Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1903-12-31
Romance of the Year
Time Civil. Ecclesiastical and Astronomical
Date of New Year Variable-Equinoxes Alone
Constant-Customs of New Years Observance
In Ancient and Modern Times. R " 70

days, so that from new full moon to
rev full moon, there is something
more than twenty-nine days, which is
called synodical month, or lunatiOn.
No nation up to the present time
has devised a system Of absolute nc
curacy In the measurement OF the
collar year. Some ancient nations, such
as the Chaldeans, reckoned the year
that most ancient astronomical term,
the Zodiac. The Zodiac is a belt en-
circ1ing the heavens on each side of
the ecliptic, within which the planets
known to the ancients always revolve.
1t extends eight degrees on each side
of the ecliptic. 1t is divided into
twelve equal parts, called signs of the
Zodiac. 1t is a great cycle, and is d.
vided into 36O degrees, like all cir
cles; hence $50 days in the Chaldean
year.
The Egyptians counted 5G5 days in
their year. AS the year contains
1854 days nearly, such systems could
not fail to work great inconvenience,
for the seasons would move round in
cycle from one time of the year to
the other. Let me make this quite
plain. Take the winter sOlstice, for
instance, which happens on Dec. FL.
At the end of four years the solstice
would be not on Dec. q, but on Dec.
%. The sun would be behind time. In
order, therefore, that the seasons
should occur at the same time in the
civil year, it was necessary to take
account of this fraction of day.
julius Caesar, the great Roman en-
peror. determined to rectify the error.
He called the celebrated Egyptian as
tronomer, Sosigines, to his aid. SOsi-
gines suggested the addition OF day
every fourth year. This day was add
ed to February, and is known to us as
Leap Year." but to the Romans as
Rissextile' (Bis, twice, sextus, SIXTH.
This corrected calendar became
known as the Julian. But as it made
the year consist of 365 days. G. hours,
it was in excess Of the actual time by
minute 1903 seconds. Small as was
this fraction, 1t accumulated to about
one day in every 134 years.
The calendar needed reform Time,
civil and ecclesiastical, required re-
adjustment. But to urge the neces-
sary change was dangerous. as the
learned Friar Bacon found to his cost.
For pointing out errors in the calendar
he received as reward for the ad.
vocacy of the truth a prison, where he
remained ten years.
AS often happens, ecclesiastical
requirements minister to civil neccs-
sites. The immediate cause of the
correction of the calendar was an
error in the time of observing the
Easter festival. The Council of Nice,
in A. d. 1926, decreed that Easter Is
the Sunday following the full moon.
next after the Vernal equinox. Owing
to disputes arising from this decree
Pope Hilarius, in 463, ordered that the
paschal moon should not be the actual
full moon. but an ideal one, falling ON
the 14th day of the moon by the
metonic cycle (so-called from Metoni,
a Greek philosopher. who discovered
1t. 1t consists of nineteen years, at
the end of which the sun is in about
the same position he was at the. be-
ginning).
I'm 1882 it was found that the, real
equinox fell ten days before the NOM
inal one, and from the error in the
Metonic cycle, Easter had got four
days wrong. Then Pope Gregory
XIII reformed the calendar, called
after him the Gregorian calendar, by
the aid of Clavius, a learned Jesuit.
The equinox of 1882, which should
have fallen on March 81, fell on
March II. Gregory cut the Gordian
knot by decreeing that Oct. 5 of that
year should be counted as Oct. Is.
The first method of measuring time,
as far as we know, was by means of
the obelisk. The pyramids OF Egypt
very probably answered the same pur-
pose. Josephns states that Moses
erected. at HeliopOlis, in Egypt, pill
lar for such purposes. 1.-THE cloudy
pillar" that accompanied the Israel
ties in their forty years wanderings in
the wilderness, and which was "pil-
lar of fire by night" most likely an
swered the same purpose. Pliny states
that an obelisk, now on the Thames
embankment in London, and known
as "Cleopatra's Needle" was erected
by Mesophres about B. c. 1900, likely
for similar uses. We all know, l hope,
the reference in the Bible to the sun
dial of Ahaz, about B. c. 740. Accord
ing to ST. Jerome, who revised the old
Latin Bible into what is called the