Hi all! Welcome back.This post is more of an info than a story, interesting though. Read on.
Every second that clicks is precious. They are tiny particles of time which change into minutes, into hours, into days and nights.And then come the weeks, the months , seasons , years, decades and eons.
They remain the same year by year, doing their duty as has to be done.But one thing that changes every new year and if I pose it as a question, then a thousand and one answers will pop up. But one genuine answer could be "The Calendar".
Let's get on to the history and mystery of this useful item hanging on our walls.(this article was published in "The Young World"(Hindu).
The two most important astronomical objects on which the Calendars are based are the sun and the moon. Their cycles are important in the construction and understanding of calendars. Our concept of a year is based on the earth's movement around the sun. The time from one fixed point, such as a solstice or equinox, to the next is called a tropical year.
History
Most of the oldest calendars were lunar calendars, based on the time interval from one new moon to the next. The ancient Egyptians used a calendar with 12 months of 30 days each, for a total of 360 days per year. About 4000 B.C. they added five extra days at the end of every year to bring it more into line with the solar year. These five days became a festival because it was thought to be unlucky to work during that time.
When Rome emerged as a world power, the difficulties of making a calendar were well known, but the Romans complicated their lives because of their superstition that even numbers were unlucky. Hence their months were 29 or 31 days long, with the exception of February, which had 28 days. However, four months of 31 days, seven months of 29 days, and one month of 28 days added up to only 355 days. Therefore the Romans invented an extra month called Mercedonius of 22 or 23 days. It was added every second year.
But Julius Caesar brought the calendar back in step with the seasons by compensating a year with 445 days. Caesar decreed the year began with the first of January. This calendar was named the Julian calendar, and it continues to be the calendar of the Eastern Orthodox churches to this day.
Gregorian Reform
By the 15th century the Julian calendar had drifted behind the solar calendar by about a week. Then in 1545, the Council of Trent authorised Pope Paul III to revise the calendar once more. Most of the mathematical and astronomical work was done and a formula suggested that every fourth year is a leap year unless it is a century year like 1700 or 1800. Century years can be leap years only when they are divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600 and 2000). This rule eliminates three leap years in four centuries, making the calendar sufficiently accurate.
In India, in the mid-1950s, when the Calendar Reform Committee made its survey, there were about 30 calendars in use for marking religious festivals for Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Early allusions to a lunisolar calendar with intercalated months are found in the hymns from the Rig Veda, dating from the second millennium B.C.E. Literature from 1300 B.C.E. to C.E. 300, provides information of a more specific nature.
Indian astronomy underwent a general reform in the first few centuries C.E., as advances in Babylonian and Greek astronomy became known. New astronomical constants and models for the motion of the moon and sun were adapted to traditional calendric practices.
This was conveyed in astronomical treatises of this period known as Siddhantas, many of which have not survived. The Surya Siddhanta, which originated in the fourth century but was updated over the following centuries, influenced Indian calendrics up to and even after the calendar reform of C.E. 1957.
Finally, the calendar has a powerful hold on our lives and our imaginations. It is the human attempt to choreograph the eternal dance of the sun, moon and earth.
So, the next time the seconds click, or the calenders flap, or seasons change, just enjoy this eternal dance of Nature and her forces. Meet you again at my next post. Bye!
