Why is the Orthodox Christmas on January 7, almost two weeks
after ours?
A few decades before Jesus was born, Julius Caesar reformed
the Roman calendar by adding one day every four years. This worked well for a long time, keeping the
calendar in line with the seasons.
But in the 1600s, after the Reformation, the calendar was noticeably off, so Pope Gregory refined the Julian calendar by making century
years not leap years unless they were divisible by 400 and resetting the
calendar to put it back in line with the seasons.
Julian Calendar
|
|
4 years x 365 days/year
|
1460
|
Add 1 day for leap year
|
1461
|
No. of days per year
|
365.25
|
Changes made by Gregorian
Calendar
|
|
No. of days in 400 years
|
146100
|
Minus 1 day for each century year not divisible by 400
|
146097
|
Average # of days per year for 400 years
|
365.2425
|
No comments:
Post a Comment