Want a date?

Andrew Scott

January is the month of calendars throughout the world and anyone is happy to receive the gift of a calendar particularly from the business establishments most of which make it a pleasurable habit to gift their valued customers with a calendar or two.

The calendar is a very useful item which we turn to from the time of one's birth up to his time of demise. At the very moment one is born to this world his kith and kin make use of a calendar to know for certain the day, date and month of the year on which the babe was born and from the time a new birth is registered up to the time of one's death we make use of calendars to ascertain the day, date and the month of these events.

A series of events and activities are packed between the birth and the death of any person and in each one of these important events we turn to the calendar when we have to refer to the day, date and month of any important personal, social, national or international event.

As such there is no doubt that the calendar, in whatever form, shape and colour it appears, is one of the most important items in all human societies.

It is quite surprising that in spite of the fact that all of us from the school going child to the oldest adult make use of this important item many of us do not ever care to think, at least at the beginning of a new year, the impact of calendars on our daily activities and the interesting saga of the gradual development of the calendar.

Modern world

Calendars in various shapes, forms and colours continue to serve the same purpose throughout the world. Calendars can be classified as wall calendars, desk calendars and pocket calendars.

It is important to recall that all of us living in widely different parts of the world make use of calendars to keep track of important personal and other events and today we cannot even imagine a world without any calendars because the entire modern world has got so used to the concept of using calendars.

At the beginning of a New Year people throughout the world replace their old calendars with new ones and Sri Lanka is no exception to this age old tradition.

While the most useful purpose of any calendar is the indication of the date, day and month of the year some use calendars for ornamental purposes to adorn the walls of houses and offices and others, specially the business community, use them as an effective medium of advertising.

The word calendar is derived from the Latin ‘Kalendae', a cardinal day of the Roman month. We know that the rudiments of all sciences, including that of astronomy, began from the evidence of man's senses. The original concept of the earth was that it was round and that rain was water that dropped through holes in the sky-roof.

To the savages the sun seemed to go down into the sea in the West and to rise in a like manner in the East and eclipses of the sun (solar) and moon (lunar) were believed to have been brought about when invisible monsters in the sky seized the sun or the moon!

Later these early astronomers developed their hypotheses and began to reckon and measure time with reference to the sun, the moon and the stars.

They also observed that the rising and setting of particular stars or constellations took place in an orderly and related pattern. Making observations of those, the earliest astronomers were able to fix the seasons. Before long the change of the sun's height at noon and the lengthening and shortening of the days were noticed and the idea of the year came into being. Later on the year was arranged with some regularity into months.

However, the days were not fitted correctly into the months and the number of days in each year was not settled in this undeveloped calendar. It was from this basic concept of the year of the primitive world that the astronomers of the ancient cultured nations were able to prepare the calendar we use today.

Greek astronomers

The Egyptians had set the great Pyramid by reckoning cardinal points. In reckoning the year they added to the 12 solar months of 30 days each, 5 inter-calary days, bringing the total number of days in each year to 365.

The study of the motions of the planets by ancient Babylonian astronomers followed and subsequently the treasured knowledge of the Babylonians and the Egyptians was taken by the learned Greeks, who used more scientific methods and measurements.

The Greek astronomers were familiar with the idea of the earth being a sphere and they measured the movements of the heavenly bodies in relation to their new idea of the earth. Later, due to the indefatigable efforts and clear observations of immortal scientists such as Corpernicus, Kepler and Newton, man was stripped off the fond conceited ideas of the heavenly bodies.

In ancient Rome the years were named after their Consuls and this strange way of numbering the years was used by other ancient city states too. Later the learned Romans found out another system to number the years. They had ascertained the traditional founding of Rome as 753 B.C. By this reckoning they numbered the years from the founding of the city.

From the earliest times the Roman year was divided into 12 months of varying lengths and the year consisted of 355 days. The remaining 10 days of the solar year were made into an extra or intercalated month called Mercedonius.

Julius Caesar asked the great astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria how the Roman calendar (which was confused and inaccurate) could be reformed. The solution was the making of a year of 366 days every 4th year. That is how the leap year came into existence.

In the first century B.C. this system of intercalation broke down and Julius Caesar had to make one year (46B.C) as inconveniently long as 445 days.

He also decreed that from that day onwards the year should have 365 days with one intercalated day falling every 4th year. It is this year that is now known as a leap year. This is the calendar we use today. It is also interesting to note that prior to Caesar's reforms March was the first month of the year.

The Romans gave us not only the calendar but also the names of the months of the year. Some of the months (September, October, November and December) were numbered in a different way and they occupied places which were entirely different from those they occupy in the present calendar. This anomaly was due to the fact that the Romans too had numbered the months taking March as the first month of the year.

Most of the names of the months were named after the seven planets or their gods, as known to the ancients. So we have Sun's day, Moon's day, then the days of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. The Anglo-Saxons called them after their heathen gods and we get Tiw's day (Tuesday), Woden's day Wednesday), Thor's day (Thursday) and Figg's day (Friday). The seventh day became Saturn's day (Saturday). That made the week.

An interesting fact to note is that the great Anglo-Saxon historian Adam Bede was the first to introduce the concept of A.D. and B.C. To denote Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord) and Before Christ. During the time of the Sinhala kings too there had been astronomers as well as astrologers who had prepared calendars. In his much celebrated book, An Historical Relation of Ceylon, Robert Knox mentions about this in great detail.

Closely linked with calendars are the diaries that most of us use for the recording of important personal and official events that take place throughout the year. In the modern world diaries appear in various forms, shapes, sizes and colours and some lucrative business establishments bring out very expensive diaries for distribution among their customers and friends. Today, unlike in the past, almost all the people - specially the working people, have got used to the habit of using a diary to record their important daily events and to help them to remember important forthcoming events and engagements. These diaries too serve a very important purpose.

In spite of the giant strides of changes that have taken place and are still taking place in the modern world the wide use of calendars and diaries has come to stay with us and will still continue to do so throughout the march of human civilisation.