THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR
Ata to the man who made history exciting and enticing in my secondary school days and
till when my toes point up, salute to him who the world still reckon for his
ingenuity and painstaking task in introducing the calendar that over 4 billion
people in the world still refer to, Pope Gregory XIII. My quest for in-depth knowledge talked me
into this work. Most of us I believe can recite the world historical dates and
its antecedents but don’t know how it is easy to do so; here is just a tip of
the iceberg.
Calendar, system of measuring time for the
needs of civil life, by dividing time into days, weeks, months, and years.
Calendar divisions are based on the movements of the earth and the regular
appearances of the sun and the moon. The week was derived from the Judeo-Christian tradition
requiring rest from labor every seventh day. It is not based on a natural
phenomenon. The Romans named the days of the week in honor of the sun, moon,
and various planets.
A month was originally calculated by
ancient peoples as the time between two full moons, or the number of days required
for the moon to circle the earth (29.5 days).
The Gregorian calendar is
also called the Christian calendar because it uses the birth of Jesus Christ as
a starting date. Dates of the Christian era are often designated ad (Latin anno domini, “in the
year of our Lord”) and bc (before
Christ). Although the birth of Christ was originally given as December 25, ad 1, modern scholars now place it about
4 bc. I guess this will bring about argument as to
whether to reject or accept the calendar wholeheartedly due to the religious
faith, but I tell you what, this was the era of the great Roman Empire Rome was
the hub of science, technology, art, trade and whatnot.
The Gregorian calendar, or
New Style calendar, was slowly adopted throughout Europe. It is used today
throughout most of the Western world and in parts of Asia. When the Gregorian
calendar was adopted in Britain in 1752, another correction of an 11-day
discrepancy was made; the day after September 2, 1752, became September 14. The
British also adopted January 1 as the day when a new year begins. The Soviet
Union adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918, and Greece adopted it in 1923 for
civil purposes, but many countries affiliated with the Greek Church retain the
Julian, or Old Style, calendar for the celebration of church feasts.
Though, sometimes I tend to reject
the idea of new year- I see it as just a mere change in date because nothing
spectacular or unique exist in it but I tell you this, the weather here in
Nigeria tends to get extremely cold in the first two weeks of the new year, if
you happen to be around Europe and America (North America) you will also
observe that it’s more snowy when it come to January.
The Gregorian calendar is the most
accurate calendar currently in use in this planet earth after undergoing some
rigorous reforms since it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII
