Wednesday, 15 January 2025

HISTORY LESSON

In 747 BCE, something strange happened across the ancient world.

Civilizations suddenly abandoned their 360-day calendars that had been used for over 1000 years.

What caused this global shift?

Here's the untold story of humanity's struggle to track time:

Picture this: An Egyptian priest stands atop a temple, eyes fixed on the star Sirius.

It's 4236 BCE - the earliest recorded year in human history.

He's about to make a discovery that will change timekeeping forever.For millennia, civilizations used a simple system:

12 months of 30 days each = 360 days per year.

But there was a problem. The seasons weren't matching up.

Then Egyptian astronomers noticed something crucial...By tracking Sirius (the "Dog Star"), they realized the year was actually 365 days long.

This revelation resulted in the ancient Egyptians dividing their year into three agricultural seasons:

• Season of Flood

• Season of Sowing

• Season of SummerEach season = four months of 30 days each

Which is still just 360 days...

So the big revelation:

The Egyptians became the first to add 5 extra days to their calendar;

the so-called "epagomenal days" for celebrating their gods - Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys.The Babylonians approach was different:

They alternated between 29 & 30-day months based on the moon.

Priests would stand on ziggurats, waiting to spot the new crescent moon before declaring a new month.

If the 30th day was too cloudy? Too bad. They'd just declare a new month.But in 747 BCE, during the reign of Babylonian king Nabonasser, everything changed for them too:

Priest-astronomers stopped looking for the new moon.

Instead, they returned to fixed-length months - but this time with 5 extra days.This shift rippled across civilizations:

• Persians added 5 "gatha days"

• Coptic Christians used 5 "epagomenal days"

• Ethiopian calendar added 5-6 extra days

• Zoroastrians included 5 special named daysIn Rome, the process was formal:

A Pontifex (priest) would observe the sky and solemnly announce the new moon to the king.

They called this declaration "calare" - meaning "to announce solemnly."

This practice gave us our word "calendar".Some other cultures found unique solutions:

The Himba people of Namibia still mark their new year by the coming of seasonal rains.

In their language, the word for "year" literally means "rain."Even today, these ancient systems persist:

• Coptic calendar begins September 11th (12th before leap years)

• Ethiopian calendar is 7-8 years behind ours

• Islamic calendar still uses lunar months

• Chinese calendar combines lunar/solar cyclesAfter 6,000 years of development, we're still not perfect:

Our current Gregorian calendar loses one day every 3,236 years, requiring a correction every 3,236 years.

But compared to ancient timekeepers watching the stars, we've come a long way.A fascinating detail:

• Greeks called 30-day months "full" and 29-day months "hollow"

• Babylonians deemed 29-day months "defective"

• Celts named 30-day months "matos" (lucky) and 29-day ones "anmatos" (unlucky)

• Even today, Hebrew calendars call 29-day months "deficient"Thanks to those ancient astronomers who stood on temples and ziggurats, counting days and tracking stars, they laid the foundation for how we measure time today.

What stood most out to you from this piece of history?Follow History nation  Spyznation NG SpyzNation for more deep dives into ancient mysteries and how they shaped our world.

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