The Gregorian Calendar that we use for was commissioned by Pope Gregory
XIII. The calculations were done by Clavius.
The Gregorian Calendar that we use for was commissioned by Pope Gregory
XIII. The calculations were done by Clavius.
The Calendar was originally started by the Romans. They divided
the year into twelve months but only named ten of them with proper names
only for four. The year started in March named after the Roman God
of war, Mars. The net three months were April, May, and June.
The six other months were Quintilis (5th month), Sextilis (6th. month)
and then the 7th, 8th., 9th., and 10th, namely September, October, November,
and December. The last 60 days were considered too cold for agriculture
and since that was the primary purpose of the Calendar, they were left
unnamed. As the Roman Empire extended to warmer regions, this was
no longer the case. About 700 B.C. the month of January was added
before March and the month of February after December. The
two months were named January (after Janus the two headed god facing forward
and backward) and February. About 275 years later, in 425 B.C. the
months were changed to their present order. In addition the number
of days per month was not fixed.
Gaius Julius Caeser (100 - 44 B.C.), the
Roman Emperor modified this calendar now called the Julian Calendar in
45 B.C.. In this calendar, every fourth year was a leap year.
with the months alternating 31 and 30 days. He was followed by Octavius
also named Augustus Caeser (the adopted son of Julius Caeser) who renamed
the fifth month Quintilus July after Julius Caeser and the sixth
month Sextilis August after himself., who named the sixth month after himself
(August) and change it to have 31 days as in July. The last month,
then, February lost a day to accommodate his vanity.
There were many discussions as to when the new year should commence.
The group who preferred January 1 prevailed. Another section wanted
April 1. This section lost, and were later called April fools, a
name that has survived to this day.
Gaiyus Julius Caeser
The
Julian Calendar
The next controversy was when the era should start. Dionysius Exigious better known as Dennis the Short a sycathian monk around 500 A.D. fixed the year of Christ' birth based on certain calculations. Since the Roman numbering system lacked a zero, the year 1 B.C. was followed by 1 A.D. So when does the third millennium start (2000 or 2001)? For more details click below
To make your own calendar click below:
Since the exact period of the revolution of the Earth around the Sun
is not 365.25 days 365 days 6 hours) but actually 365.2422 days (365 days,
5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, the time period for an year was falling
back by .0078 days or 11 minutes and 14 seconds. By the year 1582
this had accumulated to about 10 days, and the seasons and religious holidays
were not falling on the correct days. Pope Gregory issued a proclamation
in 1582 to drop 10 days. Also the number of leap days would now change.
Instead of every 4 years, century years had to be divisible by 400 not
by 4. So in 400 years there would be 97 and not 100 leap years.
(1900 and 2100 are not leap years, while 2000 is). These corrections
give the calendar an accuracy of one day in 3300 years. While the
Catholic countries went along without any argument, the protestant countries
called it the Pope's trick and refused to change the calendar. Finally
England and the American colonies switched in 1752. By this date,
the difference had become 11 days, so that September 2 was followed by
September 14, causing people to worry that they had lost 11 days of their
lives. Other problems such as monthly salaries, rents also had to
be settled.
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