Calendar
Holidays and celebrations are a significant part of Christian religious practice. There are traditional holiday celebrations common to all believers, as well as cultural and regional events and activities. To fully appreciate the Christian faith, we should know something about the Hebraic customs and terminology. Christians' roots are deep in Judaism through Christ, all the way back to Abraham. (Gal. 3:29)
Below lists a few books that you can read explaining Hebrew thought:
- Ron Mosley (Yeshua: A Guide to Jesus and the Original Church)
- David Bivin and Roy Blizzard (Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus)
- Dr. Marvin Wilson (Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith)
- Dr. John Garr (Restoring Our Lost Legacy: Christianity's Hebrew Heritage)
- Robin Sampson (A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays)
The calendar below provides updates on major holidays typically celebrated by Jews and Christians alike as well as other observances. Our goal is to help people understand the purpose and meaning of such traditional celebrations; therefore, one can better appreciate the roots of Christianity. Clicking on the name will provide you further information on each observance represented.
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The Christian calendar originated in Rome and consists of years with 365 or 366 days. Two main versions include the Julian and Gregorian calendars. They determine the length of a tropical year and calculate Easter differently. The Julian calendar, consisting of 365 ? days per year, was created by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C. Every 4 years, 1 extra day is added resulting in a "leap year". Most countries currently use the Gregorian calendar which was adopted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.
The Roman Calendar
Before Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 45 B.C.E., the Roman calendar was a mess, and much of our so-called "knowledge" about it seems to be little more than guesswork.
Originally, the year started on 1 March and consisted of only 304 days or 10 months (Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December). These 304 days were followed by an unnamed and unnumbered winter period. The Roman king Numa Pompilius (c. 715-673 B.C.E., although his historicity is disputed) allegedly introduced February and January (in that order) between December and March, increasing the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. In 450 B.C.E., February was moved to its current position between January and March.
In order to make up for the lack of days in a year, an extra month, Intercalaris or Mercedonius, (allegedly with 22 or 23 days though some authorities dispute this) was introduced in some years.
The Julian Calendar
The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar (sculpture at right) in 45 B.C.E. Author David Duncan says the Julian calendar was born of Caesar's tryst with Cleopatra.
Before the Julian calendar was introduced, priests in the Roman Empire exploited the calendar for political ends, inserting days and even months into the calendar to keep the politicians they favored in office. Tired of the chaos that this undependable system eventually gave rise to, Julius Caesar finally set out to put the long-abused calendar back on track.
It was in common use until the late 1500s, when countries started changing to the Gregorian calendar (see the modern year). However, some countries (for example, Greece and Russia) used it into the early 1900s, and the Orthodox church in Russia still uses it, as do some other Orthodox churches.
In the Julian calendar, the tropical year is approximated as 365¼ days = 365.25 days. This gives an error of 1 day in approximately 128 years.
The approximation 365¼ is achieved by having 1 leap year every 4 years.
The calendar used throughout the world today is the Gregorian calendar which is sometimes called a "Christian" calendar.
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