Hi trappedinnm!!
Our current calendar is an European Christian calendar. It is a legacy
of our Western Civilization, that cames to us from the Roman Empire.
The current calendar is a continuation of the calendars used in the
territory of the Roman Empire, imposed by the ruler state: Rome.
The Roman Calendar:
The Roman Calendar is believed to have been devised originally by
Romulus , the founder of Rome about 753 BC. However it seems to have
been based on the Greek lunar calendar. The year originally started
with the vernal equinox and consisted of 10 months (Martius, Aprilis,
Maius, Junius, Quntilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and
December) having a total of 304 days. The 304 days were followed by an
unnamed, unnumbered period in winter. The second Roman king Numa
Pompilius (715-673 BC) introduced February and January (in that order)
between December and March, increasing the length of the year to 354
or 355 days. Then in 450 BC, February was moved to its current
position.
Numa Pompilius also ordered the addition of an extra month of
Mercedinus was added with 22 or 23 days on alternate years, to keep
the civil year according with the seasons. The adding of the
Mercedinus month was the responsibility of the pontifex maximus, whom
not always was aware of the importance of his office, and in practice
happened less often.
In the early times of the Republic the years were not counted but they
were named after the consuls who were in power at the time:
205 BC was the year of the consulship of Publius Cornelius Scipio
Africanus and Publius Licinius Crassus.
In the later Republic, the years were counted from the founding of
Rome by Romulus, event which was traditionally supposed to have taken
place in 753 BC. The number of the years was followed by A.V.C., which
stands for "AB VRBE CONDITA", that means "after the founding of the
city":
205 BC was the year 549 A.V.C.
The Roman calendar was eventually supplanted by the more rational
Julian calendar in 46 BC.
See "Roman calendar" from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar
The Julian calendar:
The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, taking
force in 45 BC or 709 ab urbe condita.
Julius Caesar consulted with the the astronomer Sosigenes for the
design of a new calendar. It is derived from the most developed
Egyptian administrative calendar which consisted of a year of 365 days
divided into 12 months, but lacked a leap year.
The Julian Calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12
months, and a leap day added every 4 years.
The names of the months remain the same than the Roman calendar, with
the exceptions of the rename of Quintilis as Iulius (July) and
Sextilis as Augustus (August).
The lenght of the month was (starting in January) 31, 28(29), 31, 30,
31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, and 31.
"The Julian calendar was in general use in Europe from the times of
the Roman Empire until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the
Gregorian Calendar, which was soon adopted by most Catholic countries.
The Protestant countries followed later, and the Eastern Orthodox ones
yet later. Great Britain had Thursday 14 September 1752 follow
Wednesday 2 September 1752. Sweden adopted the new style calendar in
1753, but also for a twelve-year period starting in 1700 used a
modified Julian Calendar. Russia remained on the Julian calendar until
after the Russian Revolution (which is thus called the 'October
Revolution' but occurred in November according to the Gregorian
calendar). The Eastern Orthodox churches themselves continued using
the Julian Calendar until 1923, when many adopted their own Revised
Julian Calendar rather than the Gregorian one. Easter, Pentecost, and
their associated holy days are still calculated according to the
Julian calendar in the Eastern Orthodox churches, and some Eastern
Orthodox churches continue to use the Julian Calendar for all their
church calendar dates."
"Julian calendar" from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar
Anno Domini dating:
"Anno Domini (Latin for "In the Year of the Lord"), or more completely
Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (The Years of Our Lord Jesus Christ),
commonly abbreviated A.D., refers to the conventional numbering of
years in the Gregorian calendar. It defines an epoch based on the
traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus Christ. Years before
the epoch were denoted A.C.N. (for Ante Christi Natus, Latin for
"before the birth of Christ"), although B.C. (Before Christ) is now
usually used in English. The A.D. era is the only system in everyday
use in the Western hemisphere, and the main system for commercial and
scientific use in the rest of the world. Many non-Christians or
secular persons, however, object to a system based upon an event in
the Christian faith; for this reason, the same epoch is also referred
to as the Common Era, abbreviated C.E...
...The use of the consular dating ended when the emperor Justinian
discontinued appointing consuls in the mid-6th century...The Anno
Domini system was developed by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus (often
described as a Scythian) in Rome around the middle of the 6th century,
as an outcome of his work on calculating the date of Easter."
From "Anno Domini" from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini
"The Gregorian calendar is the calendar currently used in the Western
world. It is a modification of the Julian calendar, was first proposed
by Neapolitan doctor Aloysius Lilius, and adopted by Pope Gregory
XIII...
The Gregorian calendar was invented because the mean year in the
Julian Calendar was a little too long, causing the Vernal equinox to
slowly drift earlier in the calendar year...
The Gregorian calendar improves the approximation by skipping 3 Julian
leap days in every 400 years, giving an average year of 365.2425 mean
solar days long, which has an error of about 1 day per 3000 years with
respect to the mean tropical year but less than half this error with
respect to the vernal equinox tropical year of 365.2424 days."
Extracted from "Gregorian calendar" from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_Calendar
References about the different calendars used in the history:
From the "Calendars through the Ages" website:
Homepage:
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/
"The Christian calendar":
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-christian.html
"Definitions of our Year":
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-definitions.html
"A variety of calendars":
At this page follow the links listed on the left margin for "In use"
and "Not Used" calendars.
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar.html
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Calendar date":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_date
"French Revolutionary Calendar":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_Calendar
"Calendar":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_date
Other sources:
"Calendrical Systems" from Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy:
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/topics/CalendricalSystems.html
"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: General Chronology":
This is a very nice reading about this topic. RECOMMENDED!!
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03738a.htm
Search strategy:
roman calendar
julian calendar
gregorian calendar
Anno Domini
I hope this helps you. If you need further assistance, please request
for any clarification needed before rate this answer. I will gladly
respond to your requests.
Beast regards.
livioflores-ga |
