El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-02-27

reckoning, used in Europe ana
the Americas. comes to US from Egypt
by way of Greece and Rome 1t IS very
different from the Egyptian system,
and bears little resemblance to the
Grecian system 1t is said that one
of the first things ROmulus did, after
founding the city Of Rome, was 10 es-
tabIish a calendar. This calendar. con-
sisted OF ten months, the year being
made up Of 3O4 days. soon Thereafter
Numa undertook a reformation OF TIE
Roman system Of time reckoning He
spent 25 years studying. the calendar
and the result was the addition OF the
months of January and February IN
713 B. c. In his revision January was
placed before March, and February al
I ter December.
Many Changes Made.
This system Of months continued un-
| changed until 452 B. c., when the De-
cemvirs decided to switch things around
I and they laid out the months in the
7 order they come today. Under the
! calendar as it then existed. the months
! had alternately % and 80 daFs-304
days in all little later it was
/ thought that the odd numbers were
/ lucBier than the even ones, so the year
was made to consist Of 355 days In
order to keep the calendar measur-
ably cOincident with the seasons the
Roman authorities occasionally added
Few extra days At one time a 18th
month was inserted, alternately p and
q days long, to fall ever alternate
! year between the 23d and oath Of Feb
ruary. BY that means the average Of
four years showed 366 IA days to the
year. This excess over the true trOp-
ical year was partially corrected by
making every third period Of eight
years have only three Of these extra
months, each Of them being p days
long.
This sytem Of arbitrary date fixing
led to a great many abuses. Rulers
so abused It as to lengthen their own
terms OF office. Days were omitted in
order that some favored person might
quit a foreign post before his duty
expired All sorts Of manipulatiOns Of
the calendar were resorted to, and
the power was so grossly abused that
Julius Caesar decided to put an end
to 1t once and for all
He commissioned a great Alexandrian
scholar SOsigenes, TO make study OF
the calendar, and to prepare il in such
shape that il would serve to keep
the seasons cOincident with the days
Of the year The proposed change
OF the first things Caesar decided was
that the spring equinox should be
restored TO March %, which was then
regarded as the proper date. He also
decided that in order to adjust the
calendar and start il off right, the
year that we now denOminate 46 B c.
should be made 445 days long. This
year was called The Year OF Confu-
sion This year was the first one
which used the leap year occurring
every fourth year.
changes First OF Year.
In his new system Caesar changed
the beginning OF the year from March
] to January ]. The proposal was that
the months should alternate between
80 and 81 days. starting January with
81, me single exception being that
February should have %. This ar
rangement would have saved many mil
non recitaIs Of, Thirty days hath Sep
those who cannot otherwise remem-
per which months have 80 and which
81 days.
When Caesar Augustus came along
ne saw that July which had been
called "Quintillus" was changed IN
nOnor Of Julius Caesar, so he decided
70 change, 'SeXtillus," to August and
10 make il just as long as the month
q julius This made three months
OF 81 days together, and made the
quarter SO days long. This so upset
al interest and other calculations
tnat an uprOar arose, and the result
was that Augustus mended matters
oy taking a day off each September
ana November and adding them to
Octoper and December. julius Caesar
1lNeu ms leap year between the oath
and 10Th Of March. creating il by
counting the sixth day or the s'ka-
lends OF March twice, hence the name
oisSextile,' as applied TO leap year
Pope Gregory's Change.
fIactonai error by adding a
leap year every four years was such
---e-E 1e the tune or pope Gregory
XII, the equinox had refrigerated to
Aarch II. In order to restore It to
It's true date. March 81 pOpe Gregory
IN 1882 decided that the calendar
should De moved up a few notches
therefore, he caused the fifth OF DC
toner TO be called the 18th OF October ]
lie further provided that the errors of
the Julian calendar should be avoided
In the future by making three out OF
every FOUR OF the centennial years
plain years instead Of leap years This
so nearly makes the calendar coincide
Win the tropical year that only once
IN approximately four thousand years
VIII a single day be counted II the
GregOrian calendar had provided for
the INTERPOLATION Of 81 DAYS every 12S
years, instead Of S2 as at present.
the calendar would be so nearly exact l
that the error would not amount to
more than single day in 100 900
years. Whether this matter will be I
considered by those who will try to
revise the calendar at the Geneva con-
Tention this year, is not known It !
mas been proposed that II the Grego-
rian rule should be simply extended, |
so that every year exactly Invisible by !
1000 shall contain only S65 DAYS. the /
error In the GregOrian system would I
be only one day in 10000 years.
Before the reform OF pope Gregory |
many abuses had creDt into the cal Z
endar similar TO those which existed /
before Julius Caesar took up the mat |
ter. The authorities of the church |
claimed the sole right Of fixing the I
calendar, and anyone else was fined I
for compiling one. It is asserted that I
this was done in order to force the /
people TO give proper attention to the 4
interest Of the church. since. being de- /
pendent on the church for their sea- [
sonal Information. they could not neg
lect it. Sometimes special days were ]
inserted. and sometimes they were I
taken out.
Easter Date Selected.
The matter of time reckoning came /
up prominently again in S25 A D., I
when the council Of Nice took up the /
matter Of fixing the Easter date. up /
on wkich practically all of the other /
movable festivals. mainly to suit indi- i
vidual desires. Tt was provided that /
thereafter Easter should fall on the /
Sunday following the first full moon /
on or after the vernal equinox. This (
law OF Easter fixing has from time I
to the present permitted il 10 come
on widely varying dates. 1t may 1
come as early as March 21 and as
late as April 25.
The calendar reform of pope Gre
CORY XIII. was stOuUy resisted by the
Trr,faetaufe and rna Eastern church. /