Jan 7 2022 - Calendars All Around

 

There are a few different calendars to consider - lunisolar, solar, lunar and seasonal. And then there's the standard calendar - with  years of fixed length, and various public/religious holidays specific to our country/region.  It is called a civil calendar - used within a country for civil, official and administrative purposes.  Don't you wonder sometimes about the holidays that are represented?  There are two St. Patrick's Day celebrations this year - on March the 14th and the 17th.  And how is it that St. George's Day is acknowledged in our calendar as a celebration in Canada?   Someone somewhere in Canada must be celebrating it as a day off.   I realized that we don't think about the calendar because of "western" orientation of the Gregorian calendar. It is considered the de facto international standard.  168 of the 195 countries in the world use the Gregorian calendar.   Four countries have not adopted the Gregorian calendar at all. Afghanistan and Iran use the Solar Hirjri calendar, Ethiopia the Ethiopian calendar and Nepal the Vikram Samvat and Nepal Sambat calendars. There are other variations of calendar standards  - most common are Gregorian, Islamic, and Chinese calendars in current use around the world.   Are we all in a new year now?  Whatever its number? Not at all. Some countries use calendars that begin the year on dates in entirely different seasons, and some countries celebrate both Jan. 1 and a traditional new year.   Iran and Afghanistan have used similar versions of the solar hejrī calendar for nearly a century, according to Encyclopedia Iranica. Next March, both countries will enter the year 1401. Their new year begins on the first day of spring — March 21 in most years — on the first day of the month Farvardin in Iran, according to the Iranian government.  That would be strange to me to be in a different calendar compared to other places.  The global village isn't quite complete somehow.   This is an evening and then day image of the Mount Albert Brewery on Gerry's model layout.  His friend, Jeff, took these pictures yesterday, preparing for an overview presentation of Gerry's layout.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dual Dating

I had never considered converting calendars.  It is called Dual Dating.  I looked at Wikipedia's events for August 3rd and it is the 215th day of the year (216 in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.  Then it lists events starting with the year 8 when Tiberius defeats the Dalmatae on the river Bathinus.  So if the Gregorian calendar began in 1582, I wonder how they did all these backward calculations.  I expect it was monks in Monasteries. "The original goal of the Gregorian calendar was to change the date of Easter. In 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII introduced his Gregorian calendar, Europe adhered to the Julian calendar, first implemented by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C." There's a site on the topic of dual dating between various Calendars.  It's at: http://www.adamsonancestry.com/calendar/ We were in Niagara-on-the-Lake yesterday and saluted the bronze statue of Lord Simcoe on his celebration weekend.

It's Almost a New Year

A New Year

In order to realign the Roman calendar with the sun, Julius Caesar had to add 90 extra days to the year 46 B.C. when he introduced his new Julian calendar. The Julian calendar closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most (!) countries around the world use today. As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honour the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future.  The move to the Gregorian Calendar took place starting in 1582 and was adopted country by country.  There's a schedule here: 

http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/gregorian.php

What are the unusual New Year's traditions - Spain's 12 grapes seems to make the top of the list for many. In Spain they eat 12 grapes at midnight - one for each stroke of the clock and for the coming 12 months ahead.  They have to be eaten in 12 seconds for the new year to have good luck.

There are six common profiles of those who've been (mostly) successful achieving this feat:

1. Zen Master – Neatly lines up the grapes and methodically eats them one by one, while meditating on the sound of the 12 chimes. Starts the New Year fully in the moment.
2. Full Frontal – Embraces the New Year with gusto by shoving all of the grapes in their mouth at once. Worries about swallowing them later.
3. False Starter – Anxious about getting all 12 grapes down, starts eating the first one before midnight strikes, which doesn’t count and is said to bring bad luck.
4. Reina Isabel – Prepares grapes in advance by cutting them in half. Eats them with a fork from a plate. Eating the grapes by halves may be less authentic, but it is the best method for small children, and for anyone worried about looking like a slob.
5. Exhibitionist – Also known as “el chulo.” Sees grape eating as another extreme sport, or just a chance to show off. Starts the New Year with an ego boost, by throwing the grapes in the air and catching them in their mouth. Requires secret pre-New Years’ Eve practice.
6. Drunken Style – Makes an effort to eat the grapes but cracks up, starts talking, drinking, hugging or otherwise gets distracted midway through the 12 grapes. This is, needless to say, what happens most often. Happy New Year

The most famous ritual in the U.S. is the dropping of a giant ball in New York City's Times Square. Dillsburg Pennsylvania drops a pickle in celebration of the stroke of midnight.