History of Gregorian calendar

The calendar that we are currently using, came from a great evolution from early Roman
calendar. There is a theory that, Gregorian calendar is counted from the birth-year of Jesus
Christ. However, this is a huge misconception. There is no relation between Gregorian calendar
and Jesus’s birth. The history and evolution of Gregorian calendar is given below:

Calendar 01: Prehistoric Roman calendar

The original Roman calendar is believed to have been an observational lunar calendar whose
months began from the first signs of a new crescent moon. Because a lunar cycle is about 29.5
days long, such months would have varied between 29 and 30 days. Twelve such months would
have fallen 10 or 11 days short of the solar year; without adjustment, such a year would have
quickly rotated out of alignment with the seasons in the manner of the Islamic calendar. Given
the seasonal aspects of the later calendar and its associated religious festivals, this was
presumably avoided through some form of intercalation or the suspension of the calendar during
winter.

Calendar 02: Early Roman calendar (Till 713 BCE)

This calendar was established by Romulus according to Romans. They themselves described
their first organized calendar. This calendar is also called ‘the legendary 10 month calendar. It
had only 10 months with 304 months. This calendar was adjusted with both the Earth’s
revolution and lunar cycle. Resulting 31 and 30 days month. There were no month at the winter.
The calendar is given below:
Months Etymology Month no. Length
March Taken from Roman god of war ‘Mars.’ First month 31 days
Taken from Roman goddess of beauty
April Second month 30 days
‘Aphrodite.’
May Taken from Roman goddess Maia. Third month 31 days
Taken from Roman god of festival
June Fourth month 30 days
‘Juno’
Quintilis Taken from Roman word of ‘fifth’. Fifth month 31 days
Sextilis Taken from Roman word of ‘sixth’. Sixth month 30 days
September Taken from Roman word of ‘seventh’. Seventh month 30 days
October Taken from Roman word of ‘eighth’. Eighth month 31 days
November Taken from Roman word of ‘ninth’. Ninth month 30 days
December Taken from Roman word of ‘tenth’. Tenth month 30 days
Total 304 days

Calendar 03: Roman Republican calendar (713 BCE – 46 BCE)

This calendar was established by Roman King Numa Pompilius at 713 BCE. He cancelled the
early calendar as it was not following seasonal calendars. He added two months at the winter.
Those months are called January, taken from Roman god Janus and February, taken from
Roman god of purity, Februs. But the calendar was not 100% matching with seasonal cycle. So
he added a month of intercalary of 27 days. He made February of 23 days and 24 days in the
second and fourth year in a four year cycle in which the 27 days intercalary month was added.
This was first ever established leap year. The original calendar is 355 days long and leap year is
377 or 378 days long. He wanted a calendar of odd number days in each month and total odd
number days. So he made 30 day’s months as 29 days with January and February of 29 days. He
also made February 28 days in leap years. The calendar is given below:
Length in days
English Latin Meaning 1st y. 2nd y. 3rd y. 4th y.
nor. leap year leap
Mensis
1. January I. Month of Janus 29 29 29 29
lanuarius
Mensis
2. February II. Month of the Februa 28 23 28 24
Februarius
Intercalaris mensis
Intercalary month Month of wages - 27 - 27
(Mercedonius)
3. March III. Mensis Martius Month of Mars 31 31 31 31
4. April IV. Mensis Aprilis Month of Aphrodite 29 29 29 29
5. May V. Mensis Maius Month of Maia 31 31 31 31
6. June VI. Mensis Iunius Month of Juno 29 29 29 29
Fifth month (from
7. July VII. Mensis Quintilis 31 31 31 31
previous one)
8. August VIII. Mensis Sextilis Sixth month 29 29 29 29
Mensis
9. September IX. Seventh month 29 29 29 29
September
10. October X. Mensis October Eighth month 31 31 31 31
Mensis
11. November XI. Ninth month 29 29 29 29
November
Mensis
12. December XII. Tenth month 29 29 29 29
December
Total year
355 377 355 378
length

Calendar 04: Julian calendar (46 BCE – 1582 AD)

The Roman republic calendar was still not matching with seasonal cycle as it was equivalent to
Earth’s revolution. Then the responsibility to calculate the length of the intercalary month from
previous year was over priests. The priests were politicians also. So, they started to make the
length of intercalary month as their wish. This had made a huge problem. Julius Caesar was
traveled Egypt between 48 BCE to 46 BCE. After returning in Europe, he took the responsibility
of adjusting the calendar. He found the calendar was two months backward from seasonal cycle,
due to wrong calculation. So, he added two extra months of total 90 days in the year 46 BCE,
making the year 445 days long. For this the year 46 BCE is called ‘the last year of confusion’.
Later Julius Caesar adopted solar calendar taking inspiration from Egyptian 365 day’s long solar
calendar. He took Earth’s revolution period of 365 days 6 hours. He made all the month length
same as the Roman republic calendar 30-31 days months. But for adjusting 365 days, he made
August 31 days long later months 30-31 days transition and also February 28 days long. He
found by calculation that this calendar will be almost 24 hours or 1 day backward due of lack of
6 hours in the calendar. So he added a leap year in each four years. This the leap year system
that is currently in use.
This new solar calendar was Julian calendar. Before the establishment of Julian calendar,
Quintilis was renamed as July after Julius Caesar and Sextilis was renamed as August after
Augustus Caesar, the son of Julius Caesar in 8 BCE. The calendar is given below:
Months In normal year In leap year
January 31 31
February 28 29
March 31 31
April 30 30
May 31 31
June 30 30
July 31 31
August 31 31
September 30 30
October 31 31
November 30 30
December 31 31
Total 365 366

Calendar 05: Gregorian calendar (1582 – present)

Julian calendar was working well, season cycle was matching. But a new problem occurred in
1582. That time Pope Gregory XIII noticed that Julian calendar was backward of 10 days from
the last 1600 years. Because the Earth takes 365 days 6 hours 9 minutes and 10 seconds. The
lack of 9 minutes in each year caused lack of 10 days in last 1600 years. The Christian religious
days was gone 10 days backward. He thought if he push the calendar 10 days forward, it will be
again 10 gays backward after the next 1600 years. Then he found through calculation that if leap
years avoided in those who are divided by 100 but not are divided by 400 and if leap years are
kept in those who are divided by both 100 and 400 then the lack of 9 minutes in each year can
be fulfilled. So he kept that. Then in October 4, 1582 he proclaimed that the next day will
October 15 as he pushed the calendar 10 days. Though it was a controversial, it was accepted.
This new calendar is called Gregorian calendar.
It was accepted in British Empire in 1752, Japan in 1872, Korea in 1895, China in 1912, and
Greece in 1923. It is now an international calendar. Gregorian calendar still has a lack of 10
seconds in which it will lack about 1 day in 8640 years. There will be a new calendar in future
which will be a solved version of Gregorian calendar. Julian calendar now 13 days behind Julian
calendar.

Date difference:
Early Roman calendar: 3 October, 2774 (AUC)
Roman Republican calendar: 25 November, 2774 (AUC)
Julian calendar: 3 October, 2021 (CE)
Gregorian calendar: 16 October, 2021 (CE)
Early Roman calendar: 17 December, 2774 (AUC)
Roman Republican calendar: No date as there was month in winter.
Julian calendar: 17 October, 2021 (CE)
Gregorian calendar: 30 December, 2021 (CE)
The how Jesus become related to Gregorian calendar? It was a miscalculation by Christian
monk Dionysius Exiguus. He is the creator of AD or Anno Domini and BC or Before Christ. As
it is a misconception these are later renamed CE or Common Era and BCE or Before Common
Era.