Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1913-01-02

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~ >ksshssssaassn time OF the year
as we know it
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 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 year is the
period in which the sun makes a CON-
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. 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
and extend from January to Deem
Der 81. This era was first used by
Dionysius Exigus in A. D. 533. It was
more than 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 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 so many
methods of dating rational, proyin-
cial and ecclesiastical----tha that only con-
fusion could result. Mythology long
had held higher place than astron-
omy. .a @t.7 -.
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-I
lated time only by the moon. They
figured IL lunations or 1854 days a5j
the duration of the year. On tina
basis the New Years day returned to)
the same season once in 80 yearsl
Moses is said to have obtained all of
bis 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 I'M
the Jewish encyclopedia. In early
times an extra month was thrown in,
4 every two Or three years. Calcula-
lions of the relative length of the
solar and lunar years were handed
down by traditions in the patriarchialI
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). ,....
vs. The country people and the inhab-
itants of 5BabylOnia were Informed OF
the beginning Of the month by fire
signals, carried from station to sta
ton in the mountain country. a.
under the patriarchate of Rabbi
Judah H." says the Jewish encyclo-
3pedia, "the Samaritans, in order to con-
fuse the Jews, set fire signals at i'm
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-
II cordance with the order observed in
Ii the biblical account Of the creation.
The Jewish cycle In nineteen years
exceeds the Gregorian by 2 hours, S
y minutes and 1873 seconds. This makes
& q difference in. hundred cycles
1900 years) Of days, 81 hours, As
4 minutes and seconds. The assumed
duration of the solar year is 6 min
sutes 80 25-57 seconds in excess of the
true astronomical value, which will
cause the dates Of the mencement
OF future Jewish years, that are 50
calculated, to advance from the equi-
nox day in error in PIG years. .% "a
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 two months were add
Cd, January at the beginning and Feb,