CALENDAR. 



341 



full and waning, requires about twenty-nine days 

 and a half. These changes of the moon are so ob- 

 vious and striking, that it was very natural to em- 

 ploy the circle of changes or lunation, as it is called, 

 for one of the larger measures of time. Still, it 

 has always occasioned much perplexity, arising from 

 the fact, that a month measured by the moon, is 

 not so long by a day, as a month measured by the 

 sun. A month according to the sun, is the time 

 which it takes the sun to pass through one of the 

 signs of the zodiac, which is thirty days and a half 

 nearly, or to be accurate, is exactly one twelfth 

 part of three hundred and sixty-five days five hours 

 and forty-nine minutes, which is the length of the 

 mean solar year. Twelve months therefore, ac- 

 cording to the moon, do not equal twelve months 

 according to the sun, and of course do not make out 

 an entire year. 



The earliest months mentioned in the scriptures 

 consisted of thirty days, all except the twelfth, 

 which was made to consist of thirty-five days, in 

 order to fill out the entire year. We say the 

 twelfth, because the months were then numbered, 

 and not known by names as they are now. But all 

 this was afterwards altered. They gave names to 

 the mouths, and measured them by the moon, while 

 the year was necessarily measured by the earth's 

 revolution round the sun. These lunar months 

 consisted of twenty-nine days and a half, or rather 

 in order to avoid the inconvenience of fractions, 

 one month consisted of twenty-nine days, the next 

 of thirty, and so on throughout the year. The 

 new moon was the beginning of the month; the 

 new moon determined the time of their celebra- 

 tions, so that exactness in the time was of impor- 

 tance in a civil and religious point of view. They 

 did not, however, probably from want of astrono- 

 mical knowledge, go by the time when the moon 

 is in conjunction with the sun; but by the time 

 when it is first visible in the sky. The first ap- 

 pearance of the crescent was narrowly observed ; if 

 the sky was cloudy, the time was determined by 

 authority in the temple ; at night, beacon fires 

 were kindled on the mount of Olives: this fire 

 was immediately answered from the surrounding 

 heights, where men were stationed on the watch ; 

 the signals rapidly spread, and in a few moments, 

 all the hills in Judea were in a blaze. In Jerusa- 

 lem, all the trumpets of the temple summoned the 

 people to rejoice, and to celebrate the festival of 

 the new moon. How much was thought of the 

 season of the new moon, no reader of scripture 

 will need to be informed. 



But, as we have said, twelve of these lunar 

 months do not make out the year. And here let 

 me call your attention to the arrangement made 

 by Moses, who was fully aware of the difficulty 

 which would arise from thus measuring time by the 

 moon. The difficulty may be explained in this 

 way. Twelve lunar months make about three 

 hundred and fifty-four days, while the year consists 

 of three hundred and sixty-five; the lunar year 

 therefore is eleven days less than the true year. 

 Now, suppose that the passover should come one 

 year on the twenty-first of March ; according to 

 the moon, the anniversary would come the next 

 year on the tenth of March ; the year after it would 

 go back into February, in a few years the pass- 

 over would come in January, and thus we see, 

 that, going by the moon, the festivals would go 

 farther and farther back, till they travelled through- 

 out the year. The difficulty was also felt in mat- 



ters of common life. Suppose that a man had 

 hired and paid for a field for three years ; according 

 to this rule he would lose his third crop, the har- 

 vest being in the spring ; since the end of the third 

 year would be thirty-three days earlier than the 

 first, it would come in February, when the grain 

 was not ripe, and as that third harvest was not 

 ripe till the beginning of the fourth year, he must 

 lose it, he having hired the field for but three. 



Now, with their small amount of astronomical 

 knowledge, the only remedy they could devise for 

 this difficulty, was to add a thirteenth month to 

 the third year, and Moses so arranged it, that this 

 must be done. Some may say, why did he not 

 tell them at once to go by the sun, which would 

 have saved all this trouble ? This, however, would 

 be like the suggestion of a certain princess, who 

 was told that the poor were dying for want of 

 bread : Astonishing ! said she, why don't they eat 

 pastry ? The reason was, that they could not get 

 it, and the reason why Moses did not go by the 

 sun, was, that nobody knew the exact length of the 

 solar year. His only remedy was to add this thir- 

 teenth month when it became necessary, and the 

 way in which he did it, shows his far-sighted wis- 

 dom. Instead of leaving it to the discretion of the 

 priests to add it when it became necessary, he pro- 

 vided that it should of necessity be done. The 

 first moon of the year, answering nearly to our 

 April, was the harvest moon of Palestine. Moses 

 called it the ear-moon, and required that on the 

 sixteenth day of it, at the time of full moon, ripe 

 ears of barley should be offered as first fruits to 

 God. By reason of the lunar year being only three 

 hundred and fifty-four days, this full moon would 

 come eleven days earlier next year, and twenty- 

 two days earlier the year after; and then, evidently, 

 the harvest would not be ripe, so that the offering 

 could not be made. When this was the case, they 

 were not to call that moon the first of a new year: 

 it was to be considered as the thirteenth month of 

 the old year; they were to wait for the next moon, 

 when the harvest would be ripe, and that was to 

 be regarded as the ear-moon and first of a new 

 year. The great advantage of this arrangement 

 was, that there was no need of going to astrono- 

 mers to know when this odd month must be added ; 

 every husbandman could tell whether the harvest 

 would be ripe or not, by the middle of the moon ; 

 and if not, he needed no public authority to tell 

 him that that moon was the thirteenth of the old 

 year, and not the first of the new. Where there 

 is no such arrangement, there is perpetual confu- 

 sion. In Turkey, at the present day, where they 

 go by the moon without adding such a month, the 

 festivals travel back every anniversary till they go 

 quite through the year. 



Some ancient nations, being aware of this diffi- 

 culty, made attempts to measure the year by the 

 sun : but they fell on this very stumbling block, 

 ignorance of the exact length of the solar year. 

 They called it three hundred and sixty-five days; 

 which was not correct, for the true year is about 

 six hours longer, which in four years would amount 

 to a day. The Egyptians are an example. They 

 went by the heliacal rising of the dog-star, that 

 is, the time when, after having been so near the 

 sun as to be lost in its light, it first rises so much 

 earlier than the sun that its light can be seen in 

 the sky. They supposed that the dog-star, after 

 having been thus lost in the light of the sun, would 

 re-appear at precisely the same time every year. 



