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January 14, 2006
Happy New Year (the Julian Calendar)
Happy New Year! According to the Julian calendar today is January 1st, which is
January 14th on the Gregorian calendar, which is the most popular calendar
in use in 2006.
This got me thinking about the other calendars in use in 2006 -
the Islamic calendar (Hijir), the Hebrew calendar and the Yin-yang li,
the Chinese calendar. According to a recent estimate there are about
40 calendars in use today.
According to the US Navy "Julian dates (abbreviated JD) are simply a
continuous count of days and fractions since noon Universal Time on
January 1, 4713 BCE (on the Julian calendar). Almost 2.5 million days
have transpired since this date."
The changeover from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar
occurred in October of 1582, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII. An omission
of ten days of calendar dates was necessitated by the astronomical error built
up by the Julian calendar over its many centuries of use, due to its too-
frequent leap years.
This change to the use of the Gregorian calendar only occurred in
Roman Catholic countries, however. In England for example, the adoption of
this new calendar did not come until 1752.
The Julian calendar was introduced in the year -45 by Julius Caesar. This was
named the "year of confusion" because 90 days were inserted that year to bring
the months of the calendar back in place with respect to the seasons.
After the death of Julius Caesar, the Roman authorities misapplied the
leap-year rule, with the result that every third, rather than every fourth,
year was a leap year. It is believed that Emperor Augustus corrected the
situation by omitting leap years from the Julian years -8 through +4.
After this the Julian calendar finally began to function as planned.
Happy New Year
Posted by photocartoonist at January 14, 2006 12:01 AM