The Calendar On Your Wall
The calendar on your wall or desk, in your wallet, watch or computer originated in Rome about 2,800 years ago. Originally it had ten months, and no weeks. It was under the direct control of the Popes for 1,000 years before the Popes began calling themselves "Christian". It continued to be under their direct control until the Reformation in the 16th century. Early in the 20th century, it again came under the authority of organizations based in Europe.
"The Early Roman Calendar . . . originated as a local calendar in the city of Rome, supposedly drawn up by Romulus some seven or eight centuries BC. The year began in March and consisted of ten months, six of 30 days and four of 31 days, making a total of 304 days: it ended in December, to be followed by what seems to have been an uncounted winter gap."
(Source: http://britiannica.com, "The Early Roman Calendar".)Around 715-673 BC, the second king of Rome added two extra months, January and February, and (loosely) based the calendar on lunar cycles. He deducted one day from each of the 30-day months, gave January 31 days and left February with 28, to make the year have 355 days. Apparently due to superstition, the goal was to have all uneven numbers, except for February which was dedicated to the "infernal gods" anyway.
The "Roman Republican calendar" is said to have been introduced in the sixth century BC by the king of Rome. The calendar was still 355 days. To keep it in step with the seasons an intercalary month of 27-28 days was added between February 23 and 24 every two years with the remaining five days of February being omitted. This made the average length of the year to be 366.25 days or one day too long, which eventually put the spring equinox eight weeks late in the calendar.
"The Western calendar . . . now in general worldwide use had its origin in the desire for
a solar calendar that kept in step with the seasons and possessed fixed rules of intercalation.
Because it developed in [Rome] it had also to provide a method for dating movable [pagan] religious feasts, the timing of which had been based on a lunar reckoning. To reconcile the lunar and solar schemes, features of the Roman republican calendar and the Egyptian calendar were combined.The Roman republican calendar was basically a lunar reckoning and became increasingly out of phase with the seasons as time passed. By about 50 BC the vernal equinox that should have fallen late in March fell on the Ides of May, some eight weeks later, and it was plain that this error would continue to increase. Moreover, the behaviour of the Pontifices [by arbitrary intercalation] (footnote 1) . . . made it necessary to seek a fixed rule of intercalation in order to put an end to arbitrariness in inserting months."
(Source: http://www.britannica.com, "The Western calendar".)The Julian calendar was developed by an Egyptian. " In the mid-1st century BC Julius Caesar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian [Egypt]
astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year used, as in the Egyptian calendar, but with its length taken as 365 1/4 days.
To remove the immense discrepancy between calendar date and equinox, it was decided that the year known in modern times as 46 BC should have two intercalations. The first was the customary intercalation of the Roman republican calendar due that year, the insertion of 23 days following February 23. The second intercalation, to bring the calendar in step with the equinoxes, was achieved by inserting two additional months between the end of November and the beginning of December. This insertion amounted to an addition of 67 days, making a year of no less than 445 days and causing the beginning of March, 45 BC in the Roman republican calendar, to fall on what is still called January 1 of the Julian calendar."Other sources tell us that this is called, "the year of confusion".
"Previous errors having been corrected, the next step was to prevent their recurrence. Here Sosigenes' suggestion about a tropical year was adopted and any pretense to a lunar calendar was rejected. The figure of 365.25 days was accepted for the tropical year, and, to achieve this by a simple civil reckoning, Caesar directed that a calendar year of 365 days be adopted and that an extra day be intercalated every fourth year."
"Apparently, the Pontifices [footnote 1] misinterpreted the edict and inserted the intercalation too frequently. The error arose because of the Roman practice of inclusive numbering, so that an intercalation once every fourth year meant to them intercalating every three years, because a bissextile [leap] year was counted as the first year of the subsequent four-year period. This error continued undetected for 36 years, during which period 12 days instead of nine were added. The emperor Augustus then made a correction by omitting intercalary days between 8 BC and AD 8."
(Source: http://www.britannica.com, "The Julian Calendar", "The Gregorian Calendar".)The lengths of the months were also changed under Julius Caesar, to provide a more even pattern of numbering. Caesar also issued an almanac for the benefit of farmers, which included the seasonal astronomical phenomena.
In 8 BC, the names of the months and their lengths were changed again under Augustus Caesar. The month Quintilis had been changed by the Senate to July to honor Julius Caesar. Augustus therefore changed the name of Sextilis to August and added days to make it equal in length to July. The lengths of other months were adjusted accordingly to maintain the length of the year.
Constantine introduced the use of the seven day week, in the 4th century AD, upon his conversion to "Christianity". Previously there were no weeks in the Roman calendar, just days designated as business and court days, and those designated for public assemblies, pagan religious festivals and pagan holy days. Previously, only the Jews had used a seven day week. Other nations used 5, 8 and 10 day weeks.
"The next change took place in AD 532, when the Abbott of Rome, Dionysius Exiguus, [Dennis the Short] acknowledging the then current tradition of recognizing March as the month of Annunciation,[Footnote 2] named March 25 as the date of the conception of Christ, and further ordered that henceforth the year was to begin on that date, which also determined the birth date of Christ as December 25. This was a radical innovation which was followed for over a thousand years. Dionysius is also credited with having established the Christian Era from the presumed date of the birth of Christ, and thus began the custom of counting historical periods BC, before Christ, and AD, anno Domini, the year of our Lord."
(Source: Time And Its Measurement, Harrison J. Cowan, World Pub., 1958, pp.20-29.)[Footnote 2: "annunciation"-( Middle English from Latin, announce), the tidings brought by the angel to Mary, mother of Christ, and the church festival in memory of this.]
The Gregorian calendar came about because the Julian calendar was a little over one day too long. This amounted to 1 1/2 days in 200 years and was the subject of great debates in the "Christian" churches for the next 1000 years. ". . . no action was taken because the astronomers who were consulted doubted whether enough precise information was available for a really accurate value of the tropical year to be obtained.
By 1545, however, the vernal equinox, which was used in determining Easter, had
moved 10 days from its proper date; and in December, when the Council of Trent met for the first of its sessions, it authorized Pope Paul III to take action to correct the error. Correction required a solution, however, that neither Paul III nor his successors were able to obtain in satisfactory form until nearly 1572, the year of election of Pope Gregory XIII. Gregory found various proposals awaiting him and agreed to issue a bull that the Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius (1537-1612) began to draw up, using suggestions made by the astronomer and physician Luigi Lilio (also known as Aloysius Lilius; died 1576).The papal bull appeared in March 1582. First, in order to bring the vernal equinox back
to March 21, the day following the Feast of St. Francis (that is, October 5) was to become October 15, thus omitting 10 days. Second, to bring the year closer to the true tropical year, a value of 365.2422 days was accepted. This value differed by 0.0078 days per year from the Julian calendar reckoning, amounting to 0.78 days per century, or 3.12 days every 400 years. It was therefore promulgated that three out of every four centennial years should be common years, that is, not leap years; and this practice led to the rule that no centennial years should be leap years unless exactly divisible by 400. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, as they would have been in the Julian calendar, but the year 2000 will be. The bull also laid down rules for calculating the date of Easter."(Source: http://www.britannica.com, "The Julian Calendar", "The Gregorian Calendar".)
The local calendar of Rome, through the spread of the Empire and of Roman "Christianity" was introduced throughout Europe and the Western hemisphere. When the Protestant movement separated itself from Rome it kept, among other things, the Roman calendar.
So the "early Roman calendar" was modified by an Egyptian astronomer to become the "Julian calendar", which in turn was slightly modified by a pope to become the Gregorian calendar which is the calender on your wall or desk.
Footnote 1:
Pontifices: A council of pagan priests in ancient Rome. The collegium, or college of the priests, was the most important of Roman priests and adminstrated the civil law which regulated worship activities of all those pagan dieties officially recognized by the Roman government.
Originally comprising three advisors under the king, they gained prominence during the time of the republic (c. 509-200 BC), under a pontifex maximus, or 'supreme priest', who took over all duties as chief adminstrator of religious law. The number also increased to 16 by the time of Julius Caesar. From the second Punic War (218-201 BC), the office was filled by popular election for life terms. The pontifex maximus appointed his assistants, including the Vestal Virgins who were chosen between the ages of six and ten and served under the pagan priests until age thirty. His functions were partly ritualistic ceremonies but he held real power in his authority over the consecration of all temples, sacred places and objects, the adminstration of all burials and in the worship of the dead, and the superintendence of all marriages, adoptions, wills, state archives and chief national events.
Of particular note is the fact that he had authority over "the regulation of the calendar both astronomically and in detailed application to the public life of the state."". . . for the first three centuries of the republic [c. 509 BC to 200 BC] it is probable that the pontifex maximus was in fact its most powerful member."
"Under the later republic it was coveted chiefly for the great dignity of the position; Julius Caesar held it for the last 20 years of his life, and Augustus took it after the death of Lepidus
in 12 BC, after which it became inseparable from the office of the reigning emperor.
The title pontifex was used of Roman Catholic bishops and pontifex maximus of the pope by the end of the 4th century. In modern usage, both terms generally refer to the pope."
(Source: http://www.britannica.com, "pontifex".)Note that this office of pontiff, its authority over worship services, marriages, burials, adoptions, wills, etc., its supporting "college", its order of "virgins" and its authority over the calendar, both astronomically and in civil use, existed, from the earliest monarchies of Rome (c. 753 BC) until Constantine (c. 307-337 AD), as a powerful organization of pagan worship.
It was Constantine who, in the fourth century AD, "initiated the evolution of the [Roman] empire into a Christian state". (Source: http://www.britannica.com, "Constantine the Great".)
The official Roman religious organization, which had been polytheistic for over 1,000 years, now put on the cloak of "Christianity" and claimed its divine authority from the apostle Peter, who had died two centuries earlier.
It cannot be proven that Peter was ever in Rome, and it is doubtful, since Paul was the one who raised up the churches of God there, wrote the inspired letters to them ("Book of Romans") and never mentioned Peter. However, if he was in Rome, and if the tradition that he was martyred there is true, then his execution could only have been accomplished under the authority of the pagan ponifex maximus of Rome. The same is true for Paul.The American and British Calendars American and British calendar printers obtain their information from the Astronomical Almanac which is jointly published by the U.S. Naval Observatory and Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office. (Note in the articles below, the emphasis and comments in [ . . .] are ours.)
"The Nautical Almanac Office, A Brief History"
" In 1849, Congress established the Nautical Almanac Office to prepare and publish an official national almanac. Up to that time American scientists and seamen relied on foreign almanacs - particularly those of Great Britain - for astronomical and navigational data. Privately
published almanacs, such as Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, were generally not adequate for scientific use.The Office was placed under the direction of Lieutenant Charles H.Davis, an experienced naval officer with a scientific background and personal associations with prominent American scientists. Davis established the Office in Cambridge, Mass. . . . [where he] had access to
Harvard University and Professor Benjamin Peirce, the leading American mathematician of the time. . . .Davis and Peirce immediately began surveying the sources of accurate astronomical data. Although American scientists wanted to produce a work of purely American science, Davis found it necessary to use theories and data developed in Europe. The new staff began calculating positions of the Sun, Moon and planets. This had to be done entirely by hand , by human "computers" who carefully checked each other's work. The size of the job was enormous. It was reported that if two [human] computers were assigned to calculate the position of the Moon for noon and midnight, they could complete and check one full set of calculations during a work day. In other words, they could just keep up with the Moon.
In 1852, the Office published its first volume, The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac for 1855. . . .
A number of members of the Almanac Office took the opportunity to study at
Harvard. There they acquired a thorough grounding in mathematical astronomy that would make the Office an important center of astronomical research. From the beginning it was realized
that the formulas used to calculate lunar and planetary positions were far from perfect. Although Isaac Newton had presented his law of gravitation nearly two centuries before, the mathematical problems it presented were far from solved. Comparison of calculated positions with observations - particularly of the Moon - revealed that the formulas would need to be upgraded.Simon Newcomb, a [human] "computer" who studied at Harvard, became Superintendent
of the Office in 1877. He had already conceived a vigorous research program that would lead to new theoretical models for the orbits of the Moon and all the planets. For the first time, the orbital models were to be based on consistent theoretical methods and observational data. . . .
Newcomb was fortunate in having on his staff the highly respected mathematician G.W. Hill. With the help of computing assistants, Newcomb worked on the Moon and the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,Uranus and Neptune. Hill, working alone, undertook the extremely difficult theories of Jupiter and Saturn. In addition Hill carried on his own study of the Moon's motion. By the end of the century, they had developed a new set of theories for all the known planets. These theories were good enough to be used at least to1960. In fact, Newcomb's theories for the motions of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars were used up to 1984.[Beginning in the 1940's and . . .] As computers developed, larger computing projects became possible. An important example is the calculation of improved orbits for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. . . .
In the 1960s, . . . Close cooperation developed with Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office in Great Britain and with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [in Pasadena, CA]. . . .
In the 1970s, JPL made use of high precision radar, laser and spacecraft observations to develop a complete new set of orbital calculations for the Moon and planets. These were introduced in The Astronomical Almanac (a new, joint publication of the British and American Offices) for 1984.In the 1970s the Nautical Almanac Office began exploring means for presenting astronomical data in computerized formats. By the late 1980s, evolving computer technology created the demand for a new computer almanac, . . . Design work began on what would become
MICA, the Multiyear Interactive Computer Almanac. First released in 1993, MICA performs in real time the most rigorous almanac calculations possible today and incorporates a user interface based on a decade of thinking about human-computer interactions."(Source: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/)
"The History of HM Nautical Almanac Office" "The Royal Greenwich Observatory was founded in 1675 by decree of Charles II for the sole purpose of improving the level of astronomical knowledge required to support navigation at sea. The present-day work of HM Nautical Almanac Office continues a 323-year-old tradition, bringing the latest techniques in astronomy and computation to the publication of The Nautical Almanac and all of our other books, software and data services.
The first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, was charged "to apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting the art of navigation." . . .
This almanac contained tabulations of the distances of the Moon's centre from the Sun and from the bright stars for every three hours, so that the navigator could determine Greenwich time and hence his longitude from observations of such lunar distances.
In 1911, the (then) five principal ephemeris-producing nations (France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and the United States) agreed to co-operate in the production of almanac data, with the aims of avoiding duplication of effort and of standardising the basis upon which the ephemerides were computed. This cooperation was further strengthened with the creation, in 1919, of the International Astronomical Union.
[Note: "ephemeris"- (i-fem'-er-is), Astronomically, "A table indicating the positions of the heavenly bodies from day to day or at regular intervals throughout the year; an astronomical almanac."]
HMNAO and the Nautical Almanac Office of USNO now collaborate closely in every aspect of the production of The Nautical Almanac, The Astronomical Almanac and the other publications for which the two Offices are responsible. The Almanacs are produced in accordance with resolutions of the International Astronomical Union to meet the needs of astronomers, sailors and aviators worldwide. . . .
The computation of the data for the almanacs involved a considerable amount of effort. As late as the mid-20th century, HMNAO employed a small army of human computers to carry out this work. They used the latest technology available at the time: logarithm tables, mechanical calculating machines and electro-mechanical calculating machines. In 1959 the Office obtained its own electronic computer, making it the first part of the RGO to use this emerging technology.
Today, computation of the contents of an edition of The Nautical Almanac is carried out on a Unix workstation, and much of the layout work is carried out using TeX on PCs.
HM Nautical Almanac Office, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
(Source: http://www.nao.rl.ac.uk/nao/history/)
Some significant points from the statements above:
1) Calculation of the positions of the earth and moon in relation to the sun and stars requires periodic updating as the data becomes obsolete due to variations in cycles
"Comparison of calculated positions with observations - particularly of the Moon - revealed that the formulas would need to be upgraded."2) "Upgraded" formulas still be come obsolete.
"By the end of the century [1900], they had developed a new set of theories for all the known planets. These theories were good enough to be used at least to1960."
Note that it took from 1877 to 1900 to develop these theories. It took 23 years to develop theories which were obsolete within 60 years.3) Calculation of the positions of the moon, which includes the conjunction, is not something you can do at home.
" The new [U.S.] staff began calculating positions of the Sun, Moon and planets. This had to be done entirely by hand , by human "computers" who carefully checked each other's work. The size of the job was enormous. It was reported that if two [human] computers were assigned to calculate the position of the Moon for noon and midnight, they could complete and check one full set of calculations during a work day. In other words, they could just keep up with the Moon."
"The computation of the data for the almanacs involved a considerable amount of effort. As late as the mid-20th century, HMNAO employed a small army of human computers to carry out this work. They used the latest technology available at the time: logarithm tables, mechanical calculating machines and electro-mechanical calculating machines. "
"Today, computation of the contents of an edition of The Nautical Almanac is carried out on a Unix workstation, and much of the layout work is carried out using TeX on PCs."4) Almanacs produced by HMNAO and USNO are subject to the regulations of the IAU which is based in Europe.
Finding The "First Day" For someone who is simply attempting to identify the first day of the month, all this may seem to be excessive. But for those who choose to use the conjunction to identify the first day of the month, a difference of one minute in the calculations can decide which of two days is the "first" day of the new month. This is also true for those who use the astronomical conjunction to determine when the first visible crescent should be visible.
For non-astronomers, it would seem a simple matter to count from a full moon to find the conjunction. The problem with this is that the illumination of the moon is more a matter of angle of distance from the sun (as viewed from the earth), than a matter of time elapsed from conjunction.
While the length of the four quarters or phases are approximately 7 days, they actually vary from 6 to 8 days depending on the variations of the cycles and the time of year.The moon passes the sun at varying distances. When it is closer, it will be longer before "new" illumination. When it passes at a greater distance away from the sun, the "new" illumination will occur sooner. This is also true for the diminishing illumination as the "old" moon approaches astronomical conjunction. When it approaches closer, the old illumination will cease sooner, and when passing at a greater distance its light will diminish later.
Another problem is that the 0% illumination of astronomical conjunction can last for two days. By the same token, 100 % illumination, which would be considered "full", can also last two days. In addition, a difference of 3 % in illumination is difficult for the human eye to detect. This means that on days of 97% to 100% illumination, most people will not be able to tell the difference. The tables of illumination found at the U.S. Naval Observatory web site, show that in the months from November to March, illumination of 97-100 % will occur for three days, and in the months from March to October, it will occur for four days.
(Source: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/)Who's In Charge? When the Roman calendar only pertained, consecutively, to the Roman nation, the Republic and the Empire, it and the astronomical theories and publications to support it were under the authority of the ponifex maximus, a title held at different times by pagan popes, by Caesars, and by "Christian" popes.
When the work of astronomers and scientists is under the jurisdiction of "the Church", the implications are significant. In 1633, Galileo was sentenced, by authority of the Inquistion, to life imprisonment for the "heresy" of publishing a document stating that the sun is the center of our universe and that the earth orbits around it.When the United States became independent of Britain, ". . . American scientists wanted to produce a work of purely American science, [but] found it necessary to use theories and data developed in Europe."
In 1911, the United States and Great Britain joined with France, Germany and Spain ". . . to co-operate in the production of almanac data . . .". "This cooperation was further strengthened with the creation, in 1919, of the International Astronomical Union."
The following is from the IAU web page:
" Welcome to the IAU World Wide Web page!
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. Its individual members are professional astronomers all over the World, at the Ph.D. level or beyond and active in professional research and education in astronomy. However, the IAU maintains friendly relations also with organizations that include amateur astronomers in their membership. Adhering Countries are generally those with a significant level of professional astronomy.
With now over 8,700 individual members and 66 Adhering Countries, the IAU plays a pivotal role in promoting and coordinating worldwide cooperation in astronomy. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and any surface features on them.The scientific and educational activities of the IAU are organised by its 11 Scientific Divisions and, through them, its 38 more specialised Commissions covering the full spectrum of astronomy. The long-term policy of the IAU is defined by the General Assembly and implemented by the Executive Committee, while day-to-day operations are directed by the IAU Officers. The focal point of its activities is the permanent IAU Secretariat, located at Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris, France."
The IAU is not the only international authority with jurisdiction over timekeeping. The following is from the U. S. Naval Observatory web site:
UTC
"However, in the most common civil usage, UT refers to a time scale called "Coordinated Universal Time" (abbreviated UTC), which is the basis for the worldwide system of civil time. This time scale is kept by time laboratories around the world, including the U.S. Naval Observatory, and is determined using highly precise atomic clocks. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures makes use of data from the timing laboratories to provide the international standard UTC which is accurate to approximately a nanosecond (billionth of a second) per day. The length of a UTC second is defined in terms of an atomic transition of the element cesium under specific conditions, and is not directly related to any astronomical phenomena."
(Source: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/)
The following is from the web site of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures which is known by it initials in French as BIPM:
[Version fransaise]
Bureau International des Poids et MesuresThe Convention of the Metre
(Convention du M tre)The Convention of the Metre is a diplomatic treaty between forty-eight nations which gives authority to the Conf rence G n rale des Poids et Mesures (CGPM), the Comit International des Poids et Mesures (CIPM) and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) to act in matters of world metrology, particularly concerning the demand for measurement standards of ever increasing accuracy, range and diversity, and the need to demonstrate equivalence between national measurement standards.
The Convention was signed in Paris in 1875 by representatives of seventeen nations. As well as founding the BIPM and laying down the way in which the activities of the BIPM should be financed and managed, the Metre Convention established a permanent organizational structure for member governments to act in common accord on all matters relating to units of measurement.
The Convention, modified slightly in 1921, remains the basis of all international agreement on units of measurement. There are now forty-eight Member States, including all the major industrialized countries.
(Source: http://www.bipm.fr/enus/1_Convention/)
Note: the BIPM is located in Sevres in the suburbs south-west of Paris.A point to notice here is that American and British astronomers and scientists who produce our calendars and regulate our system of timekeeping are, by treaty, subject to governing bodies located in France. France is a solid member of the European Union and while it has no "official state church", its population is 75% Catholic.
The Future of Time In Daniel 7:13, Daniel begins relating a vision of the return of Christ. In verse 24 he mentions "a fourth kingdom" that "shall devour [conquer] the whole earth". In verse 25, this king shall "change time and laws".
Would anyone actually do that?
The French use a calendar which puts Sunday at the end of the week, making it technically, the seventh, or "Sabbath" day. (Sabbath means "seventh".) The following calendar is from the web site of the French Consulate in New York. Compare it to the one on your wall.
Notre nouvelle adresse ! consulfrance-newyork.org
Calendrier du Consulat/Calendar of the French Consulate
[January 2001]
Lundi Mardi Mercredi Jeudi Vendredi Samedi Dimanche Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 (Source: http://www.franceconsulatny.org/1consula.htm)
Copyright M.H. and G.H. 2000. All rights reserved.
