Today in History: The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2) on this day in 1752. The Gregorian calendar was decreed in 1582 in a papal bull by Pope Gregory XIII, to correct the erroneous assumption in the then-current Julian calendar that a year lasts 365.25 days, when in reality it is about 365.2422 days. Portugal, and the Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire were first to change to the Gregorian calendar. Thursday, 4 October 1582, was followed by Friday, 15 October 1582, with ten days skipped. Countries which did not change until the 18th century had by then observed an additional leap year (1700), necessitating the dropping of eleven days. Some countries did not change until the 19th or 20th century, necessitating one or two further days to be omitted from the calendar.
In England, Queen Elizabeth I considered adopting a Gregorian-like royal commission recommendation to drop 10 days from the calendar but she was opposed by the Anglican bishops, who argued that the Pope was undoubtedly the fourth great beast of Daniel, which led the Queen to drop the matter.
The Aztec calendar was more accurate than the Julian or Gregorian. The Aztecs had eighteen months in their year, each month containing twenty days, in addition to five extra days known as the barren days. In ancient Egyptian a year was 365 1/4 days. The early Chinese year was 354 days (lunar year)with days added at intervals to keep the Chinese lunar calendar aligned with the seasons. Early Greece had 354 days, with days added; the Jewish year had 354 days, with days added and the early Roman year was 304 days, amended in 700 B.C. to 355 days.
The Communists tried to make their own calendar. "Religion, Lenin felt, had to go—in every form. Even the seven-day work week was a problem. Lenin didn’t like the idea of people measuring time based on the Biblical story of creation or taking the Lord’s Day off, so he made his own calendar.It was called 'The Eternal Calendar.' It had five days in a week, six weeks in a month, twelve months in a year, and five bonus days scattered about. The bonus days were holidays, all of which had been ripped from their religious traditions and remade into celebrations of the party’s rise.It wasn’t nearly as eternal of a calendar as Lenin had dreamed, though. It didn’t take long before they added a sixth day, and then a seventh. Pretty soon, they were simply back on track with the rest of the world."~Mark Oliver
Speaking off religion, many of the days of the calendar week give tribute to pagan deities. Tuesday is named for the Norse god Tyr, Wednesday is named for the Norse god Wodan (Odin), Thursday is named for the Norse god Thor, Friday is named for the Norse goddess Frige (Freya), and Saturday is named after the Roman god Saturn. Sunday is named for the Sun, and Monday is named for the Moon. The word "Month" also comes from the word "Moon."
Your deck of cards also appear to represent the calendar:
The two colors represent night and day
The four suits representing the four seasons
The twelve court cards represent the 12 months
The thirteen values represent the 13 lunar cycles in a year
The 52 cards represent 52 weeks in a year
When you add up all of the values in a deck, using the Aces and the Joker as one, and the Jacks, Queens and Kings as eleven, twelve and thirteen respectively, you arrive at a total of 365.
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