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CALENDAR
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CALENDAR , so called from the See also:Roman Calends or Kalends, a method of distributing See also:time into certain periods adapted to the purposes of See also:civil See also:life, as See also:hours, days, See also:weeks, months, years, &c. Of all the periods marked out by the motions of the See also:celestial bodies, the most conspicuous, and the most intimately connected with the affairs of mankind, are the See also:solar See also:day, which is distinguished by the diurnal revolution of the See also:earth and the See also:alternation of See also:light and darkness, and the solar See also:year, which completes the circle of the seasons. But in the See also:early ages of the See also:world, when mankind were chiefly engaged in rural occupations, the phases of the See also:moon must have been See also:objects of See also:great See also:attention and See also:interest,—hence the See also:month, and the practice adopted by many nations of reckoning time by the motions of the moon, as well as the still more See also:general practice of combining, lunar with solar periods The solar day, the solar year, and the lunar month, or See also:lunation, may therefore be called the natural divisions of time. All others, as the See also:hour, the See also:week, and the civil month, though of the most See also:ancient and general use, are only arbitrary and conventional. Day.—The subdivision of the day (q.v.) into twenty-four parts, or hours, has prevailed since the remotest ages, though different nations have not agreed either with respect to the See also:epoch of its commencement or the manner of distributing the hours. Europeans in general, like the ancient •Egyptians, See also:place the commencement of the civil day at midnight, and reckon twelve See also:morning hours from midnight to midday, and twelve evening hours from midday to midnight. Astronomers, after the example of See also:Ptolemy, regard the day as commencing with the See also:sun's See also:culmination, or See also:noon; and find it most convenient for the purposes•of computation to reckon through the whole twenty-four hours. See also:Hipparchus reckoned the twenty-four hours from midnight to midnight. Some-nations, as the ancient Chaldeans and the See also:modern Greeks, have chosen sunrise for the commencement of the day; others, again, as the Italians and Bohemians, suppose it to commence at sunset. In all these cases the beginning of the day varies with the seasons at all places not under the See also:equator. In the early ages of See also:Rome, and even down to the See also:middle of the 5th See also:century after the See also:foundation of the See also:city, no other divisions of the day were known than sunrise, sunset, and midday, which was marked by the arrival of the sun between the Rostra and a place called Graecostasis, where ambassadors from See also:Greece and other countries used to stand. The Greeks divided the natural day and See also:night into twelve equal parts each, and the hours thus formed were denominated temporary hours, from their varying in length according to the seasons of the year. The hours of the day and night were of course only equal at the time of the equinoxes. The whole See also:period of day and night they called PvXOiµepov. Week.—The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions,—a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity. Although it did not enter into the calendar of the Greeks, and was not introduced at Rome till after the reign of See also:Theodosius, it has been employed from time immemorial in almost all eastern countries; and as it forms neither an See also:aliquot See also:part of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the See also:Mosaic See also:recital will be at a loss, as See also:Delambre remarks, to assign it to an origin having much semblance of See also:probability. It might have been suggested by the phases of the moon, or by the number of the See also:planets known in ancient times, an origin which is rendered more probable from the names universally given to the different days of which it is composed. In the See also:Egyptian See also:astronomy, the See also:order of the planets, beginning with the most remote, is See also:Saturn, See also:Jupiter, See also:Mars, the Sun, See also:Venus, See also:Mercury, the Moon. Now, the day being divided into twenty-four hours, each hour was consecrated to a particular See also:planet, namely, one to Saturn, the following to Jupiter, the third to Mars, and so on according to the above order; and the day received the name of the planet which presided over its first hour. If, then, the first hour of a day was consecrated to Saturn, that planet would also have the 8th, the 15th, and the 22nd hour; the 23rd would fall to Jupiter, the 24th to Mars, and the 25th, or the first hour of the second day, would belong to the Sun. In like manner the first hour of the 3rd day would fall to the Moon, the first of the 4th day to Mars, of the 5th to Mercury, of the 6th to Jupiter, and of the 7th to Venus. The See also:cycle being completed, the first hour of the 8th day would return to Saturn, and all the others succeed in the same order. According to Dio See also:Cassius, the Egyptian week commenced with Saturday. Ontheir See also:flight from See also:Egypt, the See also:Jews, from hatred to their ancient oppressors, made Saturday the last day of the week. The See also:English names of the days are derived from the Saxon. The ancient See also:Saxons had borrowed the week from some Eastern nation, and substituted the names of their own divinities for those of the gods of Greece. In legislative and See also:justiciary acts the Latin names are still retained. Latin. English. Saxon. See also:Dies See also:Solis. See also:Sunday. Sun's day. Dies Lunae. See also:Monday. Moon's day. Dies Martis. Tuesday. Tiw's day. Dies Mercurii. Wednesday. See also:Woden's day. Dies Jovis. See also:Thursday. See also:Thor's day. Dies Veneris. See also:Friday. See also:Frigg's day. Dies Saturni. Saturday. Seterne's day. Month.—Long before the exact length of the year was deter-See also:mined, it must have been perceived that the synodic revolution of the moon is accomplished in about 201 days. Twelve lunations, therefore, See also:form- a period of 354 days, which differs only by about 114 days from the solar year. From this circumstance has arisen the practice, perhaps universal, of dividing the year into twelve months. But in the course of a few years the accumulated difference between the solar year and twelve lunar months would become considerable, and have the effect of transporting the commencement of the year to a different See also:season. The difficulties that arose in attempting to avoid this inconvenience induced some nations to abandon the moon aitogether, and regulate their year by the course of the sun. The month, how-ever, being a convenient period of time, has retained its place in the calendars of all nations; but, instead of denoting a synodic revolution of the moon, it is usually employed to denote an arbitrary number of days approaching to the twelfth part of a solar year. Among the ancient Egyptians the month consisted of See also:thirty days invariably; - and in order to See also:complete the year, five days were added at the end, called supplementary days. They made use of no intercalation, and by losing a See also:fourth of a day every year, the commencement of the year went back one day in every period of four years, and consequently made a revolution of the seasons in 1461 years. Hence 1461 Egyptian years are equal to 146o See also:Julian years of 3654 days each. This year is called vague, by See also:reason of its commencing sometimes at one season of the year, and sometimes at another.
The Greeks divided the month into three decades, or periods of ten days,—a practice which was imitated by the See also:French in their unsuccessful See also:attempt to introduce a new calendar at the period of the Revolution. This See also:division offers two advantages: the first is, that the period is an exact measure of the month of thirty days; and the second is, that the number of the day of the See also:decade is connected with and suggests the number of the day of the month. For example, the 5th of the decade must necessarily be the 5th, the 15th, or the 25th of the month; so that when the day of the decade is known, that of the month can scarcely be mistaken. In reckoning by weeks. it is necessary to keep in mind the day of the week on which each month begins.
The See also:Romans employed a division of the month and a method of reckoning the days which appear not a little extraordinary, and must, in practice, have been exceedingly inconvenient. As frequent allusion is made by classical writers to this embarrassing method of computation, which is carefully retained in the ecclesiastical calendar, we here give a table showing the See also:correspondence of the Roman months with those of modern See also:Europe.
Instead of distinguishing the days by the ordinal See also:numbers first, second, third, &c., the Romans counted backwards from three fixed epochs, namely, the Calends, the Nones and the Ides. The Calends (or Kalends) were invariably the first day of the month, and were so denominated because it had been an ancient See also:custom of the pontiffs to See also:call the See also:people together on that day, to apprize them of the festivals, or days that were to be kept sacred during the month. The Ides (from an obsolete verb iduare, to See also:divide) were at the middle of the month, either the 13th or the 15th day; and the Nones were the ninth day before the
Ides, counting inclusively. From these three terms the days received their See also:denomination in the following manner:—Those which were comprised between the Calends and the Nones were called the days before the Nones; those between the Nones and the Ides were called the days before the Ides; and, lastly, all the days after the Ides to the end of the month were called the days before the Calends of the succeeding month. In the months of See also: In all the other months the Ides were on the 13th and the Nones on the 5th; consequently there were only four days named from the Nones. Every month had eight days named from the Ides. The number of days receiving their denomination from the Calends depended on the number of days in the month and the day on which the Ides fell. For example, if the month contained 31 days and the Ides fell on the 13th, as was the See also:case in See also:January, See also:August and See also:December, there would remain 18 days after the Da March. anua See also:April. See also:February. Days the of J uly August Septemb er. Month. October. December. See also:November. 2 Calendae. Calendae. Calendae. Calendae. 6 4 4 4 3 5 3 3 3 4 4 Prid. Nonas. Prid. Novas. Prid. Nonas. 5 3 Nonae. Nonae. Nonae. 6 Prid. Nonas. 8 8 8 7 Nonae. 7 7 7 8 8 6 6 6 9 7 5 5 5 to 6 4 4 4 II 5 3 12 4 Prid. Idus. Prid. Idus. Prid. Idus. 13 3 Idus. Idus. Idus. 14 Prid.Idus. 19 z8 z6 15 Idus. 18 17 15 16 17 17 16 14 17 16 16 r5 13 18 15 15 14 12 19 14 14 13 II 20 13 13 12 to 21 I2 12 II 9 22 II II to 8 23 to to 9 7 24 9 9 8 6 25 8 8 7 5 26 7 7 6 4 27 6 6 5 3 28 5 5 4 Prid. Cal. 29 4 4 33 Mart. 30 3 3 Prid. alen. 31 Prid. Calen. Prid. Calen. Ides, which, added to the first of the following month, made 19 days of Calends. In January, therefore, the 14th day of the month was called the nineteenth before the Calends of February (counting inclusively), the 15th was the 18th before the Calends and so on'to the 30th, which was called the third before the Calend (tertio Calendas)', the last being the second of the Calends, or the day before the Calends (pridie Calendas). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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