The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-05
ABOUT CALENDARS.
From the New York Press.

]. G. Reid, who styles himself a
"workingman," wants to know all
about the calendar. Its complete his
tory would require several columns.
Any good encyclopedia will give him
the information he wants. who
caused the first day of the year. or
Jan. l, to fall when it does?" Not
julius Caesar, as Mr.. Reid believes.
January was added to the Roman
calendar by Numa Pompilius in 713
B. G. He placed it about the winter
solstice and made it the first month
because Janus, after which god it was
named, was supposed to. preside over
all business. In 1851 the legal year In
England was ordered to begin on Jan.
1, instead of March %.
At the end of the French Revolu-
ton new calendar was set forth, with
September %, 1892, to be the first day
of the year, the year of the foundation
of the Republic. The new year con-
sisted of twelve months of thirty days
each, with five additional days for fes-
rivals in an ordinary year and six In
a leap year. To each month was given
a name significant of the weather, or
the season. Beginning with the autumn
(Sep 22), the months were as follows:
fog month; Frimaire-hoar frost
month; Nivose-snow month; Pluov.se-
rain month; Ventose-wind month;
Germinal-sprout month; Floreal-
flower month; Prairial-meadoW month
Messidor-harvest month; Thermidor-
hot month; Fructidor-fruit month An
English wit, for ridcule, gave the fol-
lowing translation of the French CAL
endar:
Autumn-wheezy, sneezy, freely.
Winter-slippy, drippy, nippy.
Spring-showery fiowery, bowery.
Summer-hoppy, croppy, poppy.
This column is hardly the place for
didactics, and I try to avoid them, but
Prof. Max Muller's story of the hour
is too good to exclude. He says that in
Babylon there existed by the side of
the decimal system of notation another
system, the sexagesimal, which was
counted by sixties. There is no number
which has so many diYisors as co. It
can be divided. without a remainder
by 2, 8, 4, 5, 6, 10. u, Is, 20 and 30. The
Babylonians divided the suns path
into twenty-four parasangs. A para
sang is about four and a half miles.
The Babylonian astronomers compared
the progress of the sun in one hour to
the progress made by a good walker
in the same time. both accomplishing
one parasang. The whole course of the
sun was twenty-four parasangs, or $50
degrees. Each parasang, or hour. was
divided into sixty minutes. Hipparchus
introduced the Babylonian system into
Europe $50 years B. c.. and, strange
to say, it survived the French Revolu-
ton. The French endeaVored to reduce
every measure to the decimal system
of reckoning, but for some unexplain-
ed reason they left the clock and watch
system alone, so that the measure of
time remains sexagesimal, or Babylon
ian, each hour containing sixty min
utes.
One of the curiosities of all ages is
built in the wall of the Cathedral in
the City of Mexico. 1t is the Aztec cal
endar, carved in 1872. While being
carted to its destination it broke down
a bridge and fell to the bottom of the
lake in which the city was built, kill
ing priests and people. With great diff
ficulty it was raised out of the water.
With other objects of heather worship
it was afterward buried in a marsh, as
the best way to get rid of it, and there
it lay hidden for two centuries. In 1890
the Spanish Viceroy allowed it to be
built into the cathedral on condition
that it should be preserved and eX-
posed always in public place. 1t is
now, however, held as the property
of the National Museum.
The Aztec calendar is a solid piece of
stone, twelve feet in diameter. 1t di-
vides time into cycles. years and days.
Fifty-two years constitute a cycle; the
year had 365 days. with five inter-
GALAXY days wholly devoted to human
sacrifices. Each year had eighteen
months of twenty days each, and each
month four weeks of five days EACH
The days had such names as Sea An
imal." Small Bird" Monkey"
RAIN" ETC., and each of the twenty
days had a different name. The points
of the compass were named Reed"
House" Flint" and Rabbit" in
stead of east, west. north and south.
When an Aztec said. II am going
House on Sea Animal" he meant that
he was starting west on Monday. The
month of March was called Victims
Played Alive while July's title was
"Garlands of Corn on the Necks of
Idols"