The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-15
CALENDARS Of THE
ANCIENT NATIONS
All Based on Dinural ReyO-
luton of the Earth
DAY is MOST SIMPLE
Some Had No Hours-0rigin of the
Week is Obscure, But Probably
Came From Oriental Nations.
Romans Had None
DAY is MOST SIMPLE
From the Royal Astronomical Journal.

From the Royal Astronomical Journal
Measurements of time based ON the
phenomena of nature were naturally re-
garded as peculiarly sacred by those an
clients who worshipped the heavenly bod
les. They venerated even the motion OF
the stars This is not surprising to the
open mind. Partial knowledge made them
attentive to conspicuous rather than to
less observed, though more significant,
phenomena. 1t was natural that they
should be impressed by sudden and brief
but overwhelming exhibitions more than
by changes that occupied long periods and
made slow progress, requiring extended,
systematic observation.
The calendars of the ancient world were
based on the diurnal revolution of the
EARTH on the phenomena of sunrise, noon
day and sunset, the periodic phases of
the moon, its division into four quarters;
on the four seasons with their wonderful
variations of temperature and storms,
thunder and dew, seed-time and harvest,
and on all the multitudinous phenomena
of the skies.
If we should suppose, however, that the
primitive races were without knowledge
as the result of observation or devoid OF
interest in science we should be in error.
They may have been quite as scientific
in spirit as ourselves, though they had
fewer instruments for scientific pursuit
They were not equipped as we are. The
solar year was not accurately determined
till the sixteenth Christian century, and
the ancients did not even know that the
earth had a motion around the sun, yet
the Egyptians of 1000 years ago mad 11Xed
the year as period of 365 days, divided
SO accurately and wisely that it was
copied by the French Commune little
over a century ago as being the perfec-
ton of year divisions, and the Chaldeans
had a year of IL months 2000 years before
that.
Day Simplest Division
The day was the simplest of all calendar
periods. Some of the most civilized ma
tions OF antiquity had no hours but only
such divisions as were understood py
the terms dawn" forenoon" after
noon" twilight" evening" and the four
watches of the night. The ancient Greeks
divided the day and the night each into
II equal parts and, as the parts were
variable in duration, according to the sea-
son of the year, they We're called Tempo
rary hours, summer hours, winter hours
etc. The Jews had hour divisions Tor the
day. but many Of the ancients had none.
The origin of the week is obscure.
We cannot find any account of Its be-
ginning. 1t was probably, at the first,
regarded as a quarter of the moon and
there is little doubt that this was Its
origin The moon was a conspicuous
object Its motions were regarded as
sacred Its phases We're observed by
everybody. Naturally, one way of de-
scribinE them was by stating what
fraction of the disk was illuminated on
any particular night. They did not un-
derstand the progressive increase and
decrease of the moons bright face, and
had not like the moderns. lost their
interest in lunar phenomena
Many of the ancients had no week IN
their calendar The Greeks, for in
stance had none, nor the Romans TIL
after the reign of Theodosius. In fact.
our own forefathers borrowed the week
from the Orientals, and gave its days
the names of their own deities. Ihe
people of the east numbered the days
of the week. The Romans. who had no
week, numbered the days of the month
backward from the calends, the nones
and the ides.
The beginning of the day has varied
with different peoples The Chaldeans
reckoned their day from sunrise, the
Jews from sunset, the Egyptians and
Greeks from midnight, and We follow
the example of the Greeks in this mat
ter. The beginning of the week has
also varied. The Egyptian week began
with Saturday, the Hebrew week with