Page 12 - January 2025
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The Fascinating History
of Calendars
Since the dawn of civilization, humans In ancient Egypt, the calendar took on
have sought to understand and a solar focus. Around 3000 BCE,
organize time. Calendars—our Egyptians created a 365-day calendar
timekeeping tools—have evolved based on the heliacal rising of Sirius,
dramatically across cultures and which heralded the flooding of the
epochs, reflecting the ingenuity and Nile. Unlike modern leap years, their
diverse worldviews of humanity. From system simply added five extra days
tracking the stars to honoring gods, the at the end of the year, used for
story of calendars is as varied as it is festivals honoring their gods.
fascinating. Let’s explore the history of
these chronological systems, The Julian and Gregorian
uncovering some intriguing, lesser- Transformations
known facts along the way. Julius Caesar revolutionized
timekeeping in 45 BCE by introducing
The Ancient Roots of Timekeeping the Julian calendar, based on a solar
The earliest calendars were lunar- year of 365.25 days. To correct drift
based, as the moon's phases provided caused by the lunar calendar, Caesar’s
a natural and observable cycle. The system added a leap day every four
Sumerians, around 3100 BCE, are years. However, the Julian calendar’s
credited with developing one of the slight overestimation of the solar year
first calendars, dividing the year into 12 led to an accumulating error.
lunar months. However, their year was
about 354 days long, requiring periodic By the 16th century, the calendar was
adjustments to stay aligned with the misaligned with the spring equinox by
solar year. about 10 days. Pope Gregory XIII
addressed this issue
12 - My Indigo Sun
