Calendar

CALENDAR. - This name originally denoted among the Romans the register in which bankers noted the interest on loans falling due on the first (kalendae) of each month: the list of feast days and working days was called Fasti. The word kalendae, from a root kal-common also to Greek, with the meaning of calling (καλεῖν, "kalare"), which survived in Latin only in sacral language, refers to the convocation of the people on the Capitoline made by one of the minor pontiffs when the first lunar phase appeared in the sky, in order to notify them of the days on which the nones (first quarter) and the ides (full moon) would fall.

The word then came to mean the entire month (Ovid, Fasti, III, 99; Martial, I, 99, 6) and hence to calculate the annual measurement of time. The calendar is therefore closely related to the observation of astronomical phenomena. All religions have a calendar that divides the year into as many monthly segments determined by the phases of the moon, and they have adopted various systems to reconcile this series of 12 lunations, which is shorter (354 days, 8h, 48', 38''), with the solar year, which is longer (365 days, 5h, 48', 46'').

I. PRIMITIVE PEOPLES.

The objective determination of time, necessary among human groups that have reached a certain degree of civil and social stability, is not required among primitive peoples, for whom the periodicity of lunar, solar and stellar phenomena is of no interest for the conduct of the internal and social life of the clan, but only insofar as it relates to the return of the seasons suitable for hunting, fishing, gathering the fruits of the earth, and the labors of a primordial agriculture. Rather than a precise measurement, they take account of meteorological phenomena (summer, winter; drought, rain), especially in relation to the appearance of certain constellations, for example, the Pleiades.

The beginning of the aforementioned operations is consecrated by special rites (feasts) aimed at ensuring the seasonal rhythm through the efficacy of the action and the formula. Apart from this sacral-magical concern, which in time would end up fixing the religious calendar permanently, primitive man has no objective knowledge of time, which for him flows uninterruptedly and, above all, is not determined by fixed laws independent of his own action; indeed, this action is held to be necessary so that the periodic succession of the phenomena of nature may repeat itself for the benefit of the group. The feasts listed in the calendar serve to make the community feel its unitary character, both through the remembrance of the myths and legends that narrate the origin and reason for being of the group, and through the performance of rites (dances, processions, banquets, sacrifices) by which the group translates its social unity into action and effectively lives it.

The feasts interrupt the series of ordinary occupations; they are often prepared by rites of purification (fasts, abstinences, truces of God) and sacrally consecrated by changes of clothing, by contests, by fairs and markets.

The annual calendar is considered as a single cycle, at whose entrance propitiatory rites are performed, while at its exit rites of purification are performed aimed at eliminating all the evil accumulated during the year (v. CAPODANNO). But broader divisions of the year itself are conceived — triennial, quadrennial, octennial, nineteen-year, centennial — often in relation to astronomical phenomena: in which the entire period of time elapsed between the beginning and the end is imagined as a unity and entails rites of purification and consecration.

II. NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS.

1. EAST ASIA: a) China

The Chinese calendar is lunar, of 12 months, which have no name of their own but are distinguished by their ordinal number and are of 30 and 29 days alternately; 354 days in all. To bring the lunar year into agreement with the solar year, seven complementary months are intercalated within the space of 19 years. The new year falls on the new moon of that lunation in which the sun enters the constellation of Pisces (Feb.).

The Jesuit missionary Father Matteo Ricci reduced the Chinese calendar to the lunisolar rhythm of the West, which remained in use until in 1930 the Chinese Republic, which had succeeded the Manchu dynasty in 1911, officially accepted the Gregorian calendar.

b) Japan - Japan too adopted in 1684 the Chinese calendar reformed by the Jesuits.

After the restoration of Shinto as the national religion (1869), the Gregorian reform was accepted on 1 January 1873, while the traditional historical era remained that of 660 B.C., which refers to the reign of the emperor Jimmu Tennō, progenitor of the imperial dynasty. The current Japanese names of the months of the year, after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, are:

Jan., Shogwatsu (= month of beginning)
Feb., Ni-gwatsu (= 2nd month)
March, Sau-gwatsu (= 3rd month)
Apr., Shi-gwatsu (= 4th month)
May, Go-gwatsu (= 5th month)
June, Roku-gwatsu (= 6th month)
July, Shichi-gwatsu (= 7th month)
Aug., Hachi-gwatsu (= 8th month)
Sept., Ku-gwatsu (= 9th month)
Oct., Ju-gwatsu (= 10th month)
Nov., Ju-ichi-gwatsu (= 11th month)
Dec., Ju-ni-gwatsu (= 12th month)

In the ancient lunisolar calendar, in use in Japan before the date of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, each month (or rather, lunation) had several names, but the most used, with their generally accepted meanings, are:

1st lunation, Mutsuki (= month of social relations)
2nd lunation, Kisaragi (= month in which clothes are doubled)

3rd lunation, Yayoi (= month gradually increasing)
4th lunation, Utsuki (= month of the deutzia scabra, a flower very well known in Japan)
5th lunation, Satsuki (= month of transplanting the rice seedlings into the paddies)
6th lunation, Minazuki (= wet month, because it corresponded to the period of the summer rains)
7th lunation, Fumizuki (= month of literature)
8th lunation, Hazuki (= month of leaves, that is, when the leaves fall)
9th lunation, Nagazuki (= month of the long nights)
10th lunation, Kaminazuki (= month without gods, because it was believed that in this month all the kami gathered in the temple of Izumo, abandoning the rest of Japan)

11th lunation, Shimotzuki (= month of frost)

12th lunation, Shimasu (= perhaps contracted from toshi hatsu; the year ends).

Japanese scholars do not agree on the derivation of the above names and therefore on their meaning, but the one given above is the most generally accepted.

2. PRECOLUMBIAN AMERICA: a) Mexico

The Mexican year was divided into 18 months of 20 days, 360 in all, to which were added at the end 5 supplementary days called "nemontemi", plus a sixth nemontemo every 4

years. Each month was dedicated to a special deity.

Months of the Mexican calendar

Teutleco
(Sept. 10-29)
Tepeilhuitl
(Sept. 30-Oct. 19)
Quecholli
(Oct. 20-Nov. 8)
Panquetzaliztli
(Nov. 9-28)
Atepozli
(Nov. 29-Dec. 18)
Tititl
(Dec. 19-Jan. 7)
Itzcolli
(Jan. 8-27)

Jan. 28-Feb. 1: five supplementary days (nemontemi).

b) Peru. - The Peruvian year was lunar, of 12 months, and was brought into line with the solar year by means of the intercalation of 11 days in the course of the common year and of 12 in the leap year.

The year began with the spring equinox (Sept. 21, in the southern hemisphere), later moved to the winter solstice (Dec. 22). The month was divided into decades, after each of which a day was dedicated to rest.

Months of the Peruvian calendar

Camay chiglia (Dec. 22)
Atuu pukuy (Jan. 22)
Pacia pukuy (Feb. 22)
Paucar huara (March 22)
Ayrihuay (Apr. 22)
Huaca gliusche (May 22)
Canay (June 22)
Tarpui chiglia (July 22)
Coya raymi (Aug. 22)
Uma raymi (Sept. 22)
Aya marca raymi (Oct. 22)
Kapac raymi (Nov. 22)

3. EGYPT

The ancient Egyptian year was of 12 months of 30 days (= 360), to which were added at the end 5 intercalated days called epagomenal, that is, "added", dedicated respectively to Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis and Nephthys (Plutarch, De Iside, 12). The year was called "wandering" because, taking no account of the 6 hours belonging to the solar reckoning, every four years there occurred a shift of one day, every forty of ten days, and so on until, within a period of 1460 years, the new year, after having fallen on all 365 days, came to fall again on the precise point of before. The period of 1460 years was called the "great year" and had a sacred meaning of renewal: for this reason it was never abolished by the Egyptian priesthood, even when, in order to remove from the year its wandering character, a sixth epagomenal day was added every four years. Ptolemy III Euergetes in 239-38 B.C.

All the gods
Gods of the dead
Mixcoatl
Huitzilopochtli
Tlaloc
Ilumatecutli
Xiuhtlecuhtli had already attempted this reform, but it was carried out only by the Romans in 30 B.C.

The new year was determined by the most important event of the Egyptian agricultural economy, that is, by the beginning of the flooding of the Nile, around the summer solstice, in coincidence with the heliacal rising of Sirius (Sothis), the brightest star of the constellation of the Dog (July 19). After the introduction of the sixth epagomenal day the new year was fixed at Aug. 29.

Months of the Egyptian calendar

4. SEMITES: a) Babylonia

The Assyro-Babylonian year was lunar. The 12 months had a length of 29 or 30 days with irregular alternation. The year

The lunar year was brought into agreement with the solar year by introducing an intercalary month called dirigē, dēru (called second Adāru because it was added after the month of Adāru) five times (in years 3, 6, 11, 14, 17) in a cycle of 19 years, which brought the positions of the sun and moon back to the same point.

Given the development that astrology underwent in Mesopotamia, the correspondence between the position of the stars and the course of life is particularly observed: the celestial cycles are an image of earthly events, and it is the task of science to know how to interpret them. The names of the months are all astral, and each month is dedicated to a special divinity. In each month the 1st, 7th, 15th, 21st, and 28th days were sacred, corresponding to the phases of the moon.

The new year coincided with the spring full moon and was characterized by the solemn expiatory and propitiatory ceremony of the ahitu.

Months of the Babylonian calendar

Nicola Turchi b) Hebrews. — From the brief indications of the Bible it is difficult to reconstruct the Hebrew calendar in its entirety. The day (jōm) was reckoned from one evening to the next (evening-morning: Gen. 1:4; Dan. 8:14; νυχθήμερον, 2 Cor. 11:25) and comprised evening, morning, and noon (Ps. 54 [55]:18). After the exile the day was divided into four three-hour periods (Mark 15:25) and also into 12 ordinary hours (Matt. 20:3-6); the night comprised three watches (Ex. 14:24; Judg. 7:19), then four in the Roman period (Mark 13:35). The division into weeks (šābhu'ōth) was independent of the lunar course and was reckoned continuously and not, as among the Babylonians, as a subdivision of the months into four parts. The seventh day was the Sabbath (v.); later the sixth also has a name: προσάββατον (Judith 8:6; Mark 15:42) or παρασκευή (Matt. 27:62).

The month (hōdheī = new moon) was anciently designated by the appearance of the individual seasons: 'Abhībh, later Nisān, Zīw, 'Ethānīm, Būl, are the only ones that have survived of the ancient Phoenician names used by the Hebrews. More common, however, was the designation by ordinal numbers, a method that remained even after the introduction of the Babylonian names.

The beginning of the month (v. NEOMENIA) depended on the visibility of the new moon; some exegetes appeal to this empiricism to explain the uncertainties of the calculations. The months were normally lunar, of 29 or 30 days. To combine the lunar year with the solar year in the post-exilic period we find the Babylonian custom of intercalating a month, the second 'Ādhār (Wē'adhār), apparently every three years, based probably on the need to make Easter coincide with the full moon after the spring equinox.

In determining the year, the Hebrews had no fixed rules, as for example the Egyptians did; but only in late times did they adopt precise calculations. Tradition traces these norms back to Hillel II (4th century A.D.); in reality, however, the perfect codification occurred around the 10th century A.D. The religious year, the "liturgical cycle," seems to have begun with spring (Nisān); but the common (agricultural) year began in autumn (Tišrī: Ex. 23:16); and this system has remained in use (rst haš-šānah = 1 Tišrī).

The Bible does not properly speak of seasons, but only of summer and winter (Gen. 8:22), while the calendar of Gezer (v.) distributes the 12 months into 8 agricultural periods. The present-day Hebrew calendar is lunisolar. The day comprises 24 hours, which begin to be counted from evening, that is, from 18:00.

Months of the Hebrew calendar

Angelo Penna c) Arabs. — The Islamic calendar is lunar, of 354 days, with months of 29 and 30 days, not brought into agreement with the solar year, so that each year falls behind the preceding one by 11 days and therefore the feasts, in the course of 33 years, end up falling in every season.

Since 12 astronomical lunations amount to 354 days plus 12h and 44', there occurs each year, in the Muslim lunar year, a shortfall of 8h and 48', which repeated 30 times gives the sum of 11 whole days. These are added to the last month of years 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, 29 of the thirty-year cycle, which are therefore called abundant, as opposed to the other 19 which are called common.

The months of the Islamic year are divided into weeks distinguished, as in the Hebrew and Christian religious calendar, by a progressive number beginning from Sunday, and not by the name of astral deities. On the sixth day (Friday) the religious assembly takes place in the main mosque of the locality.

Months of the Arab-Muslim calendar

1 Muharram = sacred
2 Safar = empty
3 Rabi' I = first spring
4 Rabi' II = second spring
5 Jumada I = first dry
6 Jumada II = second dry
7 Rajab = dangerous
8 Sha'ban = assembly
9 Ramadan = burning
10 Shawwal = work
11 Dhu 'l-Qa'dah = of the reunion
12 Dhu 'l-Hijjah = of the pilgrimage

The principal feasts of the Muslim religion are six: they all begin at night and fall:

1. On 10 Muharram, the reunion of Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise; the exit of Noah from the ark; the death of Husayn, nephew of the prophet.

2. On the first Rabi' I, the birth of Muhammad.

3. On 27 Rajab, the ascension of Muhammad.

4. On 27 Ramadan, the night of the diploma in which the angels fix the destiny of men for the following year.

5. On the first Shawwal, which closes the monthly fast of Ramadan ("little bayram").

6. On 10 Dhu 'l-Hijjah, on the occasion of the pilgrimage to Mecca ("great bayram").

5. INDO-EUROPEANS: a) India

In Vedic and Brahmanic India the calendar was lunar and was divided into three four-monthly sections corresponding to the three seasons: hot, wet and cold, each consecrated by solemn feasts. The difference with the solar year was remedied by inserting an intercalary month every fifth year (H. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, Berlin 1879, p. 365 ff.).

At present the Hindu calendar is lunisolar, inasmuch as a whole lunation is intercalated in order to agree with the solar year. Each month is divided into two fortnights, one bright (sukla) and one dark (krṣṇa).

Months of the Hindu calendar

The religious festivities of the Hindu calendar number 18, of which the principal ones are mentioned here:

15 March (Caitra): New Year's feast.

15 Sept. (Āśvina): feast of Gauri or Pārvatī, wife of Śiva. Particular homage is paid to the gods of the house, personified in objects of domestic use, and to those of the various crafts.

15 Oct. (Kārttika): feast of the Ancestors (Mahā-navami, also called Dasara) with the offering of the usual sacrifices and oblations for 9 days. The schools and the army also celebrate the solemnity.

End of Nov. (Mārgaśīrṣa): feast of lamps (Deepavali) dedicated particularly to fire, with the lighting of lamps for the purpose of promoting vegetation.

15 Feb. (Phālguna): feast of the most venomous serpents, called Nagara-panchami, with offerings of milk and vegetables to the cobra (= nagara).

When the sun enters the zodiacal sign of Capricorn, the feast of the rebirth of the sun is celebrated, called Pongal or Mohasankranti, which coincides with the winter solstice. It lasts three days: 1) visits and exchange of gifts; 2) feast of the sun: beating (pongal) and tasting of rice; 3) pongal of the cattle: sprinkling of the animals with water in which saffron powder and seeds and leaves of particular plants have been infused; triple circumambulation of the cattle, garlanded with flowers and fruit, by the men (women are excluded) with quadruple prostration (sattanga) to the four corners. Then the fruits are snatched in competition by those present and the animals are driven at their pleasure into the fields for the whole day. This, which is the most popular feast of India, closes with a procession of images of divinities with performances of dances and obscene songs, for the purpose of obtaining fertility.

b) Iran and Persia. - Before Zarathustra the Iranian calendar was modelled on that of neighbouring Babylonia. The Zoroastrian reform gave it a distinctly Mazdean imprint, inasmuch as the months took the names of religious figures of Mazdean theology.

The Mazdean year begins at the spring equinox (21 March) and consists of 12 months of 30 days, plus 5 days added at the end. The 6 annual hours not reckoned were and are compensated every 120 years by the addition of a thirteenth month. This was no longer added after Persia's conversion to Islam, and therefore at present the Mazdean (or Parsi) year is vague.

Each month is under the protection of saints (Ameśaspenta) and venerables (Yazata). It is divided into four sections, the first two of 7 days, the last two of 8.

Each day of the month also has its own genius or patron god.

Months of the present Mazdean calendar.

Listed here are the names of the protecting divinities, which correspond to the names of the ancient Avestan calendar:

From 16 to 20 March follow the 5 intercalary days, which also bear names of Avestan sacred entities and are therefore called days of Gah (Gatha): Ahunavati, Ushtavati, Spenta Manyu, Vohukhāthra, Vahiṣṭati.

Independently of the religious celebrations relating to the Mazdean sacred entities, the Parsis celebrate six seasonal feasts:

1) Mētāzarmi (mid-spring, 5 May), offering of first-fruits and gifts of good omen;

2) Mētākem (mid-summer, 4 July), close of the hay harvest;

3) Pētīsa (bringer of cereals, 16 Sept.), close of the harvest, offerings of grain and fruit;

4) Āyārīsu (end of summer, 16 Oct.), feast for the fertility of the cattle;

5) Mētyariya (mid-winter, 4 Jan.);

6) Hamaspatmēdin (at the end of the year, 20 March), commemoration of the dead (fravashi).

c) Greece. - In ancient Greece every city-state had its own calendar, different from the others in the names of the months and in the festivals. Of the 14 calendars whose existence is known, that of Athens is cited here, as the best known and the most important.

The Athenian year was lunar, of 354 days; it began at the first new moon after the summer solstice (July 15). It was brought into agreement with the solar year by means of the addition of intercalary months, at first every two, then every three and every eight years, months which from the time of Pericles onward, thanks to the calculations of the astronomer Meton, were distributed in a cycle of 19 years, at the close of which the solar year and the lunar year came to coincide. The months were alternately of 30 days (full months, πληρεις) and of 29 days (hollow months, κοιλιοι).

The month was divided into three decades: of the beginning month (ἐσταμένος), middle (μεσούντος), declining (φθίνοντος); the third decade was numbered backwards as with the nones, ides and calends at Rome.

Principal months and festivals of the Athenian calendar

For the description of the festivals v. below under the individual entries.
For the Hellenistic period a knowledge of the names of the Macedonian calendar, which likewise began in mid-July, is useful.

I Loos = July 15

VII Peritios = Jan.

II Gorpiaios = Aug.

VIII Dystros = Feb.

III Hyperberetaios Sept.

IX Xanthikos = March

IV Dios = Oct.

X Artemisios = Apr.

V Apellaios = Nov.

XI Daisios = May

VI Audynaios = Dec.

XII Panemos = June d) Rome. - The Roman religious calendar was lunar, of 12 months (the Romulean year of 10 months is to be discarded), of 29 and 31 days alternately; it began, in ancient times, in March; but from 153 B.C. the beginning was fixed, for civil purposes, at January 1, the day on which the consuls entered office. It was brought into line with the solar year by means of the intercalation every two years of a month of 22 and 23 days, called intercalary or mercedonius. The intercalation was made at the discretion of the pontifical college, a discretion that led to such abuses as to induce Julius Caesar to reform the calendar, of which he gave charge to the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes. The latter gave to 45 B.C. 445 days (adding to it the 90 days accumulated over time, for which that year was called "annus confusionis"), established from 45 the year of 365 days and 6 hours (while in reality it is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds) by adding to the individual months one or two of the eleven missing days, se-

(from P. Grindor, Album d'Inscriptions Attiques, Ghent-Paris 1911, pl. 13)
CALENDAR - Athenian calendar of the age of Hadrian (2nd century).

according to the order still in force today and adding every four years a complementary day, to compensate for the six hours not counted; a day to be placed after 24 Feb. and which was therefore twice sixth (bissextile) before the calends of March.

The month comprised three great divisions derived from the phases of the moon (v. above); the intermediate days were numbered by counting backwards the days that separated them from the immediately following division.

The Roman calendar was an effective means of religious unification not only for Italy, where the surviving calendars, 28 in all, more or less complete, have revealed their fundamental uniformity, but also wherever the civil or military imperial administration was in force.

The Roman calendar has remained in its most ancient parts from the regal period (it is certainly earlier than 500) and is therefore attributed to Numa, the systematizer, according to tradition, of the sacred antiquities of the city. The most ancient festivals are carved in the surviving ferialia in large capitals. They are at a fixed date (istativae) to the number of 45: the months of Sept. and Nov. are devoid of them, perhaps because these months do not concern the farmer. The festivals added later are in smaller characters. The festivals conceptivae, that is proclaimed year by year according to the season (Sementinae, Fornacalia, Florifertum, Augurium canarium, Paganalia, Compitalia), are not fixed by the feriale.

Festivals of the same calendar

Months of the Roman calendar

3 Maius Lemuria (9, 11, 13), Agonium (21), Tubilustrium (23)
4 Junius Vestalia (9, 15), Matralia (11)
5 Iulius Poplifugia (5), Lucaria (19, 21), Neptunalia (23), Furrinalia (25)
6 Augustus Portunalia (17), Vinalia rustica (19), Consualia (21), Volcanalia (23), Opiconsivia (25), Volturnalia (27)
7 September
8 October Meditrinalia (11), Fontinalia (13), Armilustrium (19)
9 November
10 December Agonium (11), Consualia (15), Saturnalia (17), Opalia (19), Divalia (21), Laretalia (23)
11 Ianuarius Agonium (9), Carmentalia (11, 15)
12 Februarius Lupercalia (15), Quirinalia (17), Feralia (21), Terminalia (23), Regifugium (24), Equirria (27).

For the description of these festivals v. the individual entries.

Nicola Turchi

III. CHRISTIANITY.

1. WESTERN CHURCH

a) Origin of the year. - The Christian religious calendar disregards seasonal events and commemorates in the course of the year the principal moments of the life of the Founder, from the announcement of the coming (4 weeks of Advent), to Christmas (25 Dec.), to the Epiphany or his public manifestation (6 Jan.), to Easter (the full moon following the spring equinox), to the Ascension (40 days after Easter), to Pentecost (50 days after Easter), to the 24 Sundays after Pentecost which recall the expansion of the Church in the world and go on to reach the first Sunday of Advent (v. ANNO LITURGICO).

For the fixing of Easter, the central date of the Christian religious calendar and one that has its repercussions also with regard to the civil year, it is necessary to reconcile the two astronomical cycles solar and lunar: the first so that Easter, which is a spring festival, does not come too early or too late (v. CICLO SOLARE); the second so that Easter falls on the Sunday following the full moon immediately after the spring equinox, in accordance with the decision of the Council of Nicaea (325), which had fixed the equinox at 21 March, whereas the Julian reform fixed it at 24. To achieve this agreement, which makes it possible to pre-establish the date of Easter, chronologists have adopted the use of the dominical letter (v.), from A to G, which indicates the day on which Sunday will fall throughout the year, combined with that of the epact (v.), which specifies the age of the moon on the first day of the year and thus makes it possible to fix the falling of the new moons during the course of the year itself. The epact in turn is found by means of the golden number (v.), which relates to the place that the year occupies within a cycle of 19 years, a cycle fixed by the Greek astronomer Meton; after that period the sun and the moon resume approximately the same reciprocal positions (v. CICLO LUNARE).

But for civil uses, Christianity adopted the Julian calendar, introducing into it the week, which was foreign to it, and placing it, once again, in relation with the phases of the moon, for the determination of Easter.

The week, imitated from the Hebrews and in use at least from the second half of the 1st century, begins with the feria I, called for the most part dies dominica, and ends with the feria VII, which is called sabbatum. As for Easter, the Council of Nicaea of 325 established that it should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the XIV moon of the first month (nfsdn), that is, on the one that fell on the day of the spring equinox fixed at 21 March, or that followed it (v. PASQUA).

At first it was believed sufficient, for the calculations to determine the XIV moon, to use the 19-year lunar cycle introduced by Meton and followed by the Alexandrian church, while the Church of Rome followed an old 84-year cycle. The divergences between the two computations concerning the date of celebration of Easter were such that the emperor Theodosius I invited Theophilus, later patriarch of Alexandria, to fix a new cycle. He fixed it at 437 years, later reduced by himself to 100 and by his nephew Cyril, who succeeded him in the patriarchate, to 95; while in the West, after the notable discrepancies of the years 379, 403, 417, 428, 444, 455, Pope St. Hilary (successor of St. Leo the Great, who had already written [July 454] to the Churches of Gaul and Spain to adhere for the sake of concord to the Eastern usage) asked the mathematician Victor of Aquitaine to find a way of reconciliation, which he did by proposing a cycle of 532 years. This cycle was accepted and perfected by Dionysius the Little by combining the solar cycle of 38 years with the cycles of Theophilus, Cyril, and Meton (525). This is the cycle that remained in force in Christendom until the Gregorian correction (1582), except for a small remnant that persisted in the Celtic Churches (Irish and Breton), which wished to remain faithful to the Roman usage received at the time of their first evangelization and only toward the end of the 8th century adhered to the Dionysian cycle, which was the one received by the Anglo-Saxons together with the mission of Augustine of Canterbury.

b) Gregorian reform. - The Julian year had already in the Middle Ages been subjected to various calculations that discovered between it and the tropical year differences that were minimal but such as to lead to grave errors with the passage of centuries, so much so that the equinox, in the 16th century, according to the official calendar, ought to fall on 11 March; the difference of one day every 312 years was likewise found for the phases of the moon.

Already a Scottish monk, John of Holywood, in 1232, had in the De anni ratione proposed a modification to the intercalation of the leap day; in 1252 the astronomers who by order of Alfonso X of Castile compiled the Alfonsine tables calculated that the tropical year was not 365 days and 6 hours, but 365 days, 5 hours, 49' and 12''; Roger Bacon, in the Opus maius ad Clementem IV, proposed a reform. Clement VI in 1345 charged two French mathematicians with the study. In the 15th century the Councils of Constance and Basel dealt with it; Sixtus IV charged the famous Regiomontanus (Johann Müller of Königsberg) with studying a reform. Leo X at the Fifth Lateran Council, convoked by Julius II in 1511 and continued under the presidency of the Medici pope from 1513 to 1517, gave new impetus to the reform of the calendar, also availing himself of the cooperation of Paul of Middelburg, an impetus thanks to which the work of preparation could be considered nearly complete. The emperor Maximilian too had the question examined: the mathematicians (Pighius, Lucidus, Pitatus, Sepúlveda, and others) devoted themselves to it; finally the Council of Trent, in its last session of 4 Dec. 1563, entrusted its reform to the Pope together with those of the Breviary and the Missal.

Gregory XIII, therefore, availed himself of the work of the most famous mathematicians, among them the Calabrian Antonio Giglio (Lilius), whose brother Luigi had drafted the plan examined by the commission, the Dominican Ignazio Danti, builder of the gnomon of S. Petronio in Bologna, the German Jesuit Christopher Clavius (Clau) and the Spaniard Pedro Chacón (Ciacconio).

It has been calculated that the Gregorian reform still leaves an error of 6 days every 10,000 years, but in any case, for another 2000 years, practically no corrections are needed.

The Gregorian calendar, adopted almost immediately in the Catholic countries, met with resistance elsewhere, but was finally accepted definitively by Sweden in 1753; in Switzerland, given the different religion and the autonomy of the Cantons, between 1584 and 1817; in Germany in the 18th century; in England in 1750; in Japan in 1873.

The schismatic countries of the East — Greeks, Russians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Armenians, Georgians, Copts — did not accept the reform; indeed the four Byzantine patriarchs and many bishops gathered in Synod at Constantinople in 1593 to launch the anathema against the reform, as though it were contrary to the deliberations of Nicaea. The Soviet government in 1917 accepted the reform, which, however, is still rejected by the Moscow patriarchate. With the bull of 24 Feb. 1582 Inter gravissimus Gregory XIII decreed: 1) that the day following 4 Oct. 1582 be reckoned as 11 Oct., remedying the discordance between the civil year and the solar year, which brought the spring equinox back to 21 March in conformity with the situation that had obtained at the time of the Council of Nicaea; 2) that in order to avoid the recurrence of the error (taking into account that the civil year is in excess of 11 minutes and 12 seconds over the solar year) one day be subtracted every century, making the secular year that would be a leap year common, except for the one whose first two digits are divisible by 4. This subtraction is called the solar equation, inasmuch as it restores the agreement between the civil year and the solar year.

Carmelo Trasselli

2. EASTERN CHURCHES

The Eastern Churches of the Byzantine rite still preserve today the ancient tradition of Constantinople, according to which the ecclesiastical year begins in the month of September (the 1st or the 13th, depending on whether or not they have accepted the Gregorian correction). In the reckoning of years the Christian era is followed everywhere, and only on the great solemnities is it made to be followed by the Byzantine or Septuagint era.

When Gregory XIII proceeded to the reform of the old Julian calendar, he sought to reach an agreement also with the patriarch of Constantinople, but his attempts had no positive result; indeed his reform was explicitly condemned in the Synod of 1593. This aversion of the dissident Eastern Churches to the new calendar continued everywhere until 1923, the year in which the patriarchate of Constantinople and the Churches of Athens, Cyprus, Poland and Romania adopted it for the fixed feasts, followed later by the Georgians (1927) and the Melkites of Alexandria (1928). The "pan-Orthodox" Synod of Moscow of 1948 left, in this regard, freedom of choice to the churches within the Soviet orbit (cf. G. de Vries, Il Sinodo « panortodosso » di Mosca, in Civ. Catt., 1949, II, 157 ff.; 287 ff.).

Its adoption by many national churches took place not without difficulties, and throughout the Christian East, as regards the movable feasts, the old Julian calendar continues to be used. Even the Catholic Churches of the Byzantine rite do not all yet observe the reform of Gregory XIII, and Rome wisely does not insist on this point, trusting to inevitable progress to introduce it everywhere. The Maronites, for example, accepted the Gregorian calendar as early as 1606, the Syrians from 1836, the Melkites from 1857, the Romanians only in 1924. Among the Armenians, who have a wholly special ecclesiastical year, the Gregorian reform was accepted by the Catholics in 1890 and made obligatory in 1911. In the Chaldean rite the year begins on 1 Dec., and the Gregorian calendar, introduced among the Catholics in 1836, was accepted little by little without great difficulty.

In the Antiochene rite too — Syrians and Maronites — the ecclesiastical year for the sanctoral begins on 1 Oct. The old calendar of the Church of Antioch has been reconstructed on the basis of the collection of the Homilies of Severus and by filling the inevitable gaps with the help of the Panegyrics of St. John Chrysostom and of the Syriac martyrologies.

Of the Coptic calendar of Alexandria, Nilles attempted a reconstruction with the help of indications supplied by a Coptic bishop, Msgr. Agapios Basi. It is beyond doubt that the Copts must have inherited an already formed calendar, to which they made additions without altering its primitive foundation, which may be considered to consist of a threefold division: Major feasts (Annunciation, 29 Phamenoth; Nativity, 28 Choiak; Baptism, 11 Tobi; Palm Sunday; Easter of the Resurrection; Ascension; Pentecost), Minor feasts (Circumcision, 6 Tobi; First miracle, 13 Tobi; Presentation in the Temple, 8 Mechir; the Supper; Sunday of Thomas, the first after Easter; Entry into Egypt, 24 Pachôn) and Simple feasts, called Pinisti and Pikudri; the latter concern the Virgin and the saints, while the former concern the life, passion and death of Jesus Christ. In the Coptic calendar of Alexandria, the ecclesiastical year begins on 10 September (1 Thôut).

Byzantine calendar

In the names and the length of the months the Byzantine calendar reproduces the Julian one. It begins, however, with 1 September (the day of the indiction), placed in relation to the beginning of the public life of Jesus and his entry into the synagogue of Nazareth, where he gave the announcement of the "acceptable and salutary day."

This calendar is proper to the churches of the Byzantine rite: Greek, Slav, Romanian, Georgian, Melkite.

There follow the names of the months in use in the regions of the Christian East.

Syro-Arabic calendar

Armenian calendar

epagomenal days: avelikh = 6-10 Aug.

Coptic calendar

epagomenal days: 24 Aug.-28 Aug.

Ethiopian calendar

epagomenal days: 24 Aug.-28 Aug.

IV. CALENDAR OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

The calendar underwent another temporary reform with the French Revolution, which modified it in appearance both for the purpose of making the people more easily forget Christian worship, and in order to render the computation of time more rational, and also to imitate the Roman computation ab urbe condita. The new calendar, approved by the Convention on 5 October 1793, began the year with 22 September 1792, the date of the proclamation of the Republic and of the true autumnal equinox for Paris; on the report of Laplace it was abolished by the Senate as from 1 January 1806. It made the year consist of 12 months of 30 days, divided into 3 décades; the remaining 5 days (6 in leap years), called epagomenal or sansculottides, were added to the last day of fructidor. It has been thought well to begin the following table with the date of approval.

Concordance between the French calendar and the Gregorian year:

# V. MASONIC CALENDAR.

In the diplomas and acts of Freemasonry (v.) a particular chronological system is followed, called precisely the "Masonic era," with its own calendar.

It preserves the division of the year into months and days according to common usage, but replaces the names of the months with the succession of ordinal numbers from 1 to 12, starting from the month of March, in conformity with the ancient Roman calendar and with the Venetian style of the Christian era. The reckoning of years is advanced by 4000 years over the Christian era, and is made with the cardinal number, preceded by the formula "year of the true light." In documents the dating with the system of the Masonic era is always used together with the synchrony of the Christian era in the style of the Circumcision. Thus in an act of 15 June 1812, issued at the Masonic Lodge of Malta, one reads: L'an de la V. L. [Vraie Lumière] 5812, le 15e Jour du 4e Mois, et de l'ère vulgaire le 15e Juin 1812; and in the eschatocol: Donné à l'Orient de Malthe, les Jour, Mois et an que dessus (cited by C. Paoli, Diplomatica, new ed. edited by G. C. Bascapè, Florence [1942], p. 211, note 2).

VI. FURTHER PROPOSALS FOR REFORM.

They are suggested by the desire: 1) to make the date of Easter fixed; 2) to make the seasons begin on the same day: 1 April and 1 October for the spring and autumn equinoxes; 1 January and 1 July for the winter and summer solstices; 3) to break the continuity of the days of the week, which does not take account of the beginning of the year, by making each year begin on Sunday; 4) to move the bissestile at the end of Dec., considering as outside the series both the day that remains each year beyond the 52 weeks, and the leap day that is added every four years; these two days could be given a name of their own.

Of all these reforms the most important and delicate is that of the date of Easter, which follows the lunar c. rather than the solar one, and can vary from 22 March to 25 Apr., dragging with it all the other movable feasts. This freeing of Easter from the lunar reckoning could be brought about by fixing the average date, among the possible paschal lunations, on which the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord really occurred, but it runs counter to the unbroken liturgical tradition of the Church, consecrated by the Council of Nicaea, which has always associated Easter with the lunar cycle.

Without going back to the most ancient proposals for the reform of the c., it should be remembered: that in 1922 the International Astronomical Union, meeting in congress at Rome, presented a project of its own to the League of Nations; in 1930 a society for the reform of the c. was founded in New York, which has as its organ the Journal of Calendar Reform; in 1937, at the request of the Bureau International du travail, a project was presented to the League of Nations aimed at fixing the position of the days of the week within the month and at fixing the date of Easter. It was proposed, while respecting the division of the days of the year into weeks, to divide the year itself into four quarters, of four weeks each, all beginning on Sunday and ending on Saturday, 91 days in all, which multiplied by four give 364 days a year. The 365th day would be added at the end of Dec. and the leap day every four years at the end of June. As for Easter, freed from the lunar cycle, it could be fixed on Sunday 8 Apr. The most recent exposition of these ideas is found in the pamphlet of Fr. C.-M. Morin, cited in the bibliography.

CHRISTIANITY: For the Western Church v. c. DELLA CHIESA UNIVERSALE. - EASTERN CHURCHES: N. Nilles, Kalendarium manuale utriusque Ecclesiae Orientalis et Occidentalis academis clericarum accomodatum, 2nd ed., Innsbruck 1896; Calendrier de l'Église copte d'Alexandrie, compiled by Fr. N. Nilles, in Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, 2 (1897), pp. 307-39; C. Tondini de' Quarenghi, Etude sur le calendrier liturgique de la nation arménienne, Rome 1906; R. Janin, Les Eglises Orientales et les Rites Orientaux, Paris 1926; C. Gatti-C. Korolevski, I riti e le Chiese Orientali, I, Rome 1942, p. 107. - GREGORIAN REFORM: F. Kaltenbrunner, Die Vorgeschichte der Gregorianischen Kalenderreform, in Sitzungsb. Ab., Vienna 1876, 289-414; F. Ferrari, Il c. gregoriano, Rome 1882; D. Mazzi, La questione della riforma del c. nel V Concilio lateranense, Florence 1896; P. Tacchi Venturi, Storia della Compagnia di Gesù in Italia, I, 1, 2nd ed., Rome 1931, pp. 181-84.

PROPOSALS FOR REFORM: V. Botto, Il c. unificato e comparato con la liturgia, Rome 1919; A. Obrecht, Il c. gregoriano, Bergamo 1925; Société des Nations, Classification et résumé des projets de réforme du calendrier, Geneva 1927; P. Sconzo, Sulle questioni della nuova riforma del c., Palermo 1935; Abbé Chauve-Bertrand, Vers un calendrier nouveau, in Éphemerides liturgicae, 54 (1940), pp. 67-87; C.-M. Morin, L'année jubilaire 1950 sera-t-elle l'ère d'un nouveau calendrier civil et ecclésiastique?, offprint from Culture, Québec, Dec. 1947. - Nicola Turchi