Are you an electronic calendar person or a paper calendar person? Is it wrong to be both? There are so many calendars to keep up with that are online – the kids sports teams keep everyone informed of changes to practice times on a Google Calendar; any time I have a business meeting, all the details get filled out automatically on my laptop & sync to my phone. Hard to beat that for convenience.
But I hate using an online calendar for my own schedule. I hate filling it in. I hate updating it. I hate keeping up with it. My daughter buys me a new planner every year for Christmas and I love filling it in during those off-schedule days before the New Year.
Apparently I’m not the only one. Sales of wall and desk calendars grow by at least 8% every year. So how many of us know the history of the calendar we all use every day?
Let’s look at the Gregorian Calendar’s history from the beginning.
Ancient Calendars
Pope Gregory’s decision to change the calendar can be traced back to ancient times. A look at the calendars of that era reveals how he arrived at his decision. Archaeologists have discovered things they believe are ancient calendars, such as the holes in Warren Field in Scotland, or Stonehenge. We can only guess what the ancient people who created these were thinking, but it’s cool to think about!
For centuries, people have looked to the stars and the moon to help them tell time. Eventually, technology caught up and humans figured out how to create sort-of reasonable time divisions. A year in nature consists of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. This causes some crazy things to happen over time. Hello Leap Year!
How the Months Got their Names
The first day of the new year wasn’t always January 1. The Ancient Romans started their year in the month we now call March. Some of the months of the year are named after things the Romans did or believed in. The Roman calendar was taken from the Greeks, who based their calendar on …. going back to prehistoric times. For this blog post, the Roman calendar will be discussed, followed by the Julian Calendar, and ending with the current, Gregorian calendar.
There is no magical reason that a year should begin in January. Since the Romans began with March, let’s start there. Some people believe that the month of March got its name from the vernal equinox, which is also sometimes referred to as the March equinox. Some people say that March was named after Mars, the Roman god of war.
Theories abound about the origin of the name April, but there is no clear answer. The word April may come from the Latin word for second, since at the time April was the second month of the year. Perhaps April got its name from the goddess Aphrodite. A third theory suggests that the name came from another Latin word, “aperire,” which means “uncover” or “open.”In April, many flowers and plants “open”, signifying the start of spring.
May is named after the goddess of growing plants: Maia.
Juno is the Roman god and patroness of marriage and weddings. That’s how June got its name. Do you know anyone who has an anniversary or is getting married in June?
The Romans named the 5th month Quintilis, which is the Latin word for “5th.” The month was later renamed to July in 44B.C after Julius Caesar.
The name August is thought to be named after Augustus Caesar. The Romans previously called it Sextillia, meaning 6th in Latin.
The “Ber” Months all have Latin roots
Now we enter the “ber” months. September is derived from septem, Latin for Seven. October is from octo, Latin for eight. November gets its name from the Latin word novem which means nine. In the end, we have December which comes from the Latin word for ten, decem.
Winter is completely ignored
The Roman Calendar ended after 10 months initially. February and January were added to the calendar by Numa Pompilius about 700 BCE.
February was named after the festival Februa. The month of January was named after the god Janus, who represented beginnings and endings.
The Romans simply ignored 61 days in the winter. Imagine that. This went on for quite some time. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar proposed a reform of the Roman calendar to institute a leap year every fourth year. This reform was designed with the help of some skilled Greek astronomers at the time. The calendar was proposed in 46 BC and took effect on January 1, 45 BC.
The Julian calendar gives us Leap Years, however, they are incorrect, and eventually, things were out of whack. The Gregorian calendar, which is the most widely used calendar today, was created to fix this issue. Important religious holidays are not in line with equinoxes and solstices.
Now we get to The Gregorian Calendar History!
Pope Gregory XIII created the Gregorian calendar, which most Western nations adopted, in 1582. The Gregorian calendar begins the year on January 1. It recalculates the year accurately, including leap years, and our 7 day week. This calendar is great for keeping track of events and important dates!
Not all countries adopted the Gregorian calendar when it was first introduced. The British and their colonies began using the Gregorian calendar in 1752. They had to drop 11 days from September when they converted, in order for it to work! September 2 was followed by September 14 in 1752. How crazy is that???
1. There are 12 irregular months.
The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A typical year is 365 days long and is divided into 12 months. However, these months are of irregular lengths. This is because 11 out of the 12 months have either 30 or 31 days, with February being the exception. The second month of the year has 28 days during a non-leap year. Every four years there is an extra day in February- this is known as a leap year.
Aside from that, the days of the year in the Gregorian calendar are divided into seven-day periods. The weeks are numbered 1 through 52, with the occasional 53rd week. Monday is the standard start to the week for most of the world. There are a few countries that don’t start their weeks on Monday. The United States and Canada are two examples of this.
2. The original goal of the Gregorian calendar was to change the date of Easter.
Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Before this, Europe used the Julian Calendar. It was based on the lunar cycle, but it was complicated because it tried to make the average year 365.25 days long The Julian Calendar was a calendar put into effect by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. that was based on the lunar cycle, but tried to make the average year 365.25 days long. However, the system was flawed. It calculated the solar year to be 365.24 days long, when it is actually 365.242 days long. The Julian calendar was gradually becoming less accurate over the years, until by the 1570s it was ten days out of sync with the seasons.
Supposedly this fact concerned Gregory, but why? According to Jennie Cohen, Easter was traditionally observed on March 21st, but each year it falls further away from the spring equinox.
3. Pope Gregory didn’t design the Gregorian calendar.
Although the new calendar is named after Pope Gregory, he did not come up with it on his own. He appointed a commission, led by physician Aloysius Lilius and astronomer Christopher Clavius, to solve the problem, which they did after five years.
They decided to get rid of the extra ten days and get back on track. Okay, those ten days are gone. Next, let’s tweak the system of leap years. Every four years we have a leap year, except on centennial years that aren’t divisible by 400. That’s why there was a leap year in 2000 but not in 1900, 1800, or 1700. leap years don’t actually take place every four years
But this is still too long, and eventually the mismatch with the solar year becomes too great.” In addition, “The length of the average year was changed to 365.2425 days. However, this is still too long and eventually the difference between the solar year becomes too large.” The Gregorian calendar is not perfect, but it is more accurate than the Julian calendar.
4. The first printed Gregorian calendar.
Gregory instituted the calendar on February 24, 1582. On March 3, Antoni Lilio was granted the exclusive rights to publish a book explaining the new calendar. This text is discussing the Lunario Novo, which was one of the first printed editions of the new calendar in 1582. Vincenzo Accolti in Rome printed it.
Lilio was unable to meet the demand for printed calendars. His rights to the calendar were taken away on September 20, 1582. The pope then commissioned this work to Christopher Clavius.
5. After replacing the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar faced resistance.
Because Gregory was the pope, there was no problem getting Roman Catholic countries to adopt the new calendar. But, that wasn’t the case with European Protestants.
The Catholic Church didn’t have any power over these states. So, they couldn’t be forced to switch calendars. Many Protestants were wary of the new calendar because they saw it as an act of Catholic aggression. Some even went as far as to believe that the new calendar was the work of the Antichrist.
This is the reason why these countries didn’t accept the Gregorian calendar until much later. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar didn’t happen at the same time in every country. For example, Germany didn’t adopt it until 1700 and England didn’t adopt it until 1752.
6. The Gregorian calendar differs from the solar year by 26 seconds per year.
Lilius’ system for making the calendar match the seasons is not perfect, explains Cohen. It is off by 26 seconds. Since its implementation, the Gregorian calendar has been 26 seconds off, causing a discrepancy of several hours. By 4909, the Gregorian calendar will be a full day ahead of the solar year.
7. Leap days can be traced back to ancient times.
While the Gregorian Calendar is widely used today and is known for its leap years, the concept of a leap year was actually developed by ancient civilizations. The ancient Egyptians are responsible for figuring out the length of a solar year. A calendar that includes an extra day every four years was adopted.
Some people think that Europeans first heard about this way of doing things from Cleopatra when she told Julius Cesar about it.
8. The Gregorian calendar is useless — well, at least to astronomers.
Useless sounds a bit harsh. The Gregorian Calendar is not useful for astronomy because it contains a ten-day break. To calculate the positions of objects in the sky at past times, astronomers use the Julian Date.
9. January 1 and the start of a new year.
It may come as a surprise, but January 1st was not always accepted as the start of the new year. In 45 B.C.E., Cesar introduced his calendar with 1 January as the start of the year. The date on which the Solar Number and the Golden Number were incremented was always January 1.
In 274, they decided to move the date to March 25. Although the church enjoyed the raucous celebrations that took place at the New Year, they decided to move the date of the holiday to March 25th in 274 C.E. The council of Tours declared that having the year start on 1 January was an ancient mistake that should be abolished.
The abolished observance didn’t last. But, this is where things get confusing. Some argue that Pope Gregory changed the start of the new year from March 25 to January 1. Others believe that this is a myth. ” This misconception started because in 1752 England moved the start of the year to 1 January and also changed to the Gregorian calendar. Most other countries did not see a relationship between the two events, with Scotland as one example. Although Scotland changed to the Gregorian calendar with England in 1752, the start of the new year had been January 1 since 1600.
10. Double date.
A double-date means going on a date with two other people. This date refers to the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. The shift from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar is commonly referred to as a dual-date to prevent any confusion.
Despite the different names, from 1582 to 1923 there were only two calendars in use. Both the Julian and Gregorian calendars were used. Since not all countries had adopted the Gregorian Calendar, it was necessary to show the date for both calendars. For example, “10/21 February 1750/51” before the year, and C.E. after the year, with both abbreviations written without periods.
Dates are written with O.S. before the year to indicate “in the year of our salvation,” and C.E. after the year to indicate “of the common era.” (Old Style) or N.S. (New Style) following the day, so people examining records could understand whether they were looking at a Julian date or a Gregorian date.” One famous example of this is George Washington. He was born on February 11, 1731 (OLD STYLE) but “his birthday became February 22, 1732 (NEW STYLE) under the Gregorian calendar”.
Rosenberg adds that the change in the year of birth was due to the change in when the new year was acknowledged. ” The new year used to be March 25th, but after the Gregorian calendar was put into place, it became January 1st. Washington was born between January 1 and March 25 according to the Julian calendar. After the switch to the Gregorian calendar, the year of his birth became one year later.
11. Days have been “lost” forever.
When Pope Gregory issued the papal bull “Inter Gravuissimus” in February 1582, explaining how he was changing time, this meant that ten days would have to be removed from the calendar. The Julian calendar was not accurate and over time it became further behind.
The calendar that is now used by most of the world was first made official on October 4, 1582. The next day people woke up to find that the date was October 15.
This isn’t the only time in history that days have vanished from a calendar. When England switched to the Gregorian Calendar, they woke up on September 14. The occasion happened in the United States because we were still a colony.
There are also more recent examples. In Alaska, the date October 6, 1867 was followed by the date October 18, 1867. The event occurred because, at that time, Alaska was part of Russia—a country that didn’t follow the Gregorian Calendar.
Russia switched in 1918 and Greece in 1923. These countries waited so long that they had to skip over 13 days.
12. There was once February 30.
When Sweden swapped the Julian calendar for the Gregorian they didn’t sacrifice days like other countries. Instead, they placed a February 30 on their calendar. The plan was to not have leap days for the next 40 years to remove those extra ten days.
The plan backfired, and in 1712, the Great Northern War broke out. The war was so brutal that people forgot to take out two leap days. The people in charge at that time went back to using the Julian calendar in 1712. The Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1753 and has not included February 30th since.
Who knew the calendar would could such a interesting topic?
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