The New York herald., 1922-01-01
tions That May Be as Important as Any
Held in Ages Past

1882, when, without warning, New Years
ceased to come the day before Easter!
The story of this Juvenile April-foo is
quite authentic. In fact. It started the
April-fool game, as will be seen. 1t goes
back to the sun and moon The SUM- first
Civilization was long perfecting a calen-
dar to keep up with the sum- The apparent
solar eclipse turning slowly and the equi-
noxes not being fixed points. the civil year of
Romulus had got so far ahead of the weather
that Julius Cesar had to add eighty five
days to the year As B. c. in order to bring
the commencement of spring back to the
vernal equinox.
Sixteen hundred years later. Pope Greg
ory XIII. had to turn the clock back again.
This time the equinox was arriving ten
days ahead of the calendar; so the confer
ence of learned men which he assembled
cut eleven days out of the year 1882, by
shortening the month of September-the Sd
of that month being followed by the 14th.
1t Was the Noon of April
That Made the Trouble
The church had always been running a
lunar year to determine religious holidays.
1t does so yet-whereby Easter comes IL
regularly. 1t is one of the things which
the coming conference Is called to regulate.
An irregular Easter was all right enough
in those easygoing times There was moth
ing to trouble the farmers barley sowing.
so long as the year itself began on a fixed
date. Romulus had made the year begin
on March Caesar changed II to January
1. Charlemagne shifted 1t back to March /.
1t was all right either way. Between the
first day of the year and the spring equinox
the number of days had always been con-
stant under each great law giver's system
except. always for the slowly increasing
discrepancy of the sun, which Gregory ar
ranged by cutting out those eleven days.
But when. In the twelfth century, the
Christian world transferred New Years Day
from Charlemagne's March / to Holy Satur-
day, the lunar year began to get in its fine
work. Holy Saturday, then now, might
fall anywhere between March "a and April
24-and New Years Day was no longer a
fixed date for centuries.
In England where they came to fix their
own particular English New Years on
March Is Cbut in England only, the confu-
sion was so much less that the modern
change to January was not made until the
year 1882 but in France the mixup had
become so troublesome that Charles TX.
eighteen years before Pope Gregory's con
ference, decreed that New Years Day should
fall on January in Francois in the days
of julius Caesar, when there was neither
Christmas nor Easter!
On Easter Day of the year 1865, the kids
set up a plaintive inquiry. Where were
gifts?
January (you see) had passed unnoticed
over their innocent little heads, merely
technical date. even for their parents. And
now. on Easter day, the children learned
all inexplicable, that yesterday had not been
New Years!
New Years is past, long. long ago!"
their parents explained. New Years was
last january"
"Yes." the children answered, "but our
presents?"
You had them on Christmas" said the
parents.
But the children knew that they were
Christmas gifts
Where were the handsome and substan-
tial New Years presents which they always
got the Saturday night before Easter
morning? Alas, they had got lost in the
shuttle.
For centuries, you see. every one had re-
ceived real, worthwhile New Years pres
ents (relic Of the antique Roman world)