CALENDAR 



1051 



CALENDAR 



In his Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott has 

 an invocation to Scotland in which the poetic 

 name for the country is used: 



O Caledonia ! stern and wild, 



Meet nurse for a poetic child ! 



Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, 



Land of the mountain and the flood, 



Land of my sires ! what mortal hand 



Can e'er untie the filial band, 



That knits me to thy rugged strand! 



CALENDAR, kal'endar, a systematic divi- 

 sion and record of time. All calendars must 

 recognize two great natural divisions of time 

 the day and the year, both of which are solar 

 periods. The month, on the other hand, seems 

 to have been suggested by the periods of the 

 moon. The week is an arbitrary division 

 whose origin is ascribed to various causes. 



Among ancient peoples there were many dif- 

 ferences in calendars. The Egyptians divided 

 the year into twelve months of thirty days 

 each, and added five days at the end of the 

 year. The year was thus too short by nearly 

 six hours. The Greek year included twelve 

 months of thirty and twenty-nine days, alter- 

 nately. This arrangement gave a year of only 

 354 days, 11% days short of a solar year. To 

 make up this difference an extra month was 

 added in alternate years, except that every 

 eight or nine years the extra month was 

 omitted. 



The old Roman calendar was even more 

 confused. The earliest known system among 

 the Romans was a year of ten lunar months, 

 four of which had 31 days, the remainder only 

 30. This year of 304 days was too short by 

 about one-sixth. Each year thus began two 

 months earlier in the season than the last, five 

 natural or solar years forming six calendar 

 years. About 700 B. c. January was added to 

 the beginning and February to the end of the 

 year. This made a year of 354 days, as in 

 the ancient Greek calendar. Every second 

 year a mohth of 22 or 23 days had to be added 

 to compensate for the 11% days lost. About 

 450 B. c. the months were rearranged in their 

 present order, but March was regarded as the 

 beginning of the year. Owing to the addition 

 of a day for "luck," the calendar year was then 

 366% days long. In a .period of twenty-four 

 years, therefore, the calendar would be twenty- 

 four days ahead of true time. A law was 

 passed authorizing the pontiffs to deduct 

 twenty-four days at any time in the last eight 

 years of a period of twenty-four. This power 

 was abused to such an extent for personal ends, 

 such as collecting revenue, that by the time 



of Julius Caesar the calendar equinox differed 

 from the astronomical equinox by three 

 months. 



In 46 B.C., Caesar decreed the reform of the 

 calendar. The periods of the moon were dis- 

 regarded, and the year was divided into twelve 

 months of 31 and 30 days alternately, except 

 February, with 29 days. February was to have 

 30 days every fourth year. The seasons were 

 readjusted to the calendar by making the year 

 46 B. c. fifteen months long, from October 13 

 to the second following December 31. This 

 year is known as the "year of confusion." The 

 new year then began on January 1. In the 

 reign of Augustus one day was taken from 

 February and added to August, in order that 

 the month named for Augustus might be as 

 long as that named for Julius Caesar. The 

 lengths of the following months were then 

 rearranged to prevent three months of 31 days 

 occurring in succession. 



The Julian calendar provided a year of 365% 

 'days, or 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the 

 true solar year. This difference led to a grad- 

 ual change in the calendar date of the equinox, 

 until about 1580 it fell on March 11, ten days 

 earlier than it should have occurred. In 1582, 

 Pope Gregory XIII determined to correct this 

 discrepancy by dropping ten days from Octo- 

 t ber. By this arrangement the day that would 

 have been October 5, 1582, in the Julian cal- 

 endar became October 15, and the next equi- 

 nox was thus restored to its proper date. Un- 

 der the Julian calendar, a single day was gained 

 in about 400 years, because the calendar year 

 was a few minutes longer than the solar year. 

 To correct this discrepancy, the Gregorian cal- 

 endar omits the additional day in February 

 in century years not divisible by 400. Thus 

 1600 was a leap year, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 

 were common years. The year 2000 will be 

 a leap year. The difference between the civil 

 calendar and the astronomical year now aver- 

 ages only 25.95 seconds, which amounts to a 

 single day in 3,330 years. Thus in 4912 the 

 calendar will be one day ahead of the sun. 



The Gregorian calendar was adopted almost 

 immediately by the Roman Catholic nations of 

 Europe. The states of Germany retained 

 the old style until 1700, and England did not 

 change until 1752. Russia and the other coun- 

 tries in which the Greek Church is supreme 

 still retain the Julian calendar. In the pres- 

 ent century, the old style is thirteen days be- 

 hind the new style; thus January 14, 1917, in 

 England, was January 1, 1917, in Russia. 



