Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Romans’

Ephemeris: 01/01/2024 – Why does the year start on January 1st?

January 1, 2024 Comments off

Happy New Year! This is Ephemeris for New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1st 2024. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:12. The Moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:58 this evening.

Here we are January 1st the start of a new year. So why does the year start on January 1st? For a long time the Romans started their year in the middle of March near the vernal equinox, the Ides of March to be specific. The Hebrew calendar was the lunar calendar of either 12 or 13 months in a year so that 19 years in their lunar calendar was exactly 19 years on the Roman or Julian solar calendar. The Greeks until Roman times had a lunar calendar dictated haphazardly by every city state. Their year started with the summer solstice around mid-June. The Romans initially had a 10-month calendar. When they finally added those two months, the first they named after the god Janus the god of beginnings and endings, who had two faces, looking backward to the past and forward to the future.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Here is a coin struck with the head of the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings, showing his two faces. He’s looking backwards and forwards, as we all do this time of the year.
Categories: Calendar, Ephemeris Program, History Tags: , ,

02/26/2015 – Ephemeris – The strange month of February

February 26, 2015 Comments off

Ephemeris for Thursday, February 26th.  The sun will rise at 7:25.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 1 minute, setting at 6:26.   The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 3:21 tomorrow morning.

Let’s take a shot at why February is the shortest month.  Blame the ancient Romans and their poor timekeeping skills.  The Roman calendar was based on the Sun, or rather the seasons, what we would call the tropical year, rather than the Moon.  With a lunar calendar it was easy to tell if it was off by a day or two.  The Romans apparently started with a 12 month calendar starting in March with spring.  Before the calendar reform of 45 BC months had alternating days of 29 and 31 except for February which had 28.  That left them a bit short, so it appears that they added a month Intercalaris every few years or so to fix it.  That eventually came down to adding a day to February every 4 years to fix the problem.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Categories: Calendar, Ephemeris Program Tags: ,