Time
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Updated
April 21, 2008
It is not correct to say that there are 365 days in a year. A year is about one
fourth of a day longer than that. There are 365.24219878 days in a year. By the
year 46 B.C. that little bit of time had accumulated, and it became a problem.
Julius Caesar added on the balance and had a year of 445 days. It went down in
history as "The Year of Confusion" (Some of us would have to say that
many years in our lives could be called that!) The Mayans and Aztecs simply
declared that those extra days didn't exist.
Augustus, who succeeded Julius Caesar, took some days from February and added them to the month named for him, August. But by the year 1582 some more days had accumulated. Pope Gregory decreed that the days between October 5 and 15 of that year should disappear. Imagine losing ten days! But then some have lost a lot more time than that.
Eventually leap year was devised to solve the problem. Of course, the problem is not with time itself, but only with the ways we measure time. However we measure time, we know it is temporary. Certainly we must be concerned with time, but we must be more concerned with eternity.
Augustus, who succeeded Julius Caesar, took some days from February and added them to the month named for him, August. But by the year 1582 some more days had accumulated. Pope Gregory decreed that the days between October 5 and 15 of that year should disappear. Imagine losing ten days! But then some have lost a lot more time than that.
Eventually leap year was devised to solve the problem. Of course, the problem is not with time itself, but only with the ways we measure time. However we measure time, we know it is temporary. Certainly we must be concerned with time, but we must be more concerned with eternity.