Show calendar reform these articles have appeared in eight previous issues and having told the story in various forms and repeated frets concerning the improvements prove ments to be made when the world calendar is accepted and put into effects effect let us spend the next few weeks in considering some of the interesting data written in the jurnal journal of calendar reform by outstanding persons who are giving time and thought to the world calendar in the first quarter issue of the journal of calendar reform we find an article written by james stokley Sl okley director DirEct cr of the buhl planetarium in pittsburg in which he relates interesting data about the various ways of marking time since calendars were formed primitive man not able to count very high numbers found the changing phase af f the moon ashful to indicate long periods of time later the changes in the suns daily path were recognized as keeping step with the seasons and these were used for a calendar thus there are three distinct types of calendar the lunar which keeps step with the moon and disregards the sun and seasons the solar which is in step with the seasons but ignores the moon and the luni solar which combines the other two all th three ree types are in use today among various peoples of the many different kinds of months two are shown the sidereal month or the time that the moon takes to travel around the sky from one position among the stars back to that position this is about 27 and 13 1 3 days but when the sidereal month is past the moon is not at the same phase that it was when it started the phases depend vin on the position of the moon with respect to the sun which is also apparently moving eastward among the stars most old calendars alen dars and the edans among present day ones are based on the month the edans have 12 months each year alternating 29 and 30 days long giving a year of days this calendar loses 11 days per year or one year out of every 33 this calendar does not keep in step with the seasons but in most moslem countries there is little seasonal variation so this is not important just as there are two different kinds of month so are there two principal kinds of year the sidereal and the tropical the first is the time it takes the earth to complete a trip around the sun or the time it apparently takes the sun to travel from one position among the stars back to the same game position this is roughly days but the seasons are determined by the suns position with respect to the equator when on its northern journey it crosses the celestial equator spring begins but the entire starry sky slips around the suns path the ecliptic once every years because of the precession of th the e equinox es the period that the sun requires to travel from the vernal or spring equinox and back to it again is called the tropical year aana is days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds long this is what most of us mean when we refer to the year although the ancient egypt egyptians ians used the sidereal year in their calendar the jewish calendar like the ecclesiastical calendar of the christian church combines the lunar and solar calendars that of of the the jews has 12 months each year alternating terna ting 29 and 30 days in length so that the months keep step with the moon to keep in step with the sun a leap or intercalary month is added usually every 3rd ard year in 19 years there are seven of these leap years with extra inon hs this calendar begins with the supposed date of creaton creation B C the original roman calendar was of this sort but the romans had no regular rules for the extra months and the calendar became a source of political intrigue and was much abused about 50 B C the vernal equinox came in december to correct these evils and to prevent their repetition julius casar in 45 B C introduced the julian calendar with the advice of f the astronomer so si genes unfortunately julius caesar did not live to see his calendar safely started staked on its course since he was assassinated in 44 B C such was the calendar used in some parts of the world until a few months ago but the julian year of days 6 hours is about 11 minutes 14 seconds too long by 1582 this difference had accumulated to a total of about ten days and the equinox came about on march 11 had this continued it would have meant that easter and other religious festivals connected with it would eventually have corne come in the winter so pope gregory XIII made another reform with the aid of astronomer christopher clavius thus striking an average which makes the length of the gregorian year days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds only 26 seconds too long it was adopted in roman catholic countries immediately but others lagged not until 1752 was it adopted in england while russia did not adopt it until 1918 at present the slight remaining error in the gregorian calendar now has accumulated to about 3 hours not until after years have passed will it amount to a day so sa it is not very serious however calendar reforms are now being urged chiefly concerning the lengths of the months in order to have the same date every year fall on the same day of the week and to have every month and every quarter the same in the world calendar the tha months differ in length but not so much as in the gregorian calendar and the quarters are the same the world calendar also uses a year end day every year at the end of december and a leap year day when needed at the end of june it could bep ba adopted with little disturbance in a year that would otherwise start on sunday |