The Wichita daily eagle., 1898-01-05
Something of Calendars.


The Roman calendar was introduced IS
| B. c., by Romulus. 1t divided the year
| n.to ten months, comprising 30i days
| The year of Romulus was of 50 days
| less duration than the lunar year, and
| of 81 less than the solar year.
| The Roman calendar was amended by
| Numa Pompilius, 713 B. c. He added two
| months.
Julius Caesar. desiring to make it yet
| more nearly correct, fixed the solar year
| as being 365 days and six hours. IS B. c.
This calendar, called the Julian. prevail
| ed throughout the Christian world until
the time of Pope Gregory XIII.
| The Julian calendar was defective In
| that its allotment OF 3S5 days and six
| hours was not the true solar year. which
consists of 365 days, five hours and IS
minutes, IS seconds. Consequently, the
difference at the time of Gregory XIII
had amounted to ten days. the vernal
equinox then falling on the 11th, instead
of the 21st of March To obviate this err
ror, Gregory ordained in 1882 that that
year should consist of 365 days, ten days
being dropped from the October of that
year, and that all ordinary years in the
future should contain 365 days. To pre-
vent further inaccuracies. it was decided
that a year beginning a century should
not be bissextile, with the exception of
that beginning each fourth century. Thus
the years 100 and 1900 were not bissextile,
nor will 1900 be. The year 2oo0 will be a
leap year. however. One authority attri-
butes the origin of the Gregorian style to
Aloysius Lilius, or Luigi Lilo khiredi, a
Neapolitan astronomer and physician.
By the Gregorian system three days
are retrenched every four centuries, the
lapse of eleven minutes and fourteen sec
onds making three days in about that pc
riod. Thus the calendar year IS made
to correspond with the solar year as near
ly as possible. In about every 3342 years.
or in 1867 A. D., counting from the coun-
Gil at Nice in 325, difference of about one
complete day will occur. thus furnishing
a problem which needs no immediate at
tention.
The Egyptian year had twelve months
cf thirty days each, and counted five un-
allotted days at the end.
The ecclesiastical calendar, which has
been adopted in nearly all European coun-
tries is lunar-solar, being regulated part
ly by the lunar year and partly by the So
lar This circumstance is the source of
the distinction between the movable and
Immovable feasts.
The lunar year consists Of twelve lunar
months and 354 days.
The solar astronomical year is the Pc
riod of time in which the earth performs
a revolution in its orbit about the sun.
and as already stated is 365 days, hours,
As minutes, 46 seconds long.
In the early days of Greece the year was
regulated entirely by the moon. Solon
divided the year into twelve months, con-
sisting alternately of twenty-nine and
thirty days, the latter being styled full
months" and the former deficient
months"
The Hebrew calendar is dated from the
Creation, which is assumed to have taken
place 1850 years and three months before
the opening of the Christian era The
year is luni-solar, and, according as it is
ordinary or embolismic, consists of twelve
or thirteen lunar months. each of which
consists of twenty-nine or thirty days.
Thus the duration of the ordanry year is
254 days, and that of the embolismic 3S4
days.
A new calendar was introduced in
France during the days of the Revolution.
The commencement of the year was fixed
at the autumnal equinox, which almost
coincided with the epoch OF the founda-
tion of the republic. Month names having
reference to the state of nature or ag-
riculturaI labrs in different seasons were
in lieu of the ancient names.
The idea was abandoned in a few years,
however the system being found both i'm
practicable and inconvenient.
No small amount of uncertainty is now
rife among men as to the exact beginning
of the twentieth century. Considerable
of this perplexity is due to the change
from the Julian to the Gregorian calen-
dars. or to the erroneous suposition that
the solar day is considerably longer than
the ecclesiastical or civil day.