February - The Short Month

I posted this article 2 years ago today. It is one of the more popular posts which I have written. The history of the calendar has always fascinated me; from the early religious lunar calendars to the more modern solar calculations and even the atomic clock; it’s all of interest to me. Time itself may be infinite; but you and I are here for a finite period, which will come to an end soon enough. Maybe that’s why I’m so concerned about how they keep score; I wouldn’t want to miss a single minute!

Imagine having your summer vacation in January, or Christmas in June. Seems unlikely, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly where we would be at today if Caesar had not adopted the changes to the “Julian” calendar when he added one day every fourth year to keep everything in order. Of course, we know it as leap year, and it is an accepted part of living, engendering such witticisms as, “If you’re born on February 29th then you don’t get to vote until you’re 72 years old!” Or, “If you marry on February 29th then you only have to buy the wife a gift every 4th year.” Right; you try it, and let me know how that works out for you.

I have always been fascinated by numbers, even when failing math in grammar school.(I was fascinated at how low my grades were.) Still later, while working as a grocery clerk, before the advent of the modern day cash register, I was further enamored of the precision of numbers in general. And, still later, as a Quartermaster in the Navy, and then as a qualified 3rd Mate aboard oil tankers, the absolute nature of the stars in their movements, hooked me on math forever. In that spirit I offer the following, and accepted, mathematical reasons for the need of a leap year.

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar was faced with the problem that the Roman calendar then in use had slipped 81 days. This was especially noticeable at the spring equinox, which was an agricultural benchmark affecting the planting of crops. Something needed to be done to correct the error. Caesar simply added 81 days to the calendar, and instituted the leap year, bringing all things back to their proper order; for a time.

The Julian calendar, which is the one in use from 46 BC until 1582 AD, was based upon 365.25 days for one journey around the sun. Now, this was pretty good shooting for 46 BC, but by the 16th Century advances in science, and navigation, had revealed the actual length of time to orbit the sun as being a bit shorter; 365.2422 days, which meant that we were now out of whack by 10 days, which was fouling up the date on which to observe Easter. In preparation for Easter of 1582, Pope Gregory XIII deleted 10 days for that year, which reset the clock, so to speak. That became known as the Gregorian calendar, which is what we still use today.

As time has gone by, even the Gregorian calendar has come up for correction. George Washington, the father of our country, was actually born on the 11th of February in 1732. His birthday was advanced by 11 days in 1752 when the colonies switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. I have never really been sure of why the colonies were using the older Julian calendar, so I will have to look into that. But poor George Washington, he seems destined to never have a permanent birthday, as we now celebrate his special day as a three day weekend, or President's Day, which gives him a “leap” in his birthday every year, rather than one in every four.

There are many different calendars in use around the world, each with its own version of Leap Year. My own religion, Judaism, makes use of the older Lunar calendar which requires a correction of almost 20 days, or so, making it a 13 month year. That month is named Adar I, or, the "lucky" month. It is neatly slipped in between the months of Shevat and Adar, giving the leap year a total of 385 days. The Jewish Leap Year is also known as the "Pregnant" year; "Shanah Me'uberet" in Hebrew; as it bulges with extra days. These leap years are distributed 7 times over a 19 year period, and occur during the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the cycle. This is known as the Metonic cycle and marks the moons return to the exact place, at the same longitude, with the same constellation in the sky. Moreover this occurs at the time when the moon is in the exact same phase as it was at the beginning of the cycle.

I hope this has been of some help to you in understanding the calendar we use today; especially how it relates to the lunar, religious cycles which govern most of our religious holidays. It’s a fascinating topic and this small post of mine merely touches upon the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

Happy Birthday George Washington!

Back when I was a kid we celebrated George Washington’s birthday as a separate holiday; as we did with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. There was a special quality about having the day off in the middle of the week that is lacking in the combined holidays, resulting in the 3 day weekend we now refer to as President’s Day.

First off, a little bit of trivia. Washington was not born on the 22^nd of February 1732.  He was born on February 11, 1731, over one year earlier. In 1731 we were still using the old Annunciation Style calendar which was woefully outdated as compared to the science of astronomy. It wasn’t until 1752 that the British government switched over to the new Gregorian calendar under the provisions of the New Style Act of 1750. I actually learned this is in 5^th grade.

Calendars have changed many times throughout the history of the world. The earliest calendars were based upon observations of the moon, which was the closest and brightest thing visible to the ancients. The lunar calendar sufficed for thousands of years and served the basic purpose of marking time. Seasonally, there were adjustments necessary due to weather which affected the planting and harvesting of crops; then came the Sun.

When Copernicus proved that the earth revolved about the sun; and not the opposite; it was an upheaval in accepted logic. But this was the beginning point at which human beings came to redefine their understanding;  and methods of; chronicling the passing years.

The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used of calendars due to the fact that it is secular and scientific in nature. It’s interesting to note that this calendar is based upon Copernicus’ observations, as it was only a few decades removed from the Spanish Inquisition, during which the very teachings of Copernicus were banned by the Church. That the church even accepted a calendar based upon the sun as a fixed object, with no religious significance in the keeping of time, was a tremendous event.

The main advantage of the Gregorian calendar is that it keeps most of the world on the same schedule; a feat which became of increasing importance as the world seemingly “shrunk” with the advent of the Age of Exploration and Industrialization. For the most part though, the world’s leading religions; including the Roman Catholic Church; still use an older outdated calendar in calculating the dates of religious traditions and ceremonies.

For instance, the Roman Catholic Church relies on the insertion of a correction each year in determining the dates of Good Friday and Easter. It doesn’t always coincide with the actual history, as Good Friday and Easter often fall before the Jewish holiday of Passover, the events of which had to have occurred before the Crucifixion of Jesus. The Jewish calendar is still lunar based; and much like the Chinese Buddhist calendar, it can get confusing.

Pope Gregory XIII signed a Papal decree on February 24, 1582 adopting the new calendar in Europe. The other European nations followed within the next couple of centuries, with the practice reaching America in the early half of the 18^th Century, just in time for the birth of George Washington.

The switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar may seem silly, as it is based upon only 11 minutes or so of difference in the time calculated for the earth to revolve about the sun. But over a period of time; centuries; this adds up considerably if not corrected. Something like 3 days in 400 years. When Gregory was Pope we had already slipped by 10 days since the Roman era. This made the spring equinox fall on the 11^th of the March instead of the 21^st, and it was still drifting further away from that fixed date; which had been set by the church centuries earlier. Since that date affected the timing of the Christian holidays, the Church decided to “fix” it.

There were 2 parts to the “fix”; the first being a change in the number of “leap years” observed every 4 centuries to 97 from 100. This was the idea of Aloysius Lilius, a Calabrian physician. While the shift from the lunar calendar to the solar based Julian calendar was a big step forward in keeping track of the passing years, the Gregorian calendar was an even further step in this direction.

There is much more involved in the history of the calendar which we use today as we further refine our time keeping methods with atomic clocks and “leap second” corrections. But, this is just a simplified account of how George Washington had his birthday changed by more than a year.

_______________________________

Hey,Rush Limbaugh! 

Rush Limbaugh is ashamed of America! Guess what? We're ashamed of Rush Limbaugh. The talk show host has, in the past, told all apologists for America to love it or leave it. He also promised to move to Canada if President O'Bama won the election in 2008. We're still waiting....

Leap Year, George Washington and the Jewish Calendar

Imagine having your summer vacation in January, or Christmas in June. Seems unlikely, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly where we would be at today if Caesar had not adopted the changes to the “Julian” calendar when he added one day every fourth year to keep everything in order. Of course, we know it as leap year, and it is an accepted part of living, engendering such witticisms as, “If you’re born on February 29th then you don’t get to vote until you’re 72 years old!” Or, “If you marry on February 29th then you only have to buy the wife a gift every 4th year.” Right; you try it, and let me know how that works out for you.

I have always been fascinated by numbers, even when failing math in grammar school.(I was fascinated at how low my grades were.) Still later, while working as a grocery clerk, before the advent of the modern day cash register, I was further enamored of the precision of numbers in general. And, still later, as a Quartermaster in the Navy, and then as a qualified 3rd Mate aboard oil tankers, the absolute nature of the stars in their movements, hooked me on math forever. In that spirit I offer the following, and accepted, mathematical reasons for the need of a leap year.

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar was faced with the problem that the Roman calendar then in use had slipped 81 days. This was especially noticeable at the spring equinox, which was an agricultural benchmark affecting the planting of crops. Something needed to be done to correct the error. Caesar simply added 81 days to the calendar, and instituted the leap year, bringing all things back to their proper order; for a time.

The Julian calendar, which is the one in use from 46 BC until 1582 AD, was based upon 365.25 days for one journey around the sun. Now, this was pretty good shooting for 46 BC, but by the 16th Century advances in science, and navigation, had revealed the actual length of time to orbit the sun as being a bit shorter; 365.2422 days, which meant that we were now out of whack by 10 days, which was fouling up the date on which to observe Easter. In preparation for Easter of 1582, Pope Gregory XIII deleted 10 days for that year, which reset the clock, so to speak. That became known as the Gregorian calendar, which is what we still use today.

As time has gone by, even the Gregorian calendar has come up for correction. George Washington, the father of our country, was actually born on the 11th of February in 1732. His birthday was advanced by 11 days in 1752 when the colonies switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. I have never really been sure of why the colonies were using the older Julian calendar, so I will have to look into that. But poor George Washington, he seems destined to never have a permanent birthday, as we now celebrate his special day as a three day weekend, or President's Day, which gives him a “leap” in his birthday every year, rather than one in every four.

There are many different calendars in use around the world, each with its own version of Leap Year. My own religion, Judaism, makes use of the older Lunar calendar which requires a correction of almost 20 days, or so, making it a 13 month year. That month is named Adar I, or, the "lucky" month. It is neatly slipped in between the months of Shevat and Adar, giving the leap year a total of 385 days. The Jewish Leap Year is also known as the "Pregnant" year; "Shanah Me'uberet" in Hebrew; as it bulges with extra days. These leap years are distributed 7 times over a 19 year period, and occur during the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the cycle. This is known as the Metonic cycle and marks the moons return to the exact place, at the same longitude, with the same constellation in the sky. Moreover this occurs at the time when the moon is in the exact same phase as it was at the beginning of the cycle.

I don't know whether I'll post tomorrow, or not, what with it being Leap Year. It seems like a lot of trouble; that's why I'm posting this today. But knowing me, I'll probably post something anyway. Being compulsive kind of becomes a habit.