Calendar

  Have you ever thought of how much we use our calendar or what our lives would be like without it?  Well thanks to the ancient Egyptians we don't have to. The need for the calendar first came about when the Egyptians realized that the lunar calendar ¨the older of the two calendar systems¨(Egyptian Calendar Dating System) was falling out of sync with the seasonal holidays. The cause for the lunar calendar to fall out of sync was that it did not incorporate leap years to account for the solar year being approximately a quarter of a day longer than the 365 day calendar.¨Egyptians recognized the need for a more practical calendar around 2773 BCE and established the standard civic calendar(Egyptian calendar Research Starters).

¨The first calendar made by the Egyptians consisted of a circle of stones made by shepherds and gatherers¨.(Historical Overview of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar). The stones made from the first calendar were used to reveal the Zenith pass on the Summer Solstice. These calendars were later replaced with Nile based calendars. Nile based calendars were used to primarily schedule the planting and harvesting of crops based on the Nile's annual flooding. ¨Nile based calendars were then rendered useless¨.

(Some open questions on the Egyptian calendar). The basis of the 365 day part of the calendar ¨might have been established from simple astronomical observations¨. (Some open questions on the Egyptian calendar).The later Civic calendar developed by the Egyptians ¨consisted of 12 months of 30 days, and three seasons of four months, or 120 days each¨(Ancient Egyptian Astronomy).The Civic calendar was the calendar the Egyptians used the most and decided to keep as their standard calendar.

¨About 600 BC Thales of Miletus introduced the Egyptian year of 365 days to the Greeks¨(The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar). The adoption of the calendar by the Greeks influenced astronomy, the Zodiac, and the practice of aligning temples with celestial events. Later when the Greeks were conquered by the Romans, the Romans made innovations to the calendar and called it the Julian calendar which is the calendar we base our calendar  off of today

The ancient Egyptian calendar is very important because it laid the foundation for many calendars we use today. The calendar we use today is the Gregorian calendar which is based on the Egyptian Civic calendar. Without the calendar we would not be able to organize important dates and meetings, so thank the Egyptians for you being on time to read this.