Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-09-15
STORY or THE CALENDAR.
Some Facts About the One Most
People Use at Present Time.

1880
arranged in perpendicular columns
each month headed by it's proper
| zodiacal sign. This calendar also con-
tains astronomical, agricultural and
| religious Information. Similar to This
ancient marble calendar Of Pompeii
were the clog almanacs used long ago
| in this country, says THE London
Globe" According to DIR. Plott. tbes,
| were still in use I'm Staffordshire in
1906. The clog was cut out of a blocl,
OF wood so as to look like four
elongated rectangular pieces of woo,
united by their edges. When held in
front it presented four edges and four
faces. Notches were cut on the elpes
one for each day, and these were
divided into weeks by longer notcbes
for the Sundays. Special DAYS were
signified by appropriate figures on the
corresponding faces. A gridiron de-
noted St Lawrence's, a wheel 81
Catherine's, an axe st. Paurs
while drinking horn might
stand for Christmas. Sometime.
the notable days were marked i,
Runic characters, and so the clog al
manac was otherwise known as the
Runlc staff. Specimens of these
curious calendars may be seen in the
| BRUSH Museum, the Bodleian. the
Ashmolean and others.
| Let us glance for a moment at o,,r
modern calendar. curious noint i,
the lrregularity in the number of tho
days in the different months. We couI1
hardly remember the right lengths If II
We're not for the familiar rhvme.
| Thirty days hath Sentemhor
| The explanation carries lie bao,- ..
Roman history. 1t was the vanity &c ,
Roman emperor which rendered tbe
learning of this rhyme necessary In
the oldest Roman calendars the
months were of thirty or twentv-ninn
days each. But when Julius Caesar
reformed the Calendar of Numa,
| Pompilius he gave them alternating
thirty-one and thirty, beginning with
January. February was an exceptio,
ana was given twenty nine in ordinary.
and thirty in leap Years. After
Caesars death the month Quintilis was
renamed Julius in his honor. Some
time later Augustus chose the follow
! ing month, Sextilis, as his own. and
called it Augustus. But it had only
thirty days, and it was not to be
endured that Augustus should be in
ferior to Julius. So the emperor took
one day from February, leaving it but
twenty eight, and gave it to Augustus.
This disturbed Caesars orderly
arrangement, and three months of
thIrty-one DAYS, viz: July, August and
september, came together. The extra
day of the latter was therefore given
TO October, and a day taken from
November was given to December.
The calendar, like so many other of
our institutions, has been a thing of
slow growth, and herein, perhaps, lies
the secret of its stability. This is
illustrated by the fate of the brand
new calendar of the French Republic.
At the time of the Revolution an at
tempt was made to get rid of the
Roman names of the months and other
associations. A new calendar was ar
ranged by a committee, of which the
moving spirit seems to have been
Philippe Fabre d'Eglantine, dramatist
and revolutionist. The old months
were cut up so that from eight To
eleven days of one were united with
from twenty-five to nineteen of the
following, to make twelve months of
thirty days each. They received the
following poetical and descriptive
names: Vendemaire, vintage; Brum-
alre, foggy: Frimaire, sleeting; Nivose,
snowy; Pluviose, rainy; Ventose.
windy; Germinal, budding; Floreal,
fowery; Prairial, pasture: Messidor,
harvest; Thermidor. hot, and
Fructidor, fruit The first month be-
gan with the autumn equinox and in
cluded eight days of September and
twenty-five of October. Five extra
days were added under the title of
Sans culottides every ordinary year,
and six in leap year. The Roman
names of the days were likewise
abolished in favor of the more prosaic
Primid, Duod, Tredi, etc. This
calendar remained in use for thirteen
years, and then Janvier, Fevrier,
Lundi. Mardi and Co. came back, and
have remained.
The French began the new Republic
can year with the autumn equinox, and
the oldest Roman year probably began
with that of spring. March was it's
first MONTH as is was in our own until
1852. In that year England tardily ac-
cepted the reformed calendar of Pope
Gregory XIII, and January 1 because
the legal New Years day. For some
time previously, however, it had been
observed as the popular beginning of
the year. The acceptance of the
Gregorian calendar involved the drop
ping of eleven days, the amount gained
by the calendar year on the solar by
the addition of too many leap years.
The Sd of September was called the
14th. The measure was not popular,
and ministers were greeted in the
streets with the cry: "Who stole the
eleven days? Give US back the eleven
days." Russia has still adhered to the
Julian calendar making leap year
every four years, and is thirteen days
behind. The Russian New Years Pay
does not occur till our January IA.
The making of an almanac depends
today, as it did in ancient times, on
careful observations of the heavenly
bodies. For the fact is realized that
sun, moon and stars are for Signs and
for seasons, for days and for years.
The compilation of calendar is a
gathering of information for the
guidance of terrestrial affairs from the