Skip to main content

46 BC : A year with 15 months and 445 days

By himalayanreview

Long ago, before 45 BC, the Roman calendar was a bit of a mess. The year started in March and only had 10 months, which made it only 304 days long. Then, a Roman king Numa Pompilius added two more months, February and January, which made the year longer, about 354 or 355 days.

Pic: Amazing Planet

But there was still a problem. In 450 BC, they moved February to where it is now, between January and March. They also had to add an extra month sometimes to make up for the missing days. This extra month was called Intercalaris or Mercedonius, and it had either 22 or 23 days.

Later on, they realized that the years were too long. So, every eight years, they dropped seven days from the calendar to make it better. This made each year about 365.375 days long.
To fix all these issues, a calendar reform was needed. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, which is the basis for the calendar we use today. But before they could start using it, they had to fix the old calendar. That's why in 46 BC, they had a year with 15 months and 445 days. It was called "the last year of confusion."
After that, they started using the new Julian calendar, which is much simpler and closer to the one we use today.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

History on Easter Sunday and Padari Ganga Prasad Pradhan

By himalayanreview
By Seira Tamang As noted by various scholars, Hinduism, the Nepali language, the monarchy and a rastriya itihas (a chronicle of progress in which the dark era of Rana rule is contrasted with the enlightened, progressive and modern period of Panchayat rule) formed the core of the Panchayat regime’s national culture. The formation and consolidation of this national culture have required the expunging of uncomfortable facts and stories that might raise ambiguities and questions. While the selection of what and who is and is not acknowledged to exist (or at least exist in historically important ways) in official Nepali history is complex, social scientists have begun to provide more comprehensive historical accounts of the past through oral histories and re-readings of historical documents. Such accounts reveal how ordinary people lived in the past, and offer ways to think through how ‘history’ is crafted, shaped and managed in order to reflect ‘the reality’ best suited to the status quo, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pandam Garhi and its surmise

By himalayanreview
--> RUINS OF PANDAM GARHI BY SHITAL PRADHAN The stories of the legendary ruined walls at Pandam, a 16 km uphill climb from Rangpo, as I had heard from old folks a few seasons back, had ever since excited me to visit this place. Never in the pages of a history book do we come across its talk about when it was built or how it was constructed at the top of the hill? Over the years, many theories have evolved regarding its origin. Some theorists associate the fort with some Lepcha legends, while few disagree with it and have their own adage.  They make us believe one of the Chogyals constructed it to stop the approaching Bhutanese army from entering Sikkim. The last theory to add up, already baffling and controversial, says it was one of the Gurkha Generals from Nepal who constructed the fort along with the Kalika Mandir, also called Nishani Mandir, just below it. With each theory making questions over my mind, I decided to have my second trek to the Pandam Garhi. I had ...
2 comments
Read more

Sikkim Mahinda Thero: A national hero of Sri Lanka

By himalayanreview
Sikkim Mahinda Thero BY SHITAL PRADHAN I first heard about S Mahinda Thero in 2005 while in Kolkata when I was asked by one of the stamp dealers whether I was interested in a 20 paisa stamp of S Mahinda Thero issued by the Sri Lankan Postal Department in the early 1970s. I collected philatelic items on Buddhism, but I never understood who he was talking about. He told me, as I was from Sikkim, I might be interested to know more about the person, and he went on to add it was Sikkim Mahinda Thero, a Buddhist monk who is regarded as a national hero, a famous poet in the Sinhalese language whose poetry promoted patriotism and the revival of Buddhism to this part of the Island. He promised to send me the stamp of S Mahinda Thero from Colombo through the mail, but I have never heard from him since then. However, regarding my limited concern, it was enough to know that such a person keeps the name Sikkim with honor and pride in Sri Lanka. I had the name...
9 comments
Read more