Evening star., 1933-01-01


them from our newsboys, we have re-
ceived them as gifts, as advertisements and as
New Year greetings. Most of them have been
lost to view, perhaps. in the general after
Christmas confusion; but today We will dis
cover one in its hiding place, and We will study
It moment before placing it upon our desk
or hanging 1t at our bedside or above the
kitchen sink
We viii study it moment and in the grip
OF one of those moods of fieeting seriousness
the season brings, we will our hands over
the unborn days For the calendar refuses to
be regarded as merely a useful table. It is
time made tangible; it Is portion OF our life
time, measured defnte-inspiring hopes and
inspiring fear, arousing us from our lethargy.
So essential to us the calendar has become
that 1t is dif1cult for us to realize that man
lived long years upon the earth with no means
Of making note Of the seasons or Of counting
the passing days. The length Of the year was
too big a thing for the mind of primitive man
to comprehend. He was amazed and bewildered
by the myriads of eyer-shifting stars, by the
apparently varying speeds of the sun-god In
travelling from east to west He was bafded,
too, by the mysterious phases of the moon; and
the coming of the harsher seasons was q fear
full thing. brought on by wrath of gods or
chance
But eventually man began his crude attempts
to measure time. The evolution of our calen-
dar from those early beginnings to the present
day is filled with inconsistencies, and haloed
with romance.
The variation of the length of years has been
extremely wide. The first year" consisted Of
the period Of time in which each moon wsxed
and waned-for the moon was more easily
studied than the or stars, and became the
first means of regulating the nlusive and slip
perry days.
Years of one moon or month grew tedious in
time, and five moons (the number that could
he tal Cs7A ana ha
lished year Later the year was increased in
size from moons to 6, from to TO- and
finally to H. These moon months consisted
usually Of 80 days, and the days were
counted off by the use of bundles of sticks.
Each morning stick was drawn from the
bundle until the days that we're to be became
days that had vanished into the past. 1t was
not until the Egyptians learned something of
the relationship of the earth and the sun, and
began measuring the shadows Of their huge
pyramids that the true length Of the year was
discovered as being 365.242 days Even after
this discovery the Egyptians retained their
IL months Of 80 days each, and used the extra
days as festival days to be celebrated at the
beginning of the year.
IL rs easy to trace the increasing lengths of
the years through the diminishing ages Of
Biblical characters Methuselah, that grand
was, in reality, only 7s when he died, for he
lived in the era of single moon counts Adam
II we subject him to the indignity of measuring
his life span by full-length years, spent rs years
upon this earth, instead Of $780, Noah IT. in
stead Of s50 Abraham and Isaac belonged to
the era of five-month years and so lived not
175 and 180 years respectively but 72 and "a
jacob coming in the six-month period, lived
only 73 Of the lat years with which he is ac-
credited.
During their sojourn in Egypt the Israelites
learned the true length of the year but while
there they held tenaciously to their forefathers'
six-month year. After the exodus from Egypt
however, the ages of men recorded in the Bible
are within the normal range of lives.
The Egyptians and the Israehtes kept their
precious information to themselves and the
scattered nations and tribes of Europe used
notched sticks to ally 5, and 10 moon
years until Numa, the Roman King during the
seventh century before Christ, added the
months Of January and February to make
IL, alternating 90 and 80 days to each moon.
Even with the addition of these two
months, however, the year consisted of only
354 days. and the calendar had come into hope
less confusion by the time of Julius Caesar.
Many persons are of the opinion that Caesar
originated the calendar which came to bear
his name, and which, in modified form, is
now In almost universal use. The fact Is, how
ever, that he adopted 1t from the Egyptians
after conquering Egypt in 46 BIC. 1t seemed
obvious that the ever-wandering moon calen-
dar could never be made satisfactory, and
Caesar was delighted with the advantages the
sun calendar offered Only one difficulty wor-
ried him: The Egyptians used IL equal months
Of 30 days each. Twelve months of even num-
bers OF days could not be tolerated he insisted
Was it not odd numbers that were lucky2
The outcome was that the Egyptian calendar
was adopted, with one important change: The
five extra days (six in leap years. which the
Egyptians had celebrated as festival DAYS. were
distributed throughout the year and since it
was desired that every alternate month be
made 81 days long day was subtracted
from February-leaving that month with only
10 days The months wera diy;dna ;.4. VI