THE REFORMED CALENDAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 211, 20 April 1877, Page 15

THE REFORMED CALENDAR.

That the word Calendar proceeds from the Litin Calendoe is a wellknown fact, bub from its origin to the present time this record of the past and forecast of the future (for it is both) has undergone various changes. Rome received its first calendar from Romulus and Nuina ; but its defects were so enormous that in Julius Caesar's time the festivals had shifted from one season to another ; he therefore entrusted its reform to the astronomer Sosigenes, whose knowledge of the subject, though imperfect, was far from contemptible, since he calculated that the sun went quite round the ecliptic in 365 days and six hours, a pretty close result for that time, the error not exceeding eleven minutes to be substracted from the six hours. Still this would give a day too much iv the course of 134 years. As it was, however, the heaviest errors were set aside by the introduction of leap year occurring every fourth twelve-month, and this constituted the Julian Calendar. In 1 582, Gregory XIII. undertook a further correction with the aid of several learned men, among whom a physician named Lelio particularly distinguished himself. In order to remove the error of eleven minutes, it was resolved that three days should be suppressed every 400 years, and that this abridgment should be effected on the three first secular i years of each period of 400. The year 1700 was the first that lost a I day ; the year 1800 experienced the same fate ; 1900 will also be a } common year j but 2000 will be a leap year. Until 1700 the Julian j Calendar was ten days behind the Gregorian one j the suppression I of another day in that year raised the difference to eleven, and in ! 1800 it rose to twelve. Every Russian date has therefore to be increased by that number in order to coincide with ours, because the Greek Ohurch still retains the Julian calendar The Gregorian one was introduced on the 4th of October, L 582; St. Theresa, died on that day, and was buried on the loth, that is, the day after.— I Galignayii.