The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1908-01-02
THAT EXTRA DAY
EACH FOUR YEARS
A Brief But Interesting History of the
Calendar and Its Changes.

Except the second month, alone.
Which has but twenty-eight in fine
TIL Leap Year gives it twenty
nine
The history of leap year is interest
ing, not only to those of the gentler sex
who are matrimonially inclined, but
also to the student, the scientist. As a
year is the time of the earth's revolu-
ton around the sun, it should contain
365 DAYS and fraction of day.
The lancients, having great respect
for the moon, wanted the year to be
subdivided into parts corresponding
with her revolution around the earth.
The difficulties of adjusting the moon s
! revolutions, or months, so as to be to-
gether equal to the earth's revolutions
round the sun gave rise to February
itself, and to many of the changes
which the month has undergone before
it stood with its present number of
DAYS
Romulus' division of the year is the
firstiEuropean one known, and the one
upon which our own division is based.
He had ten months, whose total length
was 304 days. How he patched up the
year with the odd days so as to make it
anything like correct is not known. To
| remedy his mistake, which left sixty
one days not accounted for, Numa
Pompilius, second king of Rome, added
two months, January and February.
January, named after Janus, the god
who presided over the beginning of all
| things, was made the first month of the
year February, in Latin means to ex-
plate. In this month the expiatory sac
rifices were performed, and as the sins
OF the year were. very naturally atoned
for after they were committed February
was made the last of the months. Two
hundred years after Numa Pompilius.
February was brought by the Deem
virs, for reasons best known to them
selves, to its present position.
Although two new months had been
added, namely, January and February,
thee year was not long enough vet.
Numa made his months to correspond
to the revolutions of the moon, which
made 354 days, of eleven days short of
the earth's annual journ ey around the
sun. When the Romans found one
month had to be changed, they hit upon
February, for no apparent good reason,
unless 1t being the month of the dead.
The clumsy alienation was made bv
naming month which appeared on al
ternate years.
Several other clumsy corrections were
made until the days and months came
out pretty even. Things did not work
very well, however, under this system,
for politics appeared. The calendar
was in charge Of the pontiffs, and if
they wanted to keep friend in office
they could lengthen the extra month, or
of they wanted to hold elections before
their enemies were ready they could
curtail the month and catch their oppo-
nents mapping. There is nothing on rec
ord to Indicate that the pontiffs ever
took advantage Of their prerogatives in
this respect
After while matters became so bad
ly mixed that in Julius Caesars time
the winter months were in autumn and
the autumn months in the summer, and
SO on. Caesar took the bull by the horns
and introduced two months of his own
between November and December.
This gave the Romans a year of 445
days This particular year, which was
b. Z. 46, is known to history as 1.-The
Year of Confusion" This wonderful
year cancelled all previous errors, and
when the question of how to make the
succeeding years of equal length. and
to correspond to the annual revolution
of the earth around the sun, and Caesars
attempts at its solution brought about
the introduction of leap year. Caesar
did not consider the moon in his calcu-
lations, but made months of thirty and
thirty-one.. days alternately, except
February, which he gave twenty-nine
days in ordinary years and thirty every
fourth year.
Because of his Strengthening out the
difficulties of the calendar, and because
he calculated to within fraction of a
day in each year, Caesar was worthy of
a lasting memorial. Therefore the
name of the month Quintilis was chang
ed to julius.
Augustus Caesar, the successor of
Julius, after some victories bv his
armies, had month named for him,
too. It.so happened, however, that the
month named for Augustus had only
thirty days, where as that named for
Julius had thirty-one. Augustus did
not like this, so he had an extra day
added to August. Thereafter February
had twenty-eight days in ordinary years,
and twenty-nine in leap year.
Since, the time of the Caesars. how