River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-12-26

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A&zZ4s9zSE@A time of the year
as we know 1t
nov. 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 ETatosthenes, mathe-
matician and philosopher, who held
job as librarian for one of the Ptol-
emys at Alexandria about 254 years
before Christ EratoBthenes no doubt
found delight in deyiging a system by
which future ages could eat their
meals and 90 to bed and get up again
without having to Erst run out into
the yard to see where the sun or
moon or some starry constellation
might chance to be.
We all know that the year is the
period in which the sun makes a com
pIeta circuit OF the heavens and re-
turns to the point in the zodiac
whence it started, but we never stop
10 question how or why. 1t is enough
for us that calendars and almanacs
are thrown our way for the asking,
wherein we find each day of the
month and OF the year carefully num-
bered
Our years are Of the Christian era
aud extend from January ] to Deem
Der 81 This era was first used by
DionysiUs Exigus in A. d. 533 1t was
more than a thousand years before
the year was begun on January 1 by
eaF.. H., g
HratOsthenes tssg9 seems to have
been no CRYING demand for a precise
plan of counting time. In one city
the reckoning was by d succession of
kings, i'll another by 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 Notwithstanding only con-
fusion could result Mythology long
had held 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
turtles 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 lunations or 354 days as
the duration of the year. On that
basis the New Years day returned to
the same season once in 33 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-
tons OF the relative length of the
solar and lunar years were handed
down by traditions in the patriarchial
family. 1t was possible also to judge
by the grain harvest. If the month
of Nissan arrived and the sun was so
far from the vernal equinox that it
could not reach it by the 10th of the
month, the month was not called Nj
san. but Adar Sheni (second).
The country people and the inhab-
itants of Babylonia were informed of
the beginning of the month by fire
signals, carried from station to sta
ton in the mountain country
Under the pGtriarchate 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
to 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.
cordanca with the order observed in
the biblical account of the creation.
The Jewish cycle in nineteen years
exceeds the Cregorian by hours. s
minutes and 1873 seconds. This makes
a difference in a hundred cycles
G,900 years. OF days. q hours, IS
minutes and ) seconds. The assumed
duration Of the solar year IS min
Utes SO 1851 seconds in excess of the
true astronomical value, which will
cause the dates OF the commencement
Of future Jewish years. that are so
calculated. to advance from the eQui-
nox day III error in 216 years.
All European countries borrowed
civil calendars from the Romans. The
year began with March and that ac-
counts for the present names ST the
last four months of the year In the
reign Of Numa two months were add
ed, January at the beginning and Feb.
ruary at the end In 542 B. c. Feb
ruary was given its present place At
that time the months had twenty-nine
and thirty days alternately, so that
che year had 345 days: to make this
more fortunate under the old super.
stition that luck lies in odd mum.
bers," one day was added The moon
makes a revolution in about twenty
nine and one-half days and twelve III
nations form period of 354 days To
get the civil calendar even with the
solar year Numa ordered an addition
al month to be inserted every second
year between the 23Fd and 28sh OF
February. consisting OF twenty-five