YEAR. The period in which the revolu tion of the earth round the sun, and the accompanying changes in the order of nature, are completed.
2. The civil year differs from the astro nomical, the latter being composed of three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty eight seconds and a fraction, while the former consists sometimes of three hundred and sixty five days, and at others, in leap-years, of three hundred and sixty-six days.
The year is divided into half-year, which consists, according to Coke, Litt. 135 b, of one hundred and eighty-two dale ; and quarter of a year, which consists of ninety-one days. Id. ; 2 Rolle, Abr. 521, 1. 40. It is further divided into tvrelve months.
3. The civil year commences immediately after twelve o'clock at night of the thirty first day of December, that is, the first mo ment of the first day of January, and ends at midnight of the thirty-first day of Decem ber twelve months thereafter. See Comyns, Annus; 2 Chitty, Blackst. Comm 140, n.; Chitty, Pract. Index, Time. Before the altera tion of the calendar from old to new style in England (see iltssExrun) and the colonies of that country in America, the year in chro nqlogical reckoning was supposed to com raence with the first dayof January, although the legal year did not commence until March g5, the' intermediate time being doubly in dicated: thus, February 15, I72f, and so on.
This mode of reckoning was altered by the statute 24 Geo. II. C. 23, which gave rise to pa act of ,asserubly.of.Penneylva,nia, passed March II, 1752; I Smith, • Laws, 217; con 'forming thereto, and also. to the repeal •of the act of 1710.
4. In New York it is enacted 'that when tver the term " year" or .".years" is or shall be nSed in ;any statute„ deed; verbal 'or' writ ten contract, or any public or pritate instru. no.ent whatever, the year intended shall be taken to donsiit of three hundred and :sixty fiVe . days ; half a year, of a hundred and eighty-two 'days ; and a' q.uarter of a year, df iiinety-two days ;. and .the. day of .a Map year, and the day inimediately preceding, if they shall 'occur in any period so to be coin pute,d, shall be reckoned together as one day. Rev. Stat. pt. 1, c.. 19, t...1,1 3.