Twin-City herald. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1927-1940, 1937-04-17
the CALENDAR

ditions. the Calendar presents SUD-
ject of fascinating interest. Inc
Egyptians, who recorded their opser-
vations on astronomy 5000 years be-
fore the Christian era, developed their
calendar by studying noon-lengths OF
Pyramid shadows each spring ana
autumn. By years of labor and re-
search they discovered the year
length to be 365.242 days. Almost as
precise a measurement as modern
astronomers make with the most
powerful and accurate instruments.
knowledge of the calendar assured
the Egyptians adequate crops. There
was always corn in Egypt" The
sowing was never too early or too
late. These lands, occupying the
Delta of the Nile, were extraordinary
lily fertile, and with the double har-
vest each year, there were always
margins of supply to meet the de-
mands of increasing population and
the needs of other people. How I'M
portant a public benefactor was such
a parsonage as Euclid (323-285 B. Co
who restored ancient systematic us
ages and customs, may be judged
from the fact that the flooding of
the Nile materially obliterated the
landmarks that formed the boundary
lines of estates. When the water re-
ceeded the whole country presented
a level surface and nothing but the
practical assistance of Geometry
could determine the amount and 10
cality of private possession.
When the Romans, under Julius
Caesar, subjugated Egypt they forced
Sosigene, the Egyptian astronomer,
to reveal the secret of the calendar
preserved by the priests, the Roman
calendar being based on moon
months. Julius decided to adopt the
Egyptian calendar, but instead of
copying its equal twelve thirty-day
months and five-day festival period,
he spread the days out to make the
first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth
months thirty-one days long, and
made February twenty-nine days
long to make six odd numbered
months because odd numbers were
lucky" The new calendar worked
well-so well that the Roman Senate
renamed the month in which Julius
Caesar was born Julius"
Then came Augustus. He wanted
his birth-month to be thirty-one
days long, so he took the twenty
ninth day of February to make the
thirty-first of August. That grouped
ninety-th three days in the third quar-
ter and only ninety-days in the first
quarter. Roman property holders OBJ
iected and asked Augustus to put
August 31st back to February, but
instead he moved the 31St of Septem-
Der to make the 31st of October, and
later shifted the 31st of November
to make the 31st of December. That
is how the unequal length of our
months were fixed.
Julius Caesar thinking that the
years length was exactly 365 and
one-quarter> days, decided to keep
the calendar true to each season by
inserting a Leap-day every four
years. That made one Leap-day too
many in every one hundred and
years. The result was
that by the time of Pope Gregory,
the Julian calendar was ten days out
of gear with the seasons. Therefore
the Gregorian Reform in 1882 left
out the ten days between October
5 and Is.
England did net accept the Reform
for nearly 200 years. 1t got into
step with the rest of the world in
1852, the provisions of the Act ap-
plying automatically to the colonies
at that time. George Washington was
20 years of age when the British
calendar was changed from the
Julian to the Gregorian style, in that
year the eleven days between Septem-
Der 8 and IA were dropped out. That
moved George Washington's birthday
from the 18th to the 22nd of Febru-
ary. All other persons birthdays and
historic events were corresponding
ly moved eleven days.
Edward R. Thomas.