The Historyof the Calendar Then and Now - Research Paper Example

Nevertheless, history reports that the Romans were the first to use the calendar. The Romans painted the calendar on their house walls (Timeline: Ancient Rome). Roman calendars were commonly called the fasti, which means a list of court sittings. The name calendar was from the word, “calendarium,” which originally meant a list of debts owed. The term relates to the word “kalendae or calendae,” which referred to the first day of the month when loans were issued and interest payments were due.

During the reign of Romulus, the Roman calendar consisted of ten months, and the number of days varied from twenty to thirty-five days. There was quite a mess in the use of the original Roman calendar (Timeline: Ancient Rome) in that they had no knowledge of the motions of the moon and the sun, and they knew that there were 360 days in a year. As such, they observed the so-called intercalary month to fill in the gap between the seasons. Moreover, according to Rupke (31) and the web site, Timeline: Ancient Rome, Numa was the first one to calculate the eleven-day difference between the lunar and the solar years, and he was the first to note that the moon completed its cycle in 365 days.

In addition, Numa was the one who added the two months, namely, January and February, and altered the order of the months, making March the third month instead of the first and January as the first instead of the eleventh month. Later on, the Julian calendar, which was designed by Julius Caesar, replaced the Roman calendar. All the months in the Julian system had either 30 or 31 days, except for February or Februalia, which had either 29 or 30 days depending on the leap year. July was named after Julius Caesar himself, and August took from the Octavian ruler, Augustus.

The latter made August consist of 31 days, thus taking one day from the month of February (Who Invented the Calendar We Have Today?). The Julian Calendar was used until 1582, when the Gregorian calendar replaced it. The Gregorian calendar that was designed according to Chrisian tradition is what is commonly used now in the West. This calendar was named after Pope Gregory XIII who approved it during his reign, whereas the calendar was originally designed by Aloysius Lilius. Lilius was an Italian astronomer, physician and chronologist from Ziro in Calabrio, Italy (Who Invented the Calendar We Have Today)?

He was fascinated by timekeeping and noted some problems with the Julian calendar, thus made his own version of it, and submitted for the approval of the pope. The Gregorian calendar corrects the mistakes of the Julian Calendar by adopting the four-year leap cycle. In the modern world, the calendar serves as an important material for keeping records or documentation in all fields such as education, business, government, and practically all human transactions. Almost every event requires the use of the calendar to calculate the length of time needed in every endeavor.

In the school, calendars serve various functions. In the field of education, calendars are used as an important tool for holding important reminders as for