Our calendar grew out of the need to have better control over our lives and to prepare us for the future. Its main function in an agricultural society was to organize planting and harvesting times. Religious rites became attached to it, especially those associated with the moon and its monthly cycles. The 12-month, 30-day calendar was invented by the Egyptians, with a 13th month inserted from time to time to keep it in tune with the planting seasons.
Early Rome used a 10-month calendar ending in December. The year had 304 days, but in about 700 B.C.E. two more months were added, January with 31 days and February with 29 days. To keep the calendar in step with the lunar cycle extra days were added to February when the priests saw fit. Political manipulations of these additions by the priests caused Julius Caesar to start the creation of a solar calendar of 12 months in 45 B.C.E. The fifth month was named in his honour, July. In 8 B.C.E. mistakes in adding days had made the year 3 days short, so Augustus corrected the situation and also changed the sixth month to August in his honour. To be equal with Julius he took one day from February, leaving it with only 28. He adjusted the other months to alternate 30 and 31 days, giving us our present calendar.
By 1582 C.E. the calendar was wrong by 10 days because of the 3-year Leap Year of the Julian calendar. Pope Gregory ‘lost’ the 10 days and instituted a 4-year Leap Year cycle, giving us our present system. This calendar took over 300 years before being accepted generally throughout the world.
The calendar should be considered to be just another human-designed tool for the calculation of time. It is not sacrosanct or immutable. Although some difficulties would arise from changes, the advantages of a more efficient system would outweigh these difficulties.
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