The Winslow mail., 1913-01-04

as we know y
now. Little more than twenty centu:
rfes OF the earth's annual celestial
tours have been tailed with the year
as the unit CT time. This innovation
is credited to Fratcsthenes, rathe-
r4atician and philosopher, uho held 9
Job as librarian for one Of the Ptcr
enoys ct Alexandria about 254-vears
before Christ Eratcsthenss NO doubt
found delight in devising a system by
which future ages could eat their
meals and GO to bed and get up again
without having to first 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 wear is the
period in which the sun makes q com.
rlete 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 alnnanacs
are thrown our way for the asking,
wherein we find each day of the
month and Of the year carefully NUN
hered.
Our years are OF the Christian era
and extend from January l to Decem
her 81. This era was first used BY
Dienysius Exigus in I'd. 5S3. It was
more than q thousand years before
The year was begun on January / by
many nations. Before the davs of
Eratosthenes there seems to have
been no CRYING demand for precise
plan of counting time. In one city
the reckoning was by a succession Of
kings, in another by succession of
magistrates or priests. Even after
The adoption in European countries Of
the Christian era there were go many
methods Of dating-national provin-
cial and ecclesiastical-that only con.
fusion could result Mythology long
had held higher place than astron
nmy
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
nf their moons in conjunction with
the sun. The Hebrews before going
down into Egypt and the Arabians
before the time Of Mohammed ca1cr.
lated time only by the moon. They
figured u lunations or 354 davs as
the duration Of the year. On that
basis the New Years day returned to
the same season 'cnce in 90 years
Moses is said to have obtained all Ct
his chronological knowledge from
the Egyptians who learned the length
Of the tropical year by observing tbs
rising Of Sirius, the dcgstar.
Some troubles Of the Jews in keen.
ing their calendar straight are told in
the Jewish encyclopedia In early
times an extra month vas thrown in
every tro or three years Calcula-
tions Of the relative length of the
solar and lunar years were handed
down by traditions in the ratriarchial
family. It was possible also to iudee
by the grain harvest. # the month
Of Nissan arrived and the sun was sc
far from the vernsl equinox that II
could not reach It by the 18th Of tbs
month, the month was not called Nj
san, but Adar Sheni (second).
The country people and the inhah
itants Of Pahylonia were informed 81
the beginning Of the month BY frs
signals, carried frcr, station to sta.
ticn in the mountain country.
Under the ratriarchate Of pahhi
Judah l." says the Jewish encvclc
redia, 'tthe samaritars, in order to con.
fuse the Jews, set fire signals at i'm
proper times and thus caused tbs
Jews to fell into error with regard
to the day~ct the new moon. Rebbi
Judah accordingly abolished the fre
signals and employed messengers"
The Jewish, calendar reckons tbs
DAYS. from evening to evening in &C
cordanca with vthe order observed ir
the bib1tcal account Of the Great ton
The Jewish cycle in nineteen wears
exceeds the Gregorisn by hours, 6
n1inutes and 153 seconds. This makes
a difference in hundred cycles
1,9oo years) ct; days, q hours, 4:
minutes and seconds. The assumed
duration Of the solar year is min
utes 80 25-57 seconds in excess of tbs
trps astEonaraical value, which will
cause the dat4sEot the commencement
of future Jewish years, that are GO
calculated, to advance from the euvi.
mex day in error in 21e years.
All European countries borrowed
civil calendars from the Romans, Tbs
year began with March and thai ac
counts for the present names of the
last four months of the year. In the
reign CT Nun1a two months were add
III, January a. the beginning and Feb