chrys@alberta (08/31/83)
What is the significance behind our 12 months? Why twelve and not, say, four encompassing the four seasons? Why are they named the way they are? How was the distribution of days decided upon? What are some other systems in the world? I hope that this is of general interest and that responses may be posted to net.follow.up and/or net.misc. Chris Helmers ( ...!ubc-vision!alberta!chrys )
ecn-ec:ecn-pc:ecn-ed:vu@pur-ee.UUCP (09/02/83)
I think the reason there are 12 months a year is that there are 12 full moons per year. It is exactly the way Orientals (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Koreans) compose their calendar. The fifteen of every month is the full moon, thus from which they caculate the first day of the month and the last day of the previous month. So in fact, they master the art of predicting full moons before it actually happens. In the court of an Emperor, there is a Mandarin in charge of that stuff. Usually, it amounts to 28-30 days per month, and since this totals to only < 360 days/year, a leap year in Lunar Calendar (that's what it's called) has an extra `February'. Why an extra 2nd month and not an extra other month ? Because farmers depend on the Lunar calendar to plant their crop, and by trial and error, calendar makers learn that extra 2nd month ensure that, say rain in 7th month and nice (i.e. suitable for relaxing) weather in 1st month next year. Hao-Nhien Vu (pur-ee!vu, soon pur-ee!norris)