•The Week
–7 days : about the time between major moon phases
•Sunday - Sun, Monday[Lundi] – Moon, Tuesday[Martedi] –
Mars,
•Wednesday[Mercoldi] – Mercury, Thursday[Giovedi] –
Jupiter,
•Friday[Venerdi] – Venus, Saturday – Saturn
•The Month
–Early Roman – 12 lunar months = 354 days; every 3 years have a 13th month
–Julian Calendar – go to months of 30, 31days; have leap years to fix extra quarter day
–To fix drift of equinox, 46BC
had 445 days (“year of confusion”)
–July and August named after Julius Caesar and Augustus
Caesar
•The Gregorian Calendar
–Equinox had slipped again by 10 days in 16th century; Pope
Gregory XIII fixed it in 1582 by dropping 10
days in Oct.
–changed calendar rules (only century years divisible by
400 are leap years)
–Protestants didn’t follow until later; 1752 for US &
UK (can’t charge rent for missing days)
–Year starts on Jan. 1 instead of Mar. 25 (so 1751 had no
Jan., Feb., or Mar 1-24); Washington’s birthday
not really on Washington’s birthday (born Feb. 11 but celebrated Feb. 22)
–Russian didn’t change until 1917 revolution (losing 13
days)