CALENDAR

A distribution or division of time into oeriods adapied to the purposes of civil life; also a tabic./ register of such divisions, exhibiting the order in which 'fie seasons, months, festivals, and holidays succeed each sther during the year. The word is derived from the indent Latin verb calare, to call. In the early ages of Rom. it m ih.: custom for the pontiles to call the people • r on the first day of each month, to apprise them lays that were to be kept sacred in the course of it. Hence dies calenda, the calends or first days of the different mouths. The calendars in use throughout Europe are borrowed from that of the Romans. It omnia is supposed to have iken to divide the year in such a manner that ceitain epochs should return periodically after a revolu-; the sun; but the knowledge of astronomy was not then sufficiently advanced lo allow this to be done wuh livided it into 10 mouths— March,ment of April,the' May, June, Quititili;.tember, October, November, and December. March, May. Quintilis, and October, contained thirty-one days each; the other six contained only thirty. The names Quintilis and S.-xtihs remained in the calendar till the end of the republic, when tin y were into July and August; the former in flattery of Julius Cesar, and the latter of Aug The year of Romulus contained only 304 days. Noma added two months: January lo the beginning of the year, and February to the end. About the year 432 B. c. this ment was changed by the Decemvirs, who placed February after January; since that time the order of the months nan remained undisturbed. In Ntuna'a year the ".' and 30 days alien. pond with Ihe synodic revolution of the moon. The year would therefore consist of 354 days; but one day was added lo make the number odd, as being more lucky. In produce a correspondence with the solar year, Hums ordered an intercalary month to be inserted every s vi. nd year between the 23rd and 24th of February, cooItemately of 22 and 23 days. Had this regulation been strictly adhered to, the mean length of the rear would have been 365^ days, and the months would nave continued fur a long time lo correspond with the same seasons,lint a discretionary poweroverlhe intercalary month was exercised by the pontiffs, who frequently abused it for the purpose of hastening or retarding the days of the election of magistrates; and Ihe Roman calendar continued in a state of uncertainly ami confusion till the time of Julius Csaar, when the civil equinox differed from the astronomical by three months. Under tlie advice of Ihe astronomer S oajgenea, Caesar abolished the lunar year, and regulated the civil year entirely byIhe sun. He decreed that the common year should consist of 363 days; but that every fourth year contain 3GG. In distributing the davs among the months, he ordered that the odd montbe, that is, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh, should contain each 31 days, and the other months 30; excepting February, which in common years was lo contain only 29 days, but every fourth year 30 days. This natural and Convenient arrangement was interrupted to gratify the vanity of August us, by giving August, the month named after him, an equal number of davs with July, which was named after the first Ctesar. The inti day, which occurred every fourth year, was Ini tween ihe 21th and 25th of February. According to Ihe peculiar and awkward manner of reckoning adopted by the llomans, the 24th of February was called the sixth before the oalends of March, sexto calendas. In the iulercalary year this day was repeated, and called bis sexto. the term bi extile. The corresponding term, leap year, appears le correct, as it seems to imply ill it a day was leapt over instead of being thrust in. it remarked, that in the ecclesiastical calendar the ry day is still inserted between the 24th and 25th of February. Fbe Julian year consisted of 3Go'.; days, and consequently differed in exce by 11 minutes 10 35 sec. from the true solar year, which consists of 305 d. 5 h. 48 m. 19-62 sec. In consequence of this difference the astronomical equinox, in the1S1course of a few centuries, sensibly fell [s. 195]