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Show I I I l New Year's Day. . I Communicated. , j. l New Yetir's Diiy has come to be h k Very important mile stone in our lives. P It lias come to be a day of reflection, re , solutions, anil of "turning over new lea ves". Many begin life nnew on a spotless spot-less page of thoir Ufa book. Though a 'largo number of the worthy resolutions j fail of execution ami thousands of the I . 'white page.3 eoou become injured, many there arc who can trace the turning j Tpoint of their lives to that day. i Its importance requires a knowledge of its history, causes, etc. Space and Hiino will permit of only a few state- incuts' Much confusion in ancient , times arose from inaccurate modes of 'measuring time. While the day was 1 easy the month was difllctilt, and the ' year still more diillcult of coi rect detcr- mination. The G reeks were among the ', '; - first to observe th.it a lunar month is: . composed of 2f)t days, they, therefore,' ' divided the year into twelve parts or i . jnonths placing 20 davs in some niid- ."80 days in others. The Romans ndop-, ndop-, . -ted a similar stylo but it-was found that j. 'thoir year amounted to about !J5r days ;i or 10 days too short. It was ,obstied j that the winter solstice (shortest day ' 'in the yoar) came on a dili'erent date ' each succeeding year. ' Holidays appro- I. ' .priate for one season of tho year soon I -began to come in another season ' i imp- It -propriate . The ft ast to Ceres, goddess. I ' JWfUk. -of agriculture, set for May, the time of i I iK .blossoms, began to come in March, the, PHHR season of frosts. Astronomers had now "gjp determined the true length of tlio year 11G514. days (about). Julius Caesur, then ; eempeivr of Rome, arranged that 10 days :should bo added to the 12 months, dis-, tributed so that there would be four iiuonths of SO days each, seven mouths , of 31 days each and one month (I'eb ) I ' -with 28 days. But there was a fourth I of a day still un provided for fo it was -I agreed that one day should be added to I February every four years making 20 1 days instead cf 2S. Tho calendar with ! I alight corrections by Giegory is the one ft in use at the present time In honor j of its originator it is called tho Julian j ' fl Calendar and its seventh month is cal- ""M led July while tiio eighth month is so Ifl ' . ji amed from Augustus Cneaer's success , ly -or. March had hitherto been the, first u , month of the Roman year but Caeser decreed that his calendar should take I . effect on the day of the first new inoon " I following the winter tolbtice. This! 1 liappeued on the 1st day of January 45 ' . i B. C. Hence tho reason for the date 1 of New Year's Day. G. N. C. |