In regard to the common year as it now stands, there are several things which it will be useful to remember. We can hardly forbear to quote the verses which are so constantly in use, but we will do it from a version of 1596, in an arithmetical work :— Third° dales hath September, April[, June, and November, Fcbruarie eight and twentie alone, All the rest thirtle and one.
The common year begins and ends on the same day of the week ; leap-year ends on the next day. Thus 1843, not being leap-year, ends on Sunday, as it began ; had it been leap-year, it would have ended on Monday. Many of those who call the year 52 weeks are hardly aware that it is 52 weeks and a day, or when leap-year, two days.
To find the day of the month without an almanac, it is very useful to know the first day in each month which has the same name as the first day of the year, as in the following list :— Thus in the year 1843 all the days just mentioned are Sundays, the same as the first day of the year. If these days could be connected by some decent doggerel, such as that already quoted, any one who remembers them would only have to bear in mind the name in the week of the first day of the current year, and would thus have a point to start from in every month.
Sinco the above recommendation was given, such verses as were asked for appeared in the ' Notes and Queries,' as follows :— " The first of October, you'll find if you try, The second of April, av well as July, The third of September, which rhymes to De:ember, The fourth day of June, and no other, renu mhtr, Tho fifth of the leap-month, of March and November, The sixth day of August, and seventh of May, Show the first of the year In the name of the day.
nut In leap-year, when leap_manth has duiy been reckoned.
These month dates will show, not the first, but the second." The Mohammedan year is one of twelve lunar months, of 30 and 29 days alternately, the last month, however, having 30 days in interealary years. To keep the months to the new moons, a cycle of thirty,years is used, in which there are eleven intercalated years, being of the cycle. This makes a very good lunar cycle : it supposes 10,631 days to be an exact number of lunations, which it is within about a hundredth of a day, giving an error of a day in 2500 years. Of course
the Mohammedan year is vague, its beginning retrograding through the different seasons of the solar year. The mode given in TURKISH Citnososoor does very well to determine the commencement, except that when the Christian year contains the commencements of two Mohammedan years, the rule will only give one ; the other, however, may easily be inferred. When the comparison of dates is to be very doge, no easy rule will be sufficient, and recourse must be had either to the list in the 'Art de verifier les Dates,' to the rule and supple mentary tables in the ' Companion to the Almanac' for 1830, or to a sufficient method in De Morgan's ' Book of Almanacs.' The year 1 of the Hegira begins from July 16, 622, and the year 1260 begins January 10, 181f. But from and after the year A.D. 1583 (991 of the I legirat the ' Art de verifier les Dates' gives two commencements for every year (the second twelve days later than the first), which are, it very far back In the middle ages ; If so, their year was better than the Gregorian.
says, according to the old calendar and the new one : no mention is made of this distinction, that we can find, in the introduction to that work, nor in other common sources. Our ' Nautical Almanac ' gives the commencements according to the new calendar.
The unwise attempt made by the French, during their first revolu tion, to alter the names and dispositions of the years and months, might now be quietly consigned to oblivion, if it were not that many excellent works bear the revolutionary dates upon their title pages, and political occurrences are frequently referred to them during the ;bort period of their florescence. The year I of this period was made to begin September 22, 1792 ; each period of four years, or Franciad, had an Olympic or bissextile at its end. The three omitted leap-years of the Gregorian correction were found by the same rule as before, rela tively to the years ending with 00 : and the 4000th year was not be leap-year. The year consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, with five sacred days at the end, dedicated to Virtue, Genius, Labour, Opinion, and Reward ; the bissextile day appropriated every fourth year to the renewal of the oath of liberty. For further detail see KALENDAR.