DAWN OF DURATION

"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst"

Hello Readers!

We all have some personal memories. Those days were remembered by only days and months. We can take our birthday as an example. If the days and months were not present, we can only remember the memories, but we can't know when it happens. Lets see the evolution of these days and months.

The concept called calendar was first introduced by Egyptians. At those times, Nile river was flooded frequently. So, they were not able to cultivate and harvest the crops. So, they decided to find the exact time period of the flood, cultivation and harvest times. 

"You may delay, but time will not"

There are 40 types of calendars around the world. Those come under three types, Lunar, Solar and Lunisolar.

First, Lunar Calendar - This is the first calendar format ever found. This has been formed based on the position of the moon with respective to the earth. As per this calendar, every new moon is the first day of the month. It has 12 months. The reason behind is, the moon will rotate the earth 12 times approximately, when the earth rotate the sun once. Month is derived form the word Mona which denotes the moon.

They felt that the sun referred calendar is more accurate than the moon referred calendar which results in Solar Calendar. It's purely based on the solar day and the seasonal change. One day is calculated with the position of the sun, when it come back to the same initial position. One year is calculated with the seasonal change, when the same season repeats. As per this calendar, one year is exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. The word hour derived Horus which denotes the Egyptian God.

Next is, Lunisolar Calendar. But, before that there is a small history. Actually, Roman calender came after the solar calendar. It has 10 months and 304 days in a year. Those ten months are from March to December. After that, they added January before March and February after December.

"The way we spend our time finds who we are"

After this, Julius Ceasar introduced Julian Calendar. It has 365.24 days in a year. To honour him, the month Quintillis was renamed as July and to honour an emperor Augustus, Sextilis was renamed as August. In fact, July had 32 days. But, Augustus took one day from july and add it in his named month. So that, both July and August had 31 days.

After this, Gregorian Calendar came to trend. It is calculated by keeping the birth year of Jesus as the first. It is the most accurate calendar format in history, because the difference is just 26 seconds. It is a type of lunisolar calendar. It is calculated based on the positions of sun and moon. One year calculation is based on earth to sun rotation and new moon and full moon calculation is based on moon to earth rotation. Also Mayan Calendar, Hebrew Calendar, Chinese Calendar, Hindu Calendar and Islamic Calendar are lunisolar types.

"The trouble is, you think you have time"

Normally, a week has 7 days. But, there is a reason behind it. It takes 30 days for the moon to revolve the earth once. We get approximately 7, if we divide it into four equal parts. The names of these 7 days come from the planets, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The initial order was Saturday, Thursday, Tuesday, Sunday, Friday, Wednesday and Monday. They are calculated based on the distance from the earth to respective planets. Then the concept called Planetary Hour introduced. For example, we can take Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Violet balls. The day has 24 hours. We can start the first day with red ball, keeping it consecutively till 24 positions. The colour of the ball in the 25th position is the name of the next day. As per our exaample, first day is red day and the second day is yellow day. Based on this, the days of the week are reordered as per now. At those times, they worshipped Sun as their first God. So the week starts from Sunday. 

"Time takes time to change time"

Next, Lets see some facts about the Tamil Calendar. It has Sooriya Madham and Sandhira Madham as its types. Sandhira Madham indicates the twelve tamil months such as Chitirai, Vaigasi etc., Meanwhile, Sooriya Madham indicates the twelve zodiac signs. We use 60-year format in tamil calendar. It denotes the 5 revolution of jupiter to sun rotation. 

We came across our Vadivelu sir's february 30 comedy. It is astonished that February 30 has been a real date once in a history. It happened in Sweden. In 1700, Sweden had planned to change their calendar format from Julian to Gregorian. There was a 10-day difference between these two formats. To balance this, they decided to cancel all the leap days existed from 1700 - 1740. As that was a war time, they can't able to cancel the leap days in 1704 and 1708. With the addition of these two days, they can't move on to Gregorian. In 1712, they balanced this by adding two days in Julian Calendar. This how, February 30,1712 date was once real in our history.

"Alphabet 'O' stands for Opportunity which is absent in Yesterday, Once in today, Thrice in tommorow"

"Know the Unknown"

- ShanKeth & KisHor