In the beginning of the civilisation, when man observed the sun rising and setting, he felt the occurrence of the day and night. The idea of the month came with the observation of the phases of the moon. And probably the change in the seasons gave birth to the idea of the year.
Finally with the development of science, man came to know things more correctly. He defined the period of one revolution of the earth round the sun as one year. The time taken by the moon in completing one revolutionroundthe earth was called a month and the time taken by the earth to complete one rotation on its axis was called a day.
In the initial calendars of Egypt, one year used to have 12 months, with one month having 30 days. The extra days were added to the year in the end to make it exactly equal to 365 days. The people of Greece used the lunar calendar according to which an additional period of three months used to be added to every eighth year. In the year 432 B.C the astronomer Meton found out that 235 lunar months exactly fit into 19 years.
The first major step in the direction of the development of calendars was taken by the Roman ruler Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. He took Greek astronomer Sosigenes help in this work. this calendar was based on the timetaken by the earth in completing one revolution round the sun. this was named as the solar calendar. the earth completes one revolution round the sun in 365.25 days, hence this period was taken as one year. The astronomers of Caesar defined a year as consisting of 365 days and every fourth year consisted of 366 days so that one-fourth of a day left out every year was compensated in thefourth year. this fourth year was called the 'leap year'. Any year divisible by the number 4 was taken to be a leap year. 365 days of the year were divided into twelve months. The months January, March, May, July, August, October and December consisted of 31 days each, while April, June, September and November consisted of 30 days each. The month February was taken a consist of 28 days, whereas in the leap year it would have 29 days. This calendar continued for 1600 years. However, later a mistake of 10 days was detected in these calculations, because the earth actually takes 365.2422 days to complete one revolution of the sun. As such it was natural that a difference of 7.8 days should have taken place over a period of 1000 years. To remove this deficiency, Gregory made an improvement in 1582 according to which the century years (100,200,300 etc.) Which were not divisible by the number 400, would not be made leap years i.e. February month would contain only 28 days in such century years. Accordingly the years 1700, 1800, 1900 had February of 28 days only, but the year 2000 would have February of 29 days. This is called theGregorian calendar and is in use all over the world.
The second calendar in use is the lunar calendar which is based on the movement of the moon. Since the moon takes 29 1/2 days to complete one revolution of the earth, it takes 354 days (29 1/2 * 12) for twelve such revolutions. As such the lunar year, consisting of 354 days, in less than the solar year by 11 days. This way a difference of 33 days occurs in every three years. This difference is removed by making every third lunar year consisting of 13 montsh. This additional one month is called 'Malmas' in Hindi. To make up for the days of the month, theactual numbering of the lunar days is advanced or deferred for the necessary adjustment. On 22nd March, 1957, the Government of India introduced the Shaka Calendar based on the lunar System as the Official Calendar. The Shaka era is behind the Christian era by 78 years.
In addition to these two calendar, some countries have other kinds of calendars also, which are used by them for religious purposes of those countries.
You have already read that while making the calendar, the 365 days of a year were divided into 12 months. These months have been named as January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. Do you know how they got these names?
January is the first month of the year. It's name originated from the Roman god Janus' name. The Romans think that this god has two faces-one for seeing into past and other into future.
February is named after the Roman festival Februa.
March is named after the warrior god of the Romans Mars.
April is probably derived from the Latin word Epirer which means'to open'. Since the spring season falls in this month and there is blossoming in trees and plants, this month has been named April.
May is derived from the Roman goddess Myma's name.
The origin of June is not definitely known but probably this has been derived from the name of Juno-the goddess of heavens.
July is named after Julius Caesar, who was born in this month. He was the first man who made big contributions to the development of the modern calendar.
August is named after king Augustus of Rome who had won many victories in this month.
September finds its origin in the Latin word 'Septem' meaning 'seventh'. This was the seventh month in the old Roman calendar.
October comes outof theRoman word 'Octo' meaning eight. In the old Roman calendar this was the eighth month.
November originates from the Latin word 'Novem', meaning nine. This was the ninth month in the old Roman calendar.
December is derived from the Latin word 'Decem', meaning tenth. This was the tenth month in the old Roman calendar.
Finally with the development of science, man came to know things more correctly. He defined the period of one revolution of the earth round the sun as one year. The time taken by the moon in completing one revolutionroundthe earth was called a month and the time taken by the earth to complete one rotation on its axis was called a day.
In the initial calendars of Egypt, one year used to have 12 months, with one month having 30 days. The extra days were added to the year in the end to make it exactly equal to 365 days. The people of Greece used the lunar calendar according to which an additional period of three months used to be added to every eighth year. In the year 432 B.C the astronomer Meton found out that 235 lunar months exactly fit into 19 years.
The first major step in the direction of the development of calendars was taken by the Roman ruler Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. He took Greek astronomer Sosigenes help in this work. this calendar was based on the timetaken by the earth in completing one revolution round the sun. this was named as the solar calendar. the earth completes one revolution round the sun in 365.25 days, hence this period was taken as one year. The astronomers of Caesar defined a year as consisting of 365 days and every fourth year consisted of 366 days so that one-fourth of a day left out every year was compensated in thefourth year. this fourth year was called the 'leap year'. Any year divisible by the number 4 was taken to be a leap year. 365 days of the year were divided into twelve months. The months January, March, May, July, August, October and December consisted of 31 days each, while April, June, September and November consisted of 30 days each. The month February was taken a consist of 28 days, whereas in the leap year it would have 29 days. This calendar continued for 1600 years. However, later a mistake of 10 days was detected in these calculations, because the earth actually takes 365.2422 days to complete one revolution of the sun. As such it was natural that a difference of 7.8 days should have taken place over a period of 1000 years. To remove this deficiency, Gregory made an improvement in 1582 according to which the century years (100,200,300 etc.) Which were not divisible by the number 400, would not be made leap years i.e. February month would contain only 28 days in such century years. Accordingly the years 1700, 1800, 1900 had February of 28 days only, but the year 2000 would have February of 29 days. This is called theGregorian calendar and is in use all over the world.
The second calendar in use is the lunar calendar which is based on the movement of the moon. Since the moon takes 29 1/2 days to complete one revolution of the earth, it takes 354 days (29 1/2 * 12) for twelve such revolutions. As such the lunar year, consisting of 354 days, in less than the solar year by 11 days. This way a difference of 33 days occurs in every three years. This difference is removed by making every third lunar year consisting of 13 montsh. This additional one month is called 'Malmas' in Hindi. To make up for the days of the month, theactual numbering of the lunar days is advanced or deferred for the necessary adjustment. On 22nd March, 1957, the Government of India introduced the Shaka Calendar based on the lunar System as the Official Calendar. The Shaka era is behind the Christian era by 78 years.
In addition to these two calendar, some countries have other kinds of calendars also, which are used by them for religious purposes of those countries.
You have already read that while making the calendar, the 365 days of a year were divided into 12 months. These months have been named as January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. Do you know how they got these names?
January is the first month of the year. It's name originated from the Roman god Janus' name. The Romans think that this god has two faces-one for seeing into past and other into future.
February is named after the Roman festival Februa.
March is named after the warrior god of the Romans Mars.
April is probably derived from the Latin word Epirer which means'to open'. Since the spring season falls in this month and there is blossoming in trees and plants, this month has been named April.
May is derived from the Roman goddess Myma's name.
The origin of June is not definitely known but probably this has been derived from the name of Juno-the goddess of heavens.
July is named after Julius Caesar, who was born in this month. He was the first man who made big contributions to the development of the modern calendar.
August is named after king Augustus of Rome who had won many victories in this month.
September finds its origin in the Latin word 'Septem' meaning 'seventh'. This was the seventh month in the old Roman calendar.
October comes outof theRoman word 'Octo' meaning eight. In the old Roman calendar this was the eighth month.
November originates from the Latin word 'Novem', meaning nine. This was the ninth month in the old Roman calendar.
December is derived from the Latin word 'Decem', meaning tenth. This was the tenth month in the old Roman calendar.
0 comments:
Post a Comment