Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-07
history OF THE CALENDAR
HOW TIME WAS NOTED IN AN.
GENT DAYS.
A Marble Block at Pompeii Carved
With Signs Of the Zodiac and
Astronomical Information.

From the London Globe.
In Pompeii a calendar was found cut
in a squared block Of marble. On each
side face are the days of three months
arranged in perpendicular columns, each
month headed by its proper zodiacal sign
This calendar also contains astronomical,
agricultural and religious information
Similar to this ancient marble calendar Of
Pompei were the clog almanacs used
long ago in Great Britain. According to
Or. Piott these were still in use in STAFF
fordshre in 1906 The clog was cut out
Of block Of wood SO as to look like four
elongated rectangular pieces Of wood
united by their edges. When held in
front 1t presented four edges and four
faces Notches were cut on the edges.
one for each day, and these were divided
into weeks by longer notches for the Sun
days Special days were signifed by ap-
prOpriate figures on the correspondent
faces. A gridirOn denoted st. Lawrence s.
wheel st. GATHERINGS, an OK st. Paul's.
while a drink ng horn might stand for
Christmas. Sometimes the notable days
were marked In runic characters and SO
the runic staff. Specimens of these curious
calendars may be seen in the British
Museum, the Bodleian, the Ashmolean
and others.
Caesars Reform"
Let us glance for moment at our
modern calendar. A serious point is the
regularity In the number of the days in
he different months. We could hardly
member the right lengths If it were not
or the familiar rhyme, Thirty days hath
September" The explanation carries us
Jack to Roman history. 1t was the van
ity of Roman emperor Which rendered
me learning e the rhyrie necessary.
In the O,rc. Roman calendars the
months we Of thirty or thirty-nine days
each. Bnt when Julius Caesar reformed
me calendar OF Numa Pompilius he gave
them alternately thirty-one and thirty,
aeginning with January. February was
lie exception and was given twenty-nine
n ordinary and thirty in leap years. Al
ter Caesars death the month Quintilis
vas renamed Julius In his honor Some
time later Augustus chose the Following
month. Sextilis, as his own and called IL
Augustus. But it had only thirty days
and IL was not to be endured that Angus
Jus should be inferior to Julius. So the
emperor took one from February, leaving
L but twenty-eight. and gave II to Au-
sustus.
This disturbed Caesars orderly arrange
nent and three months OF tai ty-one
days, snamely. July. August and Septem-
Der, 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
of our other institutions. has been thing
of slow growth. and herein. perhaps, lies
the secret of its stability. This is il
ustrated by the fate of the brand-new
calendar of the French republic. At the
time of the revolution an attempt was
made to get rid OF the Roman names OF
the months and other associations. A
new calendar was arranged by a commit
zee. OF. which the moving spirit seems
to have been Philippe Fabre d'Eglantine
dramatist and revolutionist.
THE old months were cut up 50 that
from eight to eleven days OF one were
united with from twenty-five to nineteen
OF the following to make twelve month
of thirty days each. They received the
following poetical and descriptive names:
Vandemaire. vintage; Brumaire. roggy;
Frimaire, sleeting: Nivose. snowy:
Pluvose rainy; VentOse. windy; Germinal.
budding: Floreal. fiowery: Frairial. pas
ture: Messidor. harvest; Thermidor. hot.
and Fructidor, fruit. The first month be-
gan with the autumn equinox and includ-
ed eight days OF September and twenty