The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-04
KEPT CALENDAR BY
 NOTCHES IN WOOD
EVOLUTION OF METHODS IN MAKING RECORD OF THE DAYS, WEEKS AND
 MONTHS

MONTHS
 Thing of Slow GrowtI-How Day Were Taken from One Month ant Added to Another to Satisfy Rulers Whims-A Discovery in Pompeii- The Modern Calendar.
 Tn Pompeii a calendar was found cut
 Tn squared block of marble. On each
 side face are the days of three months
 arranged in perpendicular columns
 each month headed by it's proper zodi-
 acaI sign. This calendar also contains
 astronomical agricultural and religious
 information. Similar to this ancient
 marble calendar of Pompeii were the
 clog almanacs used long ago in Great
 Britain. says the London Globe. Ac-
 cordIng to Dr. Piott, these were still
 n use in Staffordshire in 16O6 The
 cioS was cut out of a block of wood so
 as to look like four elongated rectangu-
 edges. When held in front it present.
 ed four faces. Notches were cut on
 tfe edges. one for each day, and these
 were divided into weeks by longer
 notches for the Sundays. Special days
 were signified by appropriate figures
 on the corresponding faces A grid
 ron denoted St. Lawrence's, a wheel
 St Catherine's, an axe St. Paul's,
 Wnfie drinking horn might stand for
 Christmas. Sometimes the notable
 days were marked in Runic charact-
 CTS, and so the clog almanac was
 otherwise known as the Runic staff
 specimens of these curious calendars
 may be seen in the British Museum, others.
 Let us glance for a moment at our
 modern calendar. A curious point is
 the 1rregularity in the number of days
 In the different months. We could nardly ia remember that right lengths if
 lL were not for the familiar rhyme
 Thirty days hath September"
 The explanation carries us back to
 homan history. It was the vanity of a Roman explorer which rendered the !earnlng 4ssa of the rhyme necessary. In
 the oldest Roman calendars the months were thirty or twenty-nine days each. But when Julius Caesar reformed the calendar of Numa Pom pi1us he gave them alternately thirty one and thirty. beginning with Janu- ary, February was the exception and was given twenty-nine in ordinary and th1rty in leap years. After Caesars death the month Quintilis was re- named Julius in his honor. Some time month, Sextillis as his own and called It Augustus. But it had only thirty days. and it was not to be endured that Augustus should be- inferior to J ullus So the emperor took one day from February, leaving it but twen- ty-eight and gave it to Augustus. This disturbed Caesars orderly arrange ment. and three months of thirty-one days. viz. July, August and Septem- per, came together. The extra, day october. and a day taken from Mo- Yember was given to December.
 Ihe calendar. like so many other of our institutions. has been a thing of SOW growth and herein. perhaps lies the secret of it's stability This is il- lustrated 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 Eoman names of the months and other ranged by a committee. of which the moving spirit seems to have bAen Philippe F'abre d'Eglantine, dramatist and revolutionist. The old months were cut up so that from eight to steven days of one were united with rom twenty-two to nineteen of the following to make twelve months oS 1hlrty days each. They received the 1ollowing. poetical and descriptive lanes: ], ,i.1a S. Vendemaire, vintage: Brum- snowy; Pluvose, rainy; Ventose, win iy; Germinal, budding; FIoreal. flow 9ry; Prairial, pasture; Messidor, har- vest; Thermidor, hot. and Fructidor, ruit.
 The first month began with the au- ,umn equinox and included eight days l # September and twenty-two of Octo- ,er. Five extra days were added un- l Ter the title of Sansculottides every i ,rdlnary year, and six in leap years. | The Roman names of the days were | likewise abolished in favor of the | nore prosaic Primidi. Buodi, Tredi | tc. This calendar remained in use | or eighteen years, and then Janvier, 'ovrier, Lundl, Mardi etc., came back md have remained
 The French began the new repubIi..I an year with the autumn eouinox. nd the oldest Roman year probably egan with that of spring. March was Ls first month. as it was in OUT own lntil 1752. In that year England tar lily accepted the reformed calendar f Pope Gregory XIII, and January 1 ecame the legal New Years day. For ome time previously. however, 1t had l cen observed as the popular begin ing of the year.
 The acceptance of the Gregorian cal ndaf involved the dropping of eleven | avs. the amount gained by the calen- ar year on the solar by the addition too many leap years. The third of epten1ber was called the fourteenth he measure was not popular and minister's were greeted in the streets 'ith the cry: ''Wbo stole the eleven avs! Give US back the eleven days!" .usSia has adhered to the Julian cal ndar. making leap year every four ears. and is thirteen days behind. he Russian New Years day does not ecur until our January A.
 The making of an almanac depends ,-day. as it did in ancient times on ireful observations of the heavenly odies, for the fact is realized that Tn, moon and stars are for signs nd for seasons, for days and for ears" The compilation of a; caIen- IT is a gathering of information for le guidance of terrestrial affairs from ] le movement of the heavenly bodies {
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