Albuquerque morning journal., 1915-01-05
KEEPING THE CALENDAR TRUE TO THE SUN
IL Has Had vagaous Romantic History
" twisted MI Out OF shape Many Times Never
Entirely straighcned

great convenience was at last de-
eidred public nuisance.
In making up the table OF months
he callated as follows;
Thirty days hath April.
June, August. october and December;
All the rest have thiriy-one,
Excepting February alone.
Which hath but twenty-nlne, In fine,
Til every fourth year (they didn't
call II leapyear them gives thirty.
That was Caesars mperious way.
But August didn't like It, His vanity
I was hurt. Why, should his month
have one less day than July? Then
julius took a day from February and
gave IL TO August It may have made
August feel better. but julius, because
ne wanted the months of 80 days to
alternate with the months OF 81 days,
mad TO reduce September and Novem-
Der TO 80 days and give the extras 20
October ana December And after
all that fuss by the great Caesar, the
calendar question wasn't settled.
IL kept bobbing np for centuries
and still bohs.
The most important bob was In
1882, and Pope Gregory XIII attended
TO II. The Julian calendar had pre-
vailed among the Christian nations
until the accumulation Of error
amounted TO ten complete days. The
time of the celebration Of Easter and
hence OF all the movable fasts. had
been unfixed. Pope Gregory. tak'ne
ADVICE OF the astronomer ClavjIs. or- |
dained that ten days should re de- |
Quoted from the current yer. Ac- |
eordlngly the 9Th Of October becarie |
TIE 18th. The Julian calendar vas
further amended by decreeinv that IL I
4 year ended in two ciphers i should |
not be counted n leap-year unless d. I
visible by tour hundred instead of
four.
Caesars reckoning had disarrang-
ed matters because he assumed a
year OF 365 Ia DAYS. whereas thelf
correct figures are 365 days, hours.
As minutes, 46 seconds, or II minutes
and Ia seconds less. What a differ
ence just | minutes a seconds made,
while generations lived and diedi Tn
der Gregorys mathematics there will
be one day .unaocounted for about
1900 A. d.
In some countries. however, even
N Europe. the pope's mandate was
not observed. Some of the Low Coun-
.ries didn't get around 10 change un-
III the 18th century, and then they
had III days TO subtract In Great 3
5ritain. after commerce and people
1ad undergone great Inconvenience in
'oreign dealings parliament equaliz-
ID the style of reckoning with the US
lge OF other leading European ma |
ions. Russia. Greece and Tuscany,
however, still stick to the old way,
md are now 10 days ahead OF us, or ]
,ehind us, according as you Judge by
he calendar or by the sun. OF course,
n different parts of the world, there
re numerous calendar variations.
The Chinese New Years. for instance. {
ONES on our February is. The Jew
sh system Is a study in intercalarics
We--most Europeans and Ameri- {
ans---are Hike the ancient Egyptians !
4 regarding midnight as the begin Q
ing of day. The astronomers. after |
ne example of Ptolemy and Of
celebrants. begin il at noon. i
he modem Greeks. like the ancient
haldeans, choose sunrise; the Ital-
ms and Bohemians suppose the day
} begin at sunset. Rome, down to
he Bird century B. G.. had no other
vision Of the day except sunrise.
inset and midday. We divide ours
lch according TO his wisdom.