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What is the Julian Date Calendar?

by elathrop

In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar.  It is
also sometimes referred to as the Julian date calendar.  Caesar
did this in an attempt to standardized dates.  Before this time
there was no dependable way to do this.

Each year's length varied as the pontiffs, who were the men in
charge of making up the numbers and lengths of months, changed
things constantly.  They added and subtracted days, and
sometimes, even months to try to keep the dates in line with the
solar and lunar schedule.

This new Julian calendar included the concept of leap years. 
This was a concept that was brilliant and ahead of its time. 
With the Julian calendar, leap years occurred every four years. 
Having an extra day once every 4 years helped to prevent years
from becoming too short.  Still, though this concept was sound,
it was not perfect.

The Gregorian calendar

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar. 
After many centuries had passed, Easter Sunday had been arriving
closer to January.  Having leap years occur every 4 years
actually overcorrected the problem of the years being too short.

A mechanism to correct this problem was needed.  Easter Sunday
depends on full moon cycles and the vernal equinox.  Because of
this, Easter's date had moved up too far to maintain Easter as a
springtime event.

The way the Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian is that
it has 3 fewer leap years for every 400 hundred years.  How does
this happen?  Finding out how the Gregorian calendar makes this
adjustment requires knowing how leap years are determined with
both the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

How Leap Years are Calculated

With the Julian, every forth year is a leap year.  It is as
simple as that.  If you divide the year by 4 and the answer is a
whole number, it is a leap year.  So, 4 AD was a leap year.  8 AD
was a leap year.  So was 300.  1900 would have been a leap year
also, if the Julian calendar had still been used in 1900.

With the Gregorian calendar, if the year is evenly divisible by
4 it is a leap year unless it is divisible by 100.  If it is
evenly divisible by 100, it is not a leap year unless it is
divisible by 400.  For example, 1896, since it is evenly
divisible by 4, was a leap year.  1900, though it is divisible by
4, it is also divisible by 100 and so no adjustment was made to
February in 1900.

1996, being divisible by 4 was a leap year.  2000 was also a
leap year because, though it was divisible by 100, it was also
divisible by 400.  Another way of looking at it is that there was
no February 29 in 1700, 1800 or 1900, even though these numbers
are evenly divisible by 4.  However, there was a February 29 in
1600 and 2000.

The World's Calendar Since 1753

Though Pope Gregory XIII made the Gregorian calendar official in
1582, not all countries were subservient to the pope.  Great
Britain was one of these countries.  The colonies, which are now
part of the United States were, of course, owned by Great Britain
at that time so, the Gregorian calendar was not recognized in The
Colonies in 1582.  Instead, it was adapted in 1753.  This means
any dates noted before 1753 in the U.S. and many other parts of
the world are questionable.

We still use the Gregorian calendar today and we probably will
use it for a long time to come because it has made the necessary
correction to the Julian concept.  Still, even though it is very
accurate, the Gregorian calendar is off by 3 minutes and 39
seconds each decade.  This means we will gain a day over the next
40 centuries.

The author, Ed Lathrop has created a Website where you can
create, look at and/or print out a calendar or as many calendars
as you want from any years you want from 1753 to 10000.  Just
visit <a href="http://www.calendardaze.com">Freee Online
Printable Calendar</a> Also find out how to save $100,000 on any
mortgage at <a href=http://www.ezcalculator.com>Free Mortgage
Calculator</a>This site is not owned by a lender.

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