Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1899-08-03
IS TO CHANGE CALENDAR.
MOST IMPORTANT MOVE oEcio-
Ed ON BY THE CAR.
n,r..n, Mathod. OF Calculating Time
which Have Obtained FOR
Many Centuries
Past.

Past.
The announcement that the czar I"
about TO abandon the Julian caiehuar
and to adopt the new style or ureso-
rian calendar Is good news Indeed. NO
doubt Greece and Roumania. ana such
other minor states as have hitherto re-
tanned old style, will follow his exam
pie. The peoples Of eastern Europe
will be saved the trouble OF having
constantly To date events by two sys-
tens; and inhabitants Of the west VINO
have any transactions OF interest IN
the Slay countries will also be spared
much confusion. The construction or
d perfect calendar that is of a system
by which any given day will always |
recur at the same point of the earths
annual Journey round the sun, has eX-
ercised the keenest human intellects
ever since history began, and Is likely
to cause them further anxeties as
long as time shall last.
Primitive man doubtless began by
measuring his time by days to the
overpowering change of light ana
darkness. AS he progressed he OBJ
served the changes OF the moon, ana
measured by months, which he divid-
ed into quarters, corresponding to our
weeks. according to its varying oil
mansions. AS long as he was merely
a hunter. this sufficed; but when he
began TO till the ground he found 1T
necessary TO fix the recurring seasons.
This he probably did by reckoning
twelve months as year, a rough anu
ready method by which he was eleven
. days wrong every year; and which
] would. in the course OF seventeen
| years place his midsummer day in the
| depth of winter.
Q We know that in the most ancient
historical times the Egyptians had Il
- year of 81 days, consisting of twelve
months of thirty days and five addi-
tional days This was, however not
J perfect, because the extra quarter day
of the solar year would again place
midsummer in midwinter in the
course of some seven hundred ana
twenty years; and we know that the
Egyptians recognized the difficulty.
The Greeks and Romans had slmil-
larry imperfect system, which they
corrected from time to time by insert
M ing an extra month.
Y julius Caesar was the great reform
er who founded the old style, which
still obtains in eastern Europe, and or
which the new style is based. He iii
vided the year into twelve months o.
the same length, and of the same
names which they now bear; and h'
further added a day in every fourth
year leap year,, and made Jan. l tn
, first day of the year. II the solar yea
had contained exactly 1864 days, tn
Julian system would have been per
feet: and in fact, has been goo
n enough to last for nineteen centurie
\ in eastern Europe. Unfortunately Tia
- length OF the year is eleven minuta
short of 1854 days, and this fac
causes an error OF one day in about
hundred and thirty years under tn
system of julius Caesar.
In the sixteenth century the defet
+, In the Julian calendar was seriou
Is and 1t specially affected the incidenC
OF the feasts and fasts of the churc
Accordingly. in the year 1852, 1t ha
ing been observed that the omission
ten days would bring back the vern
Y. equinox, by which Easter and Il
. other movable feasts were fixed,
March u, the day on which it had o
Cured at the time OF the council
Nicaea, 325 A. D., Pope Gregory MI
decreed reform by which ten da
were omitted in October He furth
declared that all years divlsible
four should be leap years, with the e
4, :, ception of the completing centuri,
- which will be leap years only VIII
YOU. divisible by 400. His system w
7enu adopted at once in Italy, Spain a
5 TO Portugal, and shortly afterward
the other catholic countries; but, as
|rV. proceeded from a pope, 1T was ey
suspcously by protestant nation
and ignored for many years. MOI
'IlS. Germany, Denmark and Holla
adopted il in the year 100, by viii
eleven days had to be omitted. CIR,
Tub Britain followed in 1852, and Swed
-XL In the following year. If Rus
NJ, adopts 1t this year, she will have
iPe' throw away twelve days; and If :
: ad- waits until the next century, thirte