Calender

[0. Fr. calendrer; Sp. calentár, to heat, from Lat. caleo. A machine or hot-pre used to pre cloths, and make them smooth and glo y; one who follows the busine of calendering. "My good friend the calender." - Cowper. day of the old Roman month, from calo , Gr. kaleō , to call. See CALENDS.] ( Chron .) A distribution or division of time into periods adapted to the purposes of civil life; also a table or register of such divisions, exhibiting the order in which the seasons, months, festivals, and holidays succeed each other in the year. The most remarkable calendars are:-1. The Hebrew C. The year of the Jews was a lunar one, being composed of 354 days, divided into 12 months, which had alternately 29 and 30 days. In order to make this lunar year accord with the solar year, the Hebrews supplied, seven times in nineteen years, an intercalary month of 29 days. Each month was divided into periods of 7 days, or weeks, the Saturday being celebrated under the name of Sabbath . -2. The C. of the Greeks , whose year was likewise lunar, and composed of 12 months, containing alternately 29 and 30 days. To accommodate this year to the solar one, the Greeks added every two years a supplementary month. Each month was divided into three decades. 3. The Roman , or Julian C. The Roman year, under Romulus, contained only 10 months, or 304 days. Under Numa, however, the year was extended to 12 months, or 355 days; but, although nominally thus defined, the C. did not in reality fix anything more precise than the commencement of the months and seasons; and through the ignorance or negligence of the priests, the utmost derangement subsequently arose. To obviate this confusion, Julius Cæsar, in 46 B. c., effected a reform, by the introduction of the Julian C., in which the length of the solar year was fixed at 365 days, to which was added, every four years, a day called bi extile. This C. was adopted not only by the Romans, but also by all the modern nations, and remained in use until the introduction of the C. of Gregory XIII. The Roman year had 12 months, each being divided into unequal parts by the Calends , Nones , and Ides ; (see these words.) -4. The Greg or i an C. This mode of distributing time was the result of the reform inaugurated by Gregory XIII. (See BISSEXTILE.) It came into operation in Oct., 1582. The Greeks and Ru ians have refused to adopt the Greg or i an C., retaining the old style or Julian C. Hence it is nece ary to deduct 12 days from the new style, in order to make it agree with the old. - 5. The Ecclesiastical C. The adaptation of the civil to the solar year is attended with no difficulty; but the church C., for regulating the movable fasts, imposes conditions le easily satisfied. The early Christians borrowed a portion of their ritual from the Jews. The Jewish year was luni-solar; that is to say, depended on the moon as well as on the sun. Easter, the principal Christian festival, in imitation of the Jewish pa over, was celebrated about the time of the full moon. Differences of opinion, and consequently disputations, on arose as to the proper day on which the celebration should be held. In order to put an end to an unseemly contention, the Council of Nice laid down a specific rule, and ordered that Easter should always be celebrated on the Sunday which immediately follows the fall moon that happens upon, or next after, the day of to vernal equinox. In order to determine Easter ord in to this rule for any particular year, it is nece ary to reconcile three periods, namely, the week, the lunar month, and the lunar year. To find the day of the week on which any given day of the year falls, it is nece ary to know on what day of the week the year began. In the Julian C. this was easily found by means of a short period or cycle of 28 years, after which the year begins with the same day of the week. In the Greg or i an C. this order is interrupted by the om sion of the intercalation in the last year of the century. The connection of the lunar month with the solar year is an ancient problem for the resolution of which the Greeks invented cycles and periods, which remained in use with some modifications till the time of the Greg or i an reformation. The author of the Greg or i an C., Luigi Lilio Ghiraldi, or, as he is frequently called, Aloysius Lilius , employed for the same purpose a set of numbers called epacts .-6. New French C. A new reform of the C. was attempted to be introduced in France during the period of the first revolution. This was its founder. -v. a. To pre under or over a heated roller, or a hollow iron cylinder filled with hot coals; to pre between rollers for the purpose of making smooth, glo y, and wavy, as cloths, paper, .