|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 42
Men who could think and calculate saw how inconvenient this would be,
and what mistakes it would lead to. If the difference did not come to
much in their lifetime, they could see that it would come to a serious
error for other people some day. So Julius C�sar thought he would pull
the Clock and the Sun together by adding one day every four years to the
Clock's year to make up for the odd hours the Sun had been spinning out
during the three years before. The odd day was added to the month of
February, and that year (in which there are three hundred and sixty-six
days) is called Leap Year.
You remember the old saw--
"Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
February hath twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one;
_Except in Leap Year, at which time
February's days are twenty-nine_."
This is called the Old Style of reckoning.
Now I dare say you think the matter was quite settled; but it was not,
unfortunately--the odd day every four years was just a tiny little bit
too much, and now the Clock was spending more time over her years than
the Sun. After more than sixteen hundred years the small mistake was
becoming serious, and Pope Gregory XIII decided that we must not have so
many leap years. For the future, in every four hundred years, three of
the Clock's extra days must be given up, and ten days were to be left
out of count at once to make up for the mistakes of years past.
This change is what is called the New Style of Reckoning. Pope Gregory
began it in the year 1582, but we did not adopt it in England till 1752,
and as we had then nearly two hundred years more of the little mistake
to correct, _we_ had to leave _eleven_ days out of count. In Russia,
where our new Princess comes from, they have not got it yet. The New
Style was begun in England on September the 2nd. The next day, instead
of being called September the 3rd, was called September the 14th. Since
then we have gone on quite steadily, and played no more tricks with
either the Sun's year or the Clock's year.
I wonder what happened in the year 1752 to all the children whose
birthdays came between September the 2nd and September the 14th! I hope
their birthday presents did not drop through because his Majesty George
the Second had let eleven birthdays slip out of that year's calendar, to
get the Clock and the Sun to work comfortably together.
Now I think you will be able to see that in the next year after this
change, May-day was kept eleven days earlier in the Sun's year than the
year before; and it has been at an earlier season ever since, and
therefore in colder weather. May-day in the Old Style would have come
this year about the middle of the month; and as years rolled on it would
have been kept later and later in the summer, and thus in warmer and
warmer weather, because of that little mistake of Julius C�sar. At last,
instead of complaining that the May is not out by May-day, people would
have had to complain that it was over.
Now in the New Style we keep May-day almost in Spring, and, thanks to
Pope Gregory's clever arrangement, we shall always keep it at the same
season.
It is not always cold on a May-day even in the north of England. I have
a vivid remembrance of at least one which was most balmy; and, when they
are warm enough for out-door enjoyment, the early days of the year seem,
like the early hours of the day, to have an exquisite freshness
peculiarly their own. Then the month of May, as a whole, is certainly
the month of flowers in the woods and fields. Autumn is the gayest
season of the garden, but Spring and early Summer give us the prettiest
of the wild-flowers.
"Among the changing months May stands confest
The sweetest, and in fairest colours drest."
That fine weather is not quite to be relied upon for May-day, even in
the Old Style, some of the old May-day customs seem to suggest. In the
Isle of Man it was the custom not only to have a "Queen of May," but
also a "Queen of Winter." The May Queen was, as elsewhere, some pretty
and popular damsel, gaily dressed, and with a retinue of maids of
honour. The Winter Queen was a man or boy dressed in woman's clothes of
the warmest kind--"woollen hood, fur tippet," &c. Fiddles and flutes
were played before the May Queen and her followers, whilst the Queen of
Winter and her troop marched to the sound of the tongs and cleaver. The
rival companies met on a common and had a mock battle, symbolizing the
struggle of Winter and Summer for supremacy. If the Queen of Winter's
forces contrived to capture the Queen of May, her floral majesty had to
be ransomed by payment of the expenses of the day's festivity.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|