I heard that Mr. Trump wants his picture to replace George’s on the one dollar bill, what with him being the greatest president of all time and all. He also wants to replace “that funny pointy thingy” with either Mar-A-Lago or Trump Tower.
The British were reluctant to correct the Julian calendar because a pope made the change in 1582. After more centuries, it was very apparent that the Julian was not only off but becoming worse, so the British changed in 1752, leaping eleven days. Now it’s thirteen days off, although some of the Orthodox still use it for Easter. Greece didn’t change until 1923! As an aside, Sweden simply dropped all the leap years from 1700 to 1740 to correct its calendar. The British also moved the beginning of the year back to January. Didn’t anyone since then wonder why the leap day is in February instead of December? How about the months from September through December, from Latin for seven through ten?
All true, but there’s more. Leap year is sometimes still called a “bisextile” year, from the Roman practice of adding the intercalary day in the middle of February (well, not the Middle middle; rather, the “sixth day before the Kalends [first day] of March”, i.e. Feb 24., was counted twice).
Two more things to know about Roman dating is that the days were all counted down to three date-points, which were all grammatically plural: the Kalends (first day of the month), the Ides (the 13th day of the month except that in March, May, July, and October it was the 15th day), and the Nones (the ninth day before the Ides). But when the Romans said “X days before Y”, the count included both days, so in our way of doing things, the Nones were actually eight days before the Ides. Also, the names of the months in Latin were actually adjectives, so “the Ides of March” was verbatim “the Martian Ides”.
Finally, in Britain “first day of the year” depends on what year you’re talking about; regnal years are reckoned differently from calendric years, for example, much as fiscal years in the US are different from the calendar years.
Kalkkuna over 5 years ago
Geo the Wash was in his own world…
Znox11 over 5 years ago
I heard that Mr. Trump wants his picture to replace George’s on the one dollar bill, what with him being the greatest president of all time and all. He also wants to replace “that funny pointy thingy” with either Mar-A-Lago or Trump Tower.
VegaAlopex over 5 years ago
The British were reluctant to correct the Julian calendar because a pope made the change in 1582. After more centuries, it was very apparent that the Julian was not only off but becoming worse, so the British changed in 1752, leaping eleven days. Now it’s thirteen days off, although some of the Orthodox still use it for Easter. Greece didn’t change until 1923! As an aside, Sweden simply dropped all the leap years from 1700 to 1740 to correct its calendar. The British also moved the beginning of the year back to January. Didn’t anyone since then wonder why the leap day is in February instead of December? How about the months from September through December, from Latin for seven through ten?
Godfreydaniel over 5 years ago
There’s no question that some years should take a flying leap……
Smitty over 5 years ago
next thing you know, The Pyramid will be wearing a tinfoil hat.
AndrewSihler over 5 years ago
All true, but there’s more. Leap year is sometimes still called a “bisextile” year, from the Roman practice of adding the intercalary day in the middle of February (well, not the Middle middle; rather, the “sixth day before the Kalends [first day] of March”, i.e. Feb 24., was counted twice).
Two more things to know about Roman dating is that the days were all counted down to three date-points, which were all grammatically plural: the Kalends (first day of the month), the Ides (the 13th day of the month except that in March, May, July, and October it was the 15th day), and the Nones (the ninth day before the Ides). But when the Romans said “X days before Y”, the count included both days, so in our way of doing things, the Nones were actually eight days before the Ides. Also, the names of the months in Latin were actually adjectives, so “the Ides of March” was verbatim “the Martian Ides”.
Finally, in Britain “first day of the year” depends on what year you’re talking about; regnal years are reckoned differently from calendric years, for example, much as fiscal years in the US are different from the calendar years.