HAPPY 2006 NEW YEAR.....LEARN ABOUT JULIAN CALENDAR....&....HOW HUMANITY AROUND THE WORLD IS ON NEW YEAR'S DAY
Posted by Vishva News Reporter on December 31, 2005

 

 

Children on Dolphin Point overlooking Coogee Beach watch the early New Year's Eve fireworks display for families in Sydney, 31 December 2005.

Children on Dolphin Point overlooking Coogee Beach watch the early 2006 New Year's Eve fireworks display for families in Sydney. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

This is the east end of Earths watching the dawn of 2006 NEW YEAR
 

 

JANUARY 1, 2006:
JULIAN CALENDAR CELEBRATES
THE NEW YEAR DAY OF 2006
AFTER THE DEATH OF CHRIST

The Julian calendar was introduced in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and took force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). It was chosen after consultation with the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus. It has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added to February every four years. Hence the Julian year is on average 365.25 days long.

The Julian calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries and is still used by many national Orthodox churches. However, too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons on this scheme. On average, the astronomical solstices and the equinoxes advance by about 11 minutes per year against the Julian year, causing the calendar to gain a day about every 134 years. While Hipparchus and presumably Sosigenes were aware of the discrepancy, although not of its correct value, it was evidently felt to be of little importance. However, it accumulated significantly over time, and eventually led to the reform of 1582, which replaced the Julian calendar with the more accurate Gregorian calendar.

The notation "Old Style" (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to "New Style", which indicates a date in the Gregorian Calendar. This notation is used when there might otherwise be confusion about which date is found in a text.

You can continue learning about the Julian Calendar system by clicking here  to go to WIKIPEDIA, the free on-line encyclopedia or continue reading on the next page after the news posting of how new year is happening around the globe...

(You can click on the blue coloured words in the Wikipedia writing to learn more about the words....).

This knowledge sharing PVAF web site is operated from Edmonton, Alberta Canada for the entire humanity to enrich themselves with past, present and future knowledge compiled from all knowledge sources available on this planet Earth.....Edmonton is located in the west at the end of the earth's day exactly opposite Australia which is located in the east at the beginning of earth day...

Thus this news item is posted today, that is December 31, 2005 when it is already January 1, 2005 in Australia...so that PVAF is  not late in conveying new year's wishes to our Australian visitors to the PVAF web site...

PVAF WISHES
2006 NEW YEAR
TO BE MOST FULFILLING OF
ALL YOUR DESIRES, WISHES AND WANTS
TO ALL THOSE WHO START
THEIR NEW YEAR ON
JANUARY 1, 2006
...

Please click on the next line to read how may countries are facing the new year around the globe in these troubled times of wars over land, wealth and religion, communal riots, trade wars at a time when humanity is discovering sciences to understand who we are, where we are, what we are here for, what is out there in space, how do we live eternally, .... and all those sixty-nine million dollar questions...but even with all these sciences humanity is finding it hard to stop hurting each other????!!!!!....but keep reading on any way on the next page



Sydney fireworks open New Year's festivities

Canadian Globe and Mail: By MIKE CORDER: Saturday, December 31, 2005 Posted at 1:32 PM EST: Associated Press

Sydney — A pulsing heart of red lights shone from Sydney's Harbor Bridge early Sunday as tens of thousands watched fireworks ushering in the new year. Revellers around the world began partying, visited places of worship and gathered with family to welcome 2006.

Celebrations were taking place amid tight security as such cities as Sydney and Paris feared repeats of recent ethnic riots and authorities were on guard against terror attacks. In Indonesia, a bomb killed eight people and wounded 45 at a market crowded with holiday shoppers.

Workers in London's subway system began a 24-hour strike at midday Saturday, complicating travel plans for revellers preparing to celebrate the new year across the city, including at a huge open-air party in Trafalgar Square.

Families in Sydney trooped to vantage points around the harbour to watch a spectacular fireworks show that began at midnight.

The message of love in the celebration, however, went hand-in-hand with a huge police presence aimed at preventing a repeat of mid-December's two nights of racial violence in beach suburbs. More than 1,700 officers were on duty and police helicopters and boats patrolled.

Generally jubilant celebrations planned across Asia were in sharp contrast with last year, when the devastation of the Indian Ocean tsunami led many countries and individuals to cancel festivities.

“It's a bit hard to celebrate when you see people so dejected and hurt, like what people saw on TV. This year is much better,” said Ann Ward from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, who brought her family to watch the fireworks display.

For the millions left homeless by this year's South Asian earthquake, however, the new year was expected to begin with heavy snow and rain. Relief agencies warned that the harsh Himalayan winter could hamper aid deliveries and create conditions ripe for illnesses.

Pakistan's army and aid workers have been using helicopters, trucks and mules to get tents, clothes, food and other provisions to survivors since the Oct. 8 quake killed an estimated 87,000 people and destroyed the homes of 3.5 million more.

In Indonesia, a bomb ripped through a busy meat market Saturday, killing at least eight people and wounding 45 in Central Sulawesi province, officials said. Police said the bomb packed with ball bearings and nails went off as Christians bought pork for the night's festivities.


The attack in Palu followed repeated warnings from Indonesian authorities that the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah was plotting holiday attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is illuminated after midnight.

Police turn out in force as Sydney ushered in the new year under the cloak of an immense security crackdown.


Some 5,000 security officers in mostly Muslim Bangladesh searched cars in the capital hoping to thwart violence in the wake of a series of bombings blamed on Islamic extremists that killed at least 26 people.

Police patrolled Dhaka's entertainment districts, college campuses and wealthy residential areas, where Western-style new year's celebrations often end in drunken revelry.

In France, 25,000 police officers were assigned to keep order on New Year's Eve, a night when partying youths often set hundreds of cars ablaze as festivities get out of hand.

Police were especially cautious this year because of the rioting and car burnings that raged for three weeks starting in late October, primarily among disaffected Muslim youths in poor suburbs. A state of emergency imposed to quell the rioting remains in effect.

In the Philippines, officials threatened to arrest anyone who set off powerful fireworks or fired guns, seeking to prevent deaths and injuries that accompany New Year's Eve festivities every year.

Already, two Filipinos had died from guns fired in celebration and two deaths were reported from people accidentally eating a popular candy-looking sparkler. An additional 162 suffered firework-related injuries during the run-up to New Year's Eve, police and health officials said.

In Japan, police expected more than 14,000 people to climb the country's mountains — including the 3.7-kilometre, snowcapped Mount Fuji — to see the first sunrise of the new year. Some 100 million people were likely to visit shrines and temples in the first three days of 2006.

But a new holiday pastime also has emerged among Japanese — watching professional wrestling on TV — and many rang in the new year glued to their sets.

 

Julian calendar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Julian calendar was introduced in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and took force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). It was chosen after consultation with the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus. It has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added to February every four years. Hence the Julian year is on average 365.25 days long.

The Julian calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries and is still used by many national Orthodox churches. However, too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons on this scheme. On average, the astronomical solstices and the equinoxes advance by about 11 minutes per year against the Julian year, causing the calendar to gain a day about every 134 years. While Hipparchus and presumably Sosigenes were aware of the discrepancy, although not of its correct value, it was evidently felt to be of little importance. However, it accumulated significantly over time, and eventually led to the reform of 1582, which replaced the Julian calendar with the more accurate Gregorian calendar.

The notation "Old Style" (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to "New Style", which indicates a date in the Gregorian Calendar. This notation is used when there might otherwise be confusion about which date is found in a text.

Contents

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From Roman to Julian

The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days. In addition, an intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. This intercalary month was formed by inserting 22 days before the last five days of February, creating a 27-day month. It began after a truncated February having 23 or 24 days, so that it had the effect of adding 22 or 23 days to the year, forming an intercalary year of 377 or 378 days.

According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, which were alternately 377 and 378 days long. On this system, the average Roman year would have had 366¼ days over four years, giving it an average drift of one day per year relative to any solstice or equinox. Macrobius describes a further refinement wherein, for 8 years out of 24, there were only three intercalary years each of 377 days. This refinement averages the length of the year to 365¼ days over 24 years. In practice, intercalations did not occur schematically according to these ideal systems, but were determined by the pontifices. So far as can be determined from the historical evidence, they were much less regular than these ideal schemes suggest. They usually occurred every second or third year, but were sometimes omitted for much longer, and occasionally occurred in two consecutive years.

If managed correctly this system allowed the Roman year, on average, to stay roughly aligned to a tropical year. However, if too many intercalations were omitted, as happened after the Second Punic War and during the Civil Wars, the calendar would drift rapidly out of alignment with the tropical year. Moreover, since intercalations were often determined quite late, the average Roman citizen often did not know the date, particularly if he were some distance from the city. For these reasons, the last years of the pre-Julian calendar were later known as years of confusion. The problems became particularly acute during Julius Caesar's pontificate, 63 BC to 46 BC, when there were only five intercalary months, whereas there should have been eight, and none at all during the five Roman years before 46 BC.

The Julian reform was intended to correct this problem permanently. Before it took effect, the missed intercalations during Julius Caesar's pontificate were made up by inserting 67 days (22+23+22) between November and December of 46 BC in the form of two months, in addition to 23 days which had already been added to February. Thus 90 days were added to this last year of the Roman Republican calendar, giving it 445 days. Because it was the last of a series of irregular years, this extra-long year was, and is, referred to as the last year of confusion. The first year of operation of the new calendar was 45 BC.

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Leap years error

Despite the new calendar being much simpler than the Roman calendar, the pontifices apparently misunderstood the algorithm. They added a leap day every three years, instead of every four years. According to Macrobius, the error was the result of counting inclusively, so that the four year cycle was considered as including both the first and fourth years. This resulted in too many leap days. Caesar Augustus remedied this discrepancy by restoring the correct frequency after 36 years of this mistake. He also skipped several leap days in order to realign the year.

The historic sequence of leap years (i.e. years with a leap day) in this period is not given explicitly by any ancient source, although the existence of the triennial leap year cycle is confirmed by an inscription that dates from 9 or 8 BC. The chronologist Joseph Scaliger established in 1583 that the Augustan reform was instituted in 8 BC, and inferred that the sequence of leap years was 42, 39, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9 BC, AD 8, 12 etc. This proposal is still the most widely accepted solution. It has also sometimes been suggested that 45 BC was a leap year.

Other solutions have been proposed from time to time. Kepler proposed in 1614 that the correct sequence of leap years was 43, 40, 37, 34, 31, 28, 25, 22, 19, 16, 13, 10 BC, AD 8, 12 etc. In 1883 the German chronologist Matzat proposed 44, 41, 38, 35, 32, 29, 26, 23, 20, 17, 14, 11 BC, AD 4, 8, 12 etc., based on a passage in Dio Cassius that mentions a leap day in 41 BC that was said to be contrary to (Caesar's) rule. In the 1960s Radke argued the reform was actually instituted when Augustus became pontifex maximus in 12 BC, suggesting the sequence 45, 42, 39, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12 BC, AD 4, 8, 12 etc.

In 1999, an Egyptian papyrus was published which gives an ephemeris table for 24 BC with both Roman and Egyptian dates. From this it can be shown that the most likely sequence was in fact 44, 41, 38, 35, 32, 29, 26, 23, 20, 17, 14, 11, 8 BC, AD 4, 8, 12 etc, very close to that proposed by Matzat. This sequence shows that the standard Julian leap year sequence began in AD 4, the twelfth year of the Augustan reform. Also, under this sequence the actual Roman year coincided with the proleptic Julian year between 32 and 26 BC. This suggests that one aim of the realignment portion of the Augustan reform was to ensure that key dates of his career, notably the fall of Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC, were unaffected by his correction.

Roman dates before 32 BC were typically a day or two before the day with the same Julian date, so 1 January in the Roman calendar of the first year of the Julian reform actually fell on 31 December 46 BC (Julian date). A curious effect of this is that Caesar's assassination on the Ides (15th day) of March in 44 BC fell on 14 March 44 BC in the Julian calendar.

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Naming of the months

Immediately after the Julian reform, the twelve months of the Roman calendar were named Ianuarius, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December, just as they were before the reform. Their lengths were set to their modern values. The old intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was abolished and replaced with a single intercalary day at the same point (i.e. five days before the end of Februarius). The first month of the year continued to be Ianuarius, as it had been since 153 BC.

The Romans later renamed months after Caesar and Augustus, renaming Quintilis (originally, "the Fifth month", with March = month 1) as Iulius (July) in 44 BC and Sextilis ("Sixth month") as Augustus (August) in 8 BC. (Note that the letter J was not invented until the 17th century). Quintilis was renamed to honour Caesar because it was the month of his birth. According to a senatusconsultum quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, fell in that month.

Other months were renamed by other emperors, but apparently none of the later changes survived their deaths. Caligula renamed September ("Seventh month") as Germanicus; Nero renamed Aprilis (April) as Neroneus, Maius (May) as Claudius and Iunius (June) as Germanicus; and Domitian renamed September as Germanicus and October ("Eighth month") as Domitianus. At other times, September was also renamed as Antoninus and Tacitus, and November ("Ninth month") was renamed Faustina and Romanus. Commodus was unique in renaming all twelve months after his own adopted names (January to December): Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, and Exsuperatorius.

Much more lasting than the ephemeral month names of the post-Augustan Roman emperors were the names introduced by Charlemagne. He renamed all of the months agriculturally into Old High German. They were used until the 15th century, and with some modifications until the late 18th century in Germany and in the Netherlands (January-December): Wintarmanoth (winter month), Hornung (spring), Lentzinmanoth (Lent month), Ostarmanoth (Easter month), Winnemanoth (grazing month), Brachmanoth (plowing month), Heuvimanoth (hay month), Aranmanoth (harvest month), Witumanoth (wood month), Windumemanoth (vintage month), Herbistmanoth (autumn/harvest month), and Heilagmanoth (holy month). Translations of these month names are still used to this day in some Slavic languages, such as Polish.

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Lengths of the months

According to the 13th century scholar Sacrobosco, the original scheme for the months in the Julian Calendar was very regular, alternately long and short. From January through December, the month lengths according to Sacrobosco for the Roman Republican calendar were:

30, 29, 30, 29, 30, 29, 30, 29, 30, 29, 30, and 29, totaling 354 days.

He then thought that Julius Caesar added one day to every month except February, a total of 11 more days, giving the year 365 days. A leap day could now be added to the extra short February:

31, 29 (30), 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, and 30

He then said Augustus changed this to:

31, 28 (29), 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, and 31

giving us the irregular month lengths which we still use today, so that the length of Augustus would not be shorter than (and therefore inferior to) the length of Iulius.

Although this theory is still widely repeated, it is certainly wrong. First, a wall painting of a Roman Republican calendar has survived [1] which confirms the literary accounts that the months were already irregular before Julius Caesar reformed it:

29, 28, 31, 29, 31, 29, 31, 29, 29, 31, 29, and 29

Also, the Julian reform did not change the dates of the Nones and Ides. In particular, the Ides are late (on the 15th rather than 13th) in March, May, July and October, showing that these months always had 31 days in the Roman calendar, whereas Sacrobosco's theory requires that the length of October was changed. Further, Sacrobosco's theory is explicitly contradicted by the third and fifth century authors Censorinus and Macrobius, and, finally, it is inconsistent with seasonal lengths given by Varro, writing in 37 BC, before the Augustan reform, with the 31-day Sextilis given by the new Egyptian papyrus from 24 BC, and with the 28-day February shown in the Fasti Caeretani, which is dated before 12 BC.

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Year numbering

The dominant method that the Romans used to identify a year for dating purposes was to name it after the two consuls who took office in it. Since 153 BC, they had taken office on 1 January, and Julius Caesar did not change the beginning of the year. Thus this consular year was an eponymous or named year. Roman years were named this way until the last consul was appointed in 541. Only rarely did the Romans number the year from the founding of the city (of Rome), ab urbe condita (AUC). This method was used by Roman historians to determine the number of years from one event to another, not to date a year. Different historians had several different dates for the founding. The Fasti Capitolini, an inscription containing an official list of the consuls which was published by Augustus, used an epoch of 752 BC. The epoch used by Varro, 753 BC, has been adopted by modern historians. Indeed, Renaissance editors often added it to the manuscripts that they published, giving the false impression that the Romans numbered their years. Most modern historians tacitly assume that it began on the day the consuls took office, and ancient documents such as the Fasti Capitolini which use other AUC systems do so in the same way. However, the Varronian AUC year did not formally begin on 1 January, but on Founder's Day, 21 April. This prevented the early Roman church from celebrating Easter after 21 April because the festivities associated with Founder's Day conflicted with the solemnity of Lent, which was observed until the Saturday before Easter Sunday.

In addition to consular years, the Romans sometimes used the regnal year of the emperor. Anno Diocletiani, named after Diocletian, was often used by the Alexandrian Christians to number their Easters during the fourth and fifth centuries. In AD 537, Justinian required that henceforth the date must include the name of the emperor, in addition to the indiction and the consul (the latter ending only four years later). The indiction caused the Byzantine year to begin on 1 September, which is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church for the beginning of the liturgical year. In AD 525 Dionysius Exiguus proposed the system of anno Domini, which gradually spread through the western Christian world, once the system was adopted by Bede. Years were numbered from the supposed date of the incarnation or annunciation of Jesus on 25 March, although this soon changed to Christmas, then back to Annunciation Day in Britain, and the numbered year even began on Easter in France.

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From Julian to Gregorian

The Julian calendar was in general use in Europe from the times of the Roman Empire until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the Gregorian Calendar, which was soon adopted by most Catholic countries. The Protestant countries followed later, and the countries of Eastern Europe even later. Great Britain had Thursday 14 September 1752 follow Wednesday 2 September 1752. Sweden adopted the new style calendar in 1753, but also for a twelve-year period starting in 1700 used a modified Julian Calendar. Russia remained on the Julian calendar until after the Russian Revolution (which is thus called the 'October Revolution' but occurred in November according to the Gregorian calendar), in 1917, while Greece continued to use it until 1923.

Although all Eastern European countries had adopted the Gregorian calendar on or before 1923, their national Eastern Orthodox churches had not. A revised Julian calendar was proposed during a synod in Constantinople in May of 1923, consisting of a solar part which was and will be identical to the Gregorian calendar until the year 2800, and a lunar part which calculated Easter astronomically at Jerusalem. All Orthodox churches refused to accept the lunar part, so almost all Orthodox churches continue to celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar (the Finnish Orthodox Church uses the Gregorian Easter). The solar part was only accepted by some Orthodox churches, those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria (in 1963), and the Orthodox Church in America (although some OCA parishes are permitted to use the Julian calendar). Thus, these churches celebrate the Nativity on the same day that Western Christians do, 25 December Gregorian until 2800. The Orthodox churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and the Greek Old Calendarists continue to use the Julian calendar for their fixed dates, thus they celebrate the Nativity on 25 December Julian (7 January Gregorian until 2100).

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See also

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External links

 
 

 



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