Evening star., 1952-09-15
When the Calendar Jumped u Doys
By John Beniomin Nichols

In the year 1852 the people went to bed
on the End day Of September. and got up
on the 18th. That came about from an
Act Of the British Parliament which, in
order to rectify the calendar. ordained
that the next day after the End Of Sep
tember In that year should be reckoned
the 14th. In that way our present New
Style or Gregorian calendar was estab-
liShed In the British dominions. The
l4th day Of September. 1852, was note
worthy as being the exact bicentennial
anniversary Of that calendar reform.
What marks the passage Of the year
for us is the succession Of the season
spring. summer, autumn. winter; and
this is the result Of the astronomical
position and movements Of the earth.
The problem Of the calendar was to make
the four celestial key points or land
marks In the earth's annual orbit, the
equinoxeS and solStices, which are con-
ventionally taken as the opening days Of
the various seasons. always fall ON the
same days in the civil year, that is, on or
about the 21St or 23rd Of March, June,
September, and December.
The natural time units for the calen-
dar are the astronomical day and year.
The duration of the solar year is exactly
1856, 1926 seconds. or 365 days, hours.
48 minutes, and 46 seconds. Thus the
days do not come out even with the years,
there being an excess each year Of nearly
(but not Quite) quarter Of q day, or
one day In four years. II this fourth Of
day were disregarded. the equinoctial
points and the seasons would move for
ward one day in every four years. or IS
days in century.
The development Of the calendar goes
back to the ancient civilizations: but 1t
has come to us as It passed through and
was shaped by the Romans. On account
Of disregard Of the extra quarter day
each year, in early Roman times the sea-
sons had advanced In the current incor-
rect calendar q couple Of months, so that
the beginning of spring came in the
latter part of May. Returning from a
campaign in 46 B. c. Julius Caesar took
drastic steps to correct matters. He
added two months to that year Of con-
fusion" and ordained that thereafter In
every fourth year, the leap year, an extra
day should be added to the calendar. The
scheme thus adopted was called the Ju-
liam calendar; and it corrected the worst
alterations Of the previous systems.
However, the annual correction Of
quarter Of q day was not quite exact,
but differed few minutes from the true
figures. The discrepancy was small, pro-
ducing q recession of only one day in
about 1913 years: but In the course Of
centuries the accumulated difference re-
suited In o perceptible divergence Of the
Oo1ov1Hov <Vsrvp he
The great ecclesiastical Council Of Nice
in the year 325 A. D. laid down the rules
for fixing the date Of Easter and other
movable festivals. In the course of time,
by the sixteenth century the date Of the
vernal equinox. the beginning of spring.
had receded ten days from the standard
March 81 to March II, creating q per-
ceptible change in the incidence of the
seasons and confusing the calculation of
the date of Easter. Consequently, Pope
Gregory XIII in the year 1882 made a
revision Of the calendar and established
the present New Style Of "Gregorian"
system. He restored the seasonal cOrre-
spondence by ordaining that the next
day after October In that year should
be reckoned as october the 18th; and in
order to keep the seasonal dates con-
stant for the future he eliminated three
leap-year days in every four centuries
Gin the centennial years not divisible by
400). This juggling with time stabilizes
the calendar so that not for 33 centuries
will any further differences amount to a
single day.
For ITO years after the Catholic adop-
ton Of the revised calendar the Old Style
calendar continued in use in Britain until
in 1852 the New Style or Gregorian cal
endar was established by Act Of Parlia-
ment, with correction Of the then diff
ference of eleven days.
Another vital point in the development
of the calendar was the fixing Of the
date for the beginning Of the civil year.
The month Of March, the springtime and
opening Of the round Of seasons Gin the
Northern HemiSphere). was natural Sc
lection for the nominal start Of the year,
and in former days was widely 50 taken
and accepted. March was reckoned the
first month. April the second, etc.; that
made September to December the 7th to
the 10th months, as numerically indi-
Gated by their names; whereas with the
starting Of the year two months earlier,
in January, they have ANONYMOUSLY be-
come the 9th to the 18th.
The exact date In March fixed for the
beginning day Of the year varied in Diff
ferent countries: only in Iran was the
exact date Of the equinox of March II 20
adopted, thanks to the astronomical pro-
fciency Of the great Persian poet Omar
Khayyam. In England the civil year
legally began on March 25. although the
first Of January was also traditionally
celebrated as New Years Day. Thus.
Gov. Bradford In his history "Of PHI
mouth Plantation" recorded "And being
now come to ye as. Of March shall be-
gine We year 1621."
In the Gregorian calendar the first
day Of January was confirmed as the
starting point Of the year. Its selection
as such was entirely arbitrary. originally
for trivial or political reasons, and not
on a scientific or astronomical basis.
There is nothing distinctive about that
date: January Is just another day.
possessing no celestial significance dif-
ferent from that Of other days.
Before the general adoption Of the