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Essentially the extra quarter of a day that the Julian leap year added was slightly longer than the 0.242 of a day left over in the actual solar year. It affected Pope Gregory XIII because the Christian holidays were being celebrated on the wrong days. This was noticed by the Pope's astronomers and prompted the need for change. What's the science behind ...

Some astronomical events, viz. eclipses, can be reliably predicted to the day. I think they are the best method to identify a date exactly. This webpage provides some insight on the topic. It is basically a list of recorded solar eclipses, where the first one would be on 22 March 2134 BCE. There is however some uncertainty about whether or not the event ...

I found another hint in Histoire du dimanche: de 1700 à nos jours by Robert Beck page 154 on bottom. See the following google books link. Le surplus en travail que provoque le rythme décadaire, pourrait également constituer une raison du rejet dont le nouveau temps est la victime. [...] Les instigateur des lois sur l'observation des décadis de l'an ...

The French Republican Calendar started counting years from 22 September 1792, the day the French First Republic was proclaimed. Year I was the first year of the Republic, and so on. You can read more about the calendar's design on Wikipedia.

Possibly they wanted to match it to Brumalia. The Roman winter solstice festival. wikipedia: "The Brumalia was also celebrated during the space of thirty days, commencing on 24 November and ending with the "Waxing of the Light", December 25" citation Much the same can be said about Saturnalia, they're very similar. The "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun" is ...

About the only book I have come across in looking at the Mayan Calendar, which only came from a class exercise in looking for more information on the Mayan Apocalypse, was the E.G. Richards book Mapping Time. It noted some ideas of lucky and unlucky days, as well as more on other calendar systems. Honestly I don't recall how much he covered in all of it, ...

Saints Days, in particular, the local saint's day Shrove Tuesday Lent Easter Christmas was less important. In any area of importance four quarterly Saint's days would be identified with local days when legal actions occurred and markets occurred in the local large city. As such courts were either rotating, or held on feudal bases, it is usual for ...

It was due to the Second Celtiberian War. In 154 BC, there was rebellion in Spain. Quintus Fulvius Nobilior was designated consul for the following year but could not assume office until the Ides of March. Given the military situation, the Senate decreed January 1 to be the start of the new civil year, which permitted Nobilior to be inducted and depart ...

No, it is not an accidental coincidence. It is a should-to-be coincidence. The Winter Solstice is a natural start/end of a year. Of course, the end of the current period of the Mayan calendar should coincide with the end of the year. Their calendar consists of cycles, as the Asian one. (Linear calendar, instead of cycle ones, is the European invention.) And ...

Let me introduce you Alexander Marshack, who in his book "The Roots of Civilization: the Cognitive Beginning of Man’s First Art, Symbol and Notation", published in 1972, proves that notches and lines carved on certain Upper Paleolithic bone plaques were in fact notation systems, specifically lunar calendars notating the passage of time. It was developed by ...

In general, dating was complicated, and different conventions existed simultaneously in England at that time. For the specific example of William the Conqueror's coronation, we have different sources within the following decades implying that it was in 1066 or 1067, anno Domini. The precision sought in the question did not exist, at least in the same form ...

Sol Invictus was said to have died and gone to hell on the Noctis, and three days later rose from the grave on that day, celebrated in the Roman festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun". It's my own understanding from research and reading the material that this is why Christmas is celebrated on that day, although, as you ...

If we're talking about strictly catholic holidays, a good example that became popular across medieval Europe is the Feast of Corpus Christi, which started in Germany in the middle of 13th century. Soon it has spread both in Western and Eastern Europe, after pope Urban IV decision to make it official for all Latin Rite countries. In different areas of ...

The ritual calendar(s) are quite detailed, with minor differences between cultures. The Maya were no special case in the following list, because the ritual calendar was more-or-less driven by the imperialism of the Aztec empire. Simply, the 'corners of the year' (solstices and equinoxes) were the major ritual times because the sacrifices governed the ...