NEW ROMAN -- JULIAN -- GREGORIAN YEAR 2020

[Dr. Jai Maharaj]

NEW ROMAN -- JULIAN -- GREGORIAN YEAR 2020

The Case of The Missing Days

The calendar we are about to recycle, the English or
the so-called Christian calendar, is the original Roman
calendar as standardized by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE.

It was subsequently reformed by Pope Gregory XIII in
1582 CE.

In the calendar introduced by Julius Caesar, the
Julian calendar, all years including the century years that
were completely divisible by 4 were designated as leap-
years with 29 days in February.

This caused the length of the Julian year to be
365.25 days -- a number that was in excess of the correct
length of a year at 365.2422 days by 0.0078 days.

With the passage of time, the error continued to
accumulate and a revision was made by Pope Gregory in 1582.

He decided to omit the accumulated error, which by
then had reached an embarrassing 10 days: he ordained that
the ten days October 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14
in 1582 be simply canceled.

Thursday, October 4, 1582 was forced to be followed
by Friday, October 15, 1582.

The leap-year rule was also revised by designating
the century years 1700, 1800, 1900, and 2100, 2200, 2300,
etc. as common or non-leap years with 28 days in February.

The years 1600, 2000, 2400, 2800, etc., which are
wholly divisible by 400 were termed leap-years with 29 days
in February.

This manipulation of the calendar reduced the average
calendar length down to 365.2425 days and the excess
residual error was now only one day in 3300 years.

Since that day of the missing days, October 12, 1582,
all scientific and historical records have been maintained
or expressed in terms of this revised calendar known as the
Gregorian calendar by those who follow the Western system.

Earlier historical records, however, are still
maintained by the Julian calendar, which has no 0 BCE or 0
CE years.

According to the Julian calendar, the year that
precedes 1 CE is designated 1 BCE, except in astronomy
where 1 BCE is considered to be the leap-year 0 CE, 2 BCE
as -1 CE, 3 BCE as -2 CE, 4 BCE as -3 CE, 5 BCE as -4 CE
(leap-year), and so on.

The Catholic states of Europe were quick to adopt the
Gregorian reformation, but other countries took longer to
accept it, the latest being Turkey in 1927.

Officially, Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in
the year 1752 by eliminating the accumulated error of 11
days from the month of September -- September 3 through 13
were canceled, and Wednesday September 2, 1752 was followed
by Thursday, September 14, 1752.

The Julian calendar which had been in effect until
September 2 was renamed as the Old Style (O.S.) calendar,
and the Gregorian calendar in use that day forward was
named New Style (N.S.) calendar.

The British people who were occupying other countries
at time also followed this calendar conversion.

The abbreviations BCE and CE expand to Before Common
Era and Common Era, and are equivalent to BC and AD,
respectively.

Best wishes for the future!

"A king, though endowed with little prowess, starting on
an expedition at the proper time, in view of the good
positions of the planets, achieves greatness that is
eulogised in the scriptures." -- Brhat Samhita, 104.60

Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
Om Shanti
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