catholic nations, in general,
adopted the style ordained by their
sovereign pontiif; but the Protestants
would not receive even purely
scientific Improvement from such
hands. The Lutherans of Germany,
Switzerland, and of the Low Countries
at length gave way in 1900, when it had
become necessary to omit eleven in
stead Of ten days. A bill to this effect
had been brought before the Parlia-
ment of England in 1885, but does not
appear to have gone beyond second
reading in the House of Lords. 1t was
not till 173l, and after great incon-
venience had been experienced for
nearly two centuries from the difference
of the reckoning, that an act was
passed GA George IL, 1751) for equal
ling the style in Great Britain and
Ireland with that used in other
countries of Europe 1t was then en-
acted that eleven days should be
omitted after the I'd of September,
1852, so that the ensuing day should be
the l4th. Russia is now the only
country which adheres to the old style.