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~ DR. MARTIN W. FLECK A story which is questioned by some investigators tells us that Quintilis was renamed July in honor of Julius Caesar. July was a strong month with 31 days. The nephew of Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, decided that a month should be named for him, too. Sextibis was renamed August. August was a w.eak month having only 29 days so Augustus swiped a couple of days from other months. This gave birth to the "jingle writers" who came forth with "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November". The Julian year was II minutes and 14 seconds. too long. By 1582 this difference had accumu- lated to 10 days and the vernal equinox came on Mar~h II. Pretty soon Easter would be coming in winter, so Pope Gregory XIII added another reform. He decreed that October 4, 1582, should become October 15. Gregory also made an adjustment concerning leap year so that it would occur in century years only when divisible by 400. On the Gregorian calendar, the new year was to begin January I, This calendar is the one we now use in the United States. The Gregorian year is only 26 seconds too long. Originally accepted by the Catholics, it was a- voided by Protestants until the Julian calendar got so far out of time with the sun there was no other alternative. England adopted it in 1752 and passed it on to the colonies so our forefathers began cele- brating New Year's Day on January 1. By the time this country adopted the Gregorian calendar, it was necessary to drop II days out of the year. This loss precipitated quite a problem, Tenants paid their landlords less than a month's rent and employers deducted II days pay, Consequently, mobs stormed legislative halls demanding that the people be given back their II days. George Washington was born on February II, 1731. When the calendar changed, he lost II days and so we now celebrate his birthday on February 22, Whether or not he approved of the change in his birthday date is unknown to the writer. All the Balkan countries, excepting Yugoslavia; adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1916. One can take off by plane from London on January 7 and. land in Belgrade on the same day to help the people of that nation celebrate Christmas of the preceding year. Russia adopted the calendar in 1918 but during the October revolution of the same year dis- carded it as "a harmful innovation of the Church of Rome, a Latin heresy". Russia adopted a five-day six week month, changing again in 1941 to the six-day week. At present, the error in our Gregorian calenda~ has accumulated to three hours, Not for about 3000 years will the error amount to as much as one day. But many of us believe the calendar should be changed. Our calendar has no order to it. The days shift about in a confusing way, months are irreg- ular, quarters unequal in length, Reform is being urged so that the same date will fall on the same day of the week every year. All business needs a calendar that will stay put. Statistics compiled in regards to monthly business are misleading because of differences in the number of days and in the kind of days. The proposed World calendar would rectify many of these quirks of the Gregorian calendar. The year on the World calendar would consist of four equal quarters of 91 days each, and each quarter would begin on Sunday. Every day falls on the same day of the week every year. On this calendar, Christmas always falls on Monday. The idea of holidays occurring on week- ends is a good one - for employee, employer, and the church, It is felt that if the day is immediately preceded by a Sunday, one will be better prepared spiritually for the true meaning of Christmas. If Thanksgiving were moved to Monday, Nove1TIber 27, of the World calendar, we could apply the same arguments we used for Christmas. There are those who argue that Thanksgiving must be cele- brated on a Thursday, but a quick check through the history books shows that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated on a Saturday and that since then, Th~nksgiving has been celebrated on every day of the week in every month of the year. The late Presidert Roosevelt demonstrated that the date can be changed very easily. i I I J -22-