The searchlight., 1912-12-27

time of the year
| as we know II
now. Little more than twenty centu-
ries OF the earth's annual celestial
tours have been Tailed with the year
as the unit of time. This innovation
Is credited to Eratosthenes, mathe-
matician and philosopher. who held
Job as librarian for one of the Ptol-
emys at Alexandria about 254 years
before Christ. Eratosthenes no doubt
found delight In devising a system by
which future ages could eat their
meals end go to bed and get up again
without having to first run out into
the yard to see where the sun or
might chance to be.
We all know that the year is the
period In which the sun makes a COM
plete circuit Of the heavens and re-
! turns to the point in the zodiac
whence it started, but we never stop
to question how or why. II Is enough
for us that calendars and almanacs
| are thrown our way for the asking,
wherein We find each day Of the
I
bered.
Our years are of the Christian era
and extend from January 1 to Decem-
ber 81. This era was first used by
Dionysius Exigus in A. ID. 533. II was
more than a thousand years before
the year was begun on January 1 by
many nations. Before the days of
Eratosthenes there seems to have
been no crying demand for precise
plan of counting time. In one city
the reckoning was by n succession OF
kings, In another by a succession of
magistrates or priests. Even after
the adoption in European countries of
the Christian era there were so many
methods OF dating-national, provin-
| cial and ecclesiastical-that only con-
fusion could result. Mythology long
had held a higher place than astron-
omy.
Peoples of Egypt and Babylonia are
said to have been wiser than those
of other nations that figure in the cen
turies following them. Sages of those
| olden times were familiar with the
heavens. but the Greeks who followed
them could not calculate the advent
of their moons in conjunction with
the sun. The Hebrews before going
down into Egypt and the Arabians
before the time OF Mohammed calcu-
lated time only by the moon. They
| figured IL lunatlons or 35i days as
the duration of the year On that
| basis the New Years day returned to
! the same season once in 80 years.
! Moses is said to have obtained all OF
his chronological knowledge from
the Egyptians who learned the length
OF the tropical year by observing the
, rising of Sirius, the dogstar.
Some troubles OF the Jews In keep
| ing their calendar straight are told in
the Jewish encyclopedia. In early
! times an extra month was thrown in
! every two or three years. Calcula-
tions OF the relative length of the
solar and lunar years were handed
down by traditions In the patriarchial
family. II was possible also to Judge
by the grain harvest. II the month
of Nissan arrived and the sun was so
far from the yernal equinox that 1t
could not reach II by the 10th OF the
, month. the month was not called Nj
san. but Adar Sheni (secon6.
The country people and the inhab-
itants of Babylonia were informed of
the beginning of the month by fire
signals. carried frcm station to sta
ton in the mountain country.
"Under the patriarchate of Rabbi
Judah L." says the Jewish encyclo-
pedia. "the Samaritans, in order to con-
fuse the Jews, set fire signals at i'm
proper times and thus caused the
Jews to fall into error with regard
20 the day OF the new moon. Rabbi
Judah accordingly abolished the fire
signals and employed messengers"
The Jewish calendar reckons the
days from evening to evening In ac-
oordancs with the order observed in
the biblical account OF the creation.
The Jewish cycle in nineteen years
exceeds the Gregorian by hours, s
minutes and 15.3 seconds. This makes
a difference in a hundred cycles
u,s00 years. OF days. 81 hours. as
minutes and seconds. The assumed
duration OF the solar year Is 6 min
utes 80 1851 seconds in excess of the
true astronomical value. which will
! cause the dates of the commencement
Of future Jewish years. that are 80
calculated. to advance from the equi-
nox day in error In ZIG years.
All European countries borrowed
civil calendars from the Romans. The
year began with March and that ac-
counts for the present names Of the
last four months Of the year. In the
reign OF Numa tvo months were add
il ID lAnnasH N AhA hoaln alaA md Eak.