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<address><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/calendar/The-Gregorian-calendar">https://www.britannica.com/science/calendar/The-Gregorian-calendar</a></address>
<p><br>
</p>
<h1>The Julian calendar</h1>
<p><br>
In the mid-1st century bceJulius Caesar invited astronomer
Sosigenes of Alexandria to advise him about the reform of the
calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was
to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged
on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year used, as in the
Egyptian calendar, but with its length taken as 365 1/4 days.<br>
<br>
To remove the immense discrepancy between calendar date and
equinox, it was decided that the year known in modern times as 46
bce should have two intercalations. The first was the customary
intercalation of the Roman republican calendar due that year, <b>
the insertion of 23 days following February 23</b>. The second
intercalation, to bring the calendar in step with the equinoxes,
was achieved by inserting two additional months between the end of
November and the beginning of December. This insertion amounted to
an addition of
<b> 67 days</b>, making a year of no less than <u><b>445 days</b>
and causing the beginning of <b>March 45 bce </b>in the Roman
republican calendar to fall on what is still called January 1 of
the Julian calendar.</u><br>
<br>
Previous errors having been corrected, the next step was to
prevent their recurrence. Here Sosigenes’ suggestion about a
tropical year was adopted and any pretense to a lunar calendar was
rejected. The figure of 365.25 days was accepted for the tropical
year, and, to achieve this by a simple civil reckoning, Caesar
directed that a calendar year of 365 days be adopted and that an
extra day be intercalated every fourth year. Since February
ordinarily had 28 days, February 24 was the sixth day (using
inclusive numbering) before the Kalendae, or beginning of March,
and was known as the sexto-kalendae; the intercalary day, when it
appeared, was in effect a “doubling” of the sexto-kalendae and was
called the bis-sexto-kalendae. This practice led to the term
bissextile being used to refer to such a leap year. The name leap
year is a later connotation, probably derived from the Old Norse
hlaupa (“to leap”) and used because, in a bissextile year, any
fixed festival after February leaps forward, falling on the second
weekday from that on which it fell the previous year, not on the
next weekday as it would do in an ordinary year.<br>
<br>
Apparently, the Pontifices misinterpreted the edict and inserted
the intercalation too frequently. The error arose because of the
Roman practice of inclusive numbering, so that an intercalation
once every fourth year meant to them intercalating every three
years, because a bissextile year was counted as the first year of
the subsequent four-year period. This error continued undetected
for 36 years, during which period 12 days instead of nine were
added. The emperor Augustus then made a correction by omitting
intercalary days between 8 bce and 8 ce. As a consequence, it was
not until several decades after its inception that the Julian
calendar came into proper operation, a fact that is important in
chronology but is all too frequently forgotten.<br>
<br>
It seems that the months of the Julian calendar were taken over
from the Roman republican calendar but were slightly modified to
provide a more even pattern of numbering. The republican calendar
months of March, May, and Quintilis (July), which had each
possessed 31 days, were retained unaltered. Although there is some
doubt about the specific details, changes may have occurred in the
following way. Except for October, all the months that had
previously had only 29 days had either one or two days added.
January, September, and November received two days, bringing their
totals to 31, while April, June, Sextilis (August), and December
received one day each, bringing their totals to 30. October was
reduced by one day to a total of 30 days and February increased to
29 days, or 30 in a bissextile year. With the exception of
February, the scheme resulted in months having 30 or 31 days
alternately throughout the year. And in order to help farmers,
Caesar issued an almanac showing on which dates of his new
calendar various seasonal astronomical phenomena would occur.<br>
<br>
These arrangements for the months can only have remained in force
for a short time, because in 8 bce changes were made by Augustus.
In 44 bce, the second year of the Julian calendar, the Senate
proposed that the name of the month Quintilis be changed to Julius
(July), in honour of Julius Caesar, and in 8 bce the name of
Sextilis was similarly changed to Augustus (August). Perhaps
because Augustus felt that his month must have at least as many
days as Julius Caesar’s, February was reduced to 28 days and
August increased to 31. But because this made three 31-day months
(July, August, and September) appear in succession, Augustus is
supposed to have reduced September to 30 days, added a day to
October to make it 31 days, reduced November by one day to 30
days, and increased December from 30 to 31 days, giving the months
the lengths they have today.<br>
<br>
Several scholars, however, believe that Caesar originally left
February with 28 days (in order to avoid affecting certain
religious rites observed in honour of the gods of the netherworld)
and added two days to Sextilis for a total of 31; January, March,
May, Quintilis, October, and December also had 31 days, with 30
days for April, June, September, and November. The subsequent
change of Sextilis to Augustus therefore involved no addition of
days to the latter.<br>
<br>
The Julian calendar retained the Roman republican calendar method
of numbering the days of the month. Compared with the present
system, the Roman numbering seems to run backward, for the first
day of the month was known as the Kalendae, but subsequent days
were not enumerated as so many after the Kalendae but as so many
before the following Nonae (“nones”), the day called nonae being
the ninth day before the Ides (from iduare, meaning “to divide”),
which occurred in the middle of the month and were supposed to
coincide with the Full Moon. Days after the Nonae and before the
Ides were numbered as so many before the Ides, and those after the
Ides as so many before the Kalendae of the next month.<br>
<br>
It should be noted that there were no weeks in the original Julian
calendar. The days were designated either dies fasti or dies
nefasti, the former being business days and days on which the
courts were open; this had been the practice in the Roman
republican calendar. Julius Caesar designated his additional days
all as dies fasti, and they were added at the end of the month so
that there was no interference with the dates traditionally fixed
for dies comitiales (days on which public assemblies might be
convened) and dies festi and dies feriae (days for religious
festivals and holy days). Originally, then, the Julian calendar
had a permanent set of dates for administrative matters. The
official introduction of the seven-day week by Emperor Constantine
I in the 4th century ce disrupted this arrangement.<br>
<br>
It appears, from the date of insertion of the intercalary month in
the Roman republican calendar and the habit of designating years
by the names of the consuls, that the calendar year had originally
commenced in March, which was the date when the new consul took
office. In 222 bce the date of assuming duties was fixed as March
15, but in 153 bce it was transferred to the Kalendae of January,
and there it remained. January therefore became the first month of
the year, and in the western region of the Roman Empire, this
practice was carried over into the Julian calendar. In the eastern
provinces, however, years were often reckoned from the accession
of the reigning emperor, the second beginning on the first New
Year’s day after the accession; and the date on which this
occurred varied from one province to another.</p>
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<p>[...]</p>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 23-02-2021 10:44, R.O. wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:86b6f4cc-4504-44bd-f490-5646a1abcefc@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<p>Xiuhpōhualli<br>
<br>
</p>
<address><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiuhp%C5%8Dhualli"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiuhp%C5%8Dhualli</a></address>
<address><br>
</address>
<p> <br>
<br>
Reconstruction of the calendar<br>
<br>
For many centuries, scholars had tried to reconstruct the
Calendar. The latest and more-accepted version was proposed by
professor Rafael Tena (INAH),[3] based on the studies of
Sahagún, Durán and Alfonso Caso (UNAM). His correlation confirms
that the mexica year started on February 13th using the old
Julian calendar or February 23rd of the current Gregorian
calendar.<br>
See also<br>
<br>
Aztec calendar<br>
Tianquiztli<br>
<br>
Notes<br>
<br>
"The Nemontemi and the Month Quahuitlehua in the Aztec Solar
Calendar". World Digital Library.<br>
The Mexica Calendar and the Cronography. Rafael Tena.
INAH-CONACULTA. 2008 p 82-83<br>
<br>
The Mexica Calendar and the Cronography. Rafael Tena.
INAH-CONACULTA. 2008<br>
<br>
References<br>
Miller, Mary; Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient
Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN
0-500-05068-6.</p>
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<p><br>
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<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 23-02-2021 09:14, R.O. wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:7cc13748-61c6-31c1-42eb-58e0adc44743@ziggo.nl">
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<img moz-do-not-send="false"
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