val236ah@unm-cvax.UUCP (02/19/85)
(My sacrificial line......) Now, the problem has come up so many times I think it is time to clear up any problems that you might be having. Now, the calendar system we use is known as the Gregorian (like the chant) calendar. It is approximately accurate to 1 day in 2,500 years. It was implemented by the Church of England in 1752. All the English colonies (including us, of course), changed immeadately to this system. It came about when the leaders of the church started getting a little worried because, under the old system (And I've forgotten what it is...), the Holy day of Easter was starting to fall in May! Since most of the churches calendar events rotated around Easter, this created a problem. So they came up with this system. Unfourtunately, in order for the new system to work, there needed to be 11 days cut out of the calendar somewhere. September was the set month and, if memory serves me correct, the calendar in September, 1752 went from the 6th to the 17th. This, of course, made many people very angry as many felt that they were being cheated out of 11 days wages or 11 days rent. But, as you can see, everything worked out (I think this might have been one of the first of the Americans gripes towards mother England.....). Now, the original poster of this problem stated something about an extra leap-day being thrown in between December and January. It may seem to be a laugh but it was once a serious proposal. There was (and still may be) an organization known as the World Calendar Association. They proposed (To whom, I don't know) a uniform calendar system (i.e. all the dates would fall on the same day of the week each and every year). I think they had 8 months with 30 days and 4 with 31 days rotating in a 30/30/31 system. The extra day would have been stuck between December 31st and January 1st. It would have no date or day of the week. This day, of course, was to be called 'Worldsday'. For leap years, the leap-day would also be a 'Worldsday' and be put between June and July. One final note, there are 14 calendars in a perpetual calendar. You just have to remember that Sept. 1752 was an odd month. If you look in any almanac (most librarys have them) they (or most of them) have a perpetual calendar stuck in them somewhere. If you have any further questions about the calendar, mail me them and I will try to answer. Ronald C. Rosul jr. (I think.....) val236ah!unm-cvax!unmvax 2/19/85-'Have a nice day!'