Happy New Year - today is full of hope for a healthier, happier, more settled and more stable times. Today, we have had a grey day most unfitting for heralding a new beginning, but this afternoon, the skies are beginning to clear, just giving us a glimpse of better days ahead. Did you know 1 January wasn't always the beginning of the year ? The first time New Year's Day was 1 January was 45 BC , based on solar calculations instead of lunar cycles. As the Roman Calendar needed reform, Julius Caesar enlisted the experitse of an Alexandrian astronomer, Sosigenes, who advised ignoring the lunar cycle and recommended following the solar year, as did the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 46 B.C., making 45 B.C. begin on January 1, rather than in March. He also decreed that every four years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping...
Stories about creative experiences, people and places - art tutorials, observations and learning.