Comparing Julian and Gregorian Calendars in Modern Life

In everyday life, individuals function with a calendar. Calendars help organize daily events, special events, upcoming events, holidays, seasons, etc. Today in the United States the modern and common calendar that is used is known as the “Gregorian Calendar”. Previous to the Gregorian calendar, the “Julian Calendar” was used. Both calendars are similar in some ways as well as different in others, along with sharing some advantage and disadvantages to make one calendar more useful in today’s modern world. Gregorian Calendar

The “Gregorian Calendar” is currently the most internationally accepted calendar, (TimeandDate, 2013).

Other known names for the calendar can be known as “Western Calendar” and “Christian Calendar”. Pope Gregory XIII first introduced his findings of this new calendar in February of 1582, which the calendar was then named after him. The days of the calendar were put together strictly from a solar plan. The calendar has 365 days in the year that make up the 12 different months. Each of the 12 months is irregular in the number of days that each contain.

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Seven of the months hold 31 days, five of the other months have 30 days, and the month of February has the least amount of days being 28. Although the month of February composes of 28 days, every 4 years “Leap Year” occurs adding an extra day to the year making February have 29 days in the month. Every three months of the calendar the seasons change of the 20th day of the month. This calendar is the most constant and stable calendar at the moment. Julian Calendar Before the “Gregorian Calendar” was the “Julian Calendar” which also replaced the “Roman Calendar”.

One of the reasons it has been known that the “Roman Calendar” was replaced was due to how complicated it was. Previous to the “Julian Calendar” the “Roman Calendar” was known to be complicated with how to figure when the seasons should begin and what days should be kept or added. To help fix the problem, Julius Caesar worked with an astronomer by the name of Sosigenes to put together a calendar based more on the Sun and Earth. This calendar became known as the “Julian Calendar” which is rather similar to the calendar that is accepted and used today.

It has the commonly used 365 days of the year that are also divided into the 12 different months. Every four years, leap year occurred in one of the months just like it does in today’s calendar. Advantages and Disadvantages Between both calendars there are some advantages and disadvantages to how the calendars work. A disadvantage that others feel from the calendar is the days’ holidays may land on. Some holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving cannot be changed which can lead to them landing in the middle of the work week.

Holidays falling on days like this can prevent individuals from making plans to be around loved ones due to work or school schedules. Another disadvantage is the irregular days of the month. Not every month has the same number of days and sometimes it can interfere with a budget or the cost of life. However, an advantage is the way the calendar is setup. Seasons are always every three months no matter what and the holidays never change. This type of stuff is always guaranteed and cannot be changed. Most Useful in Modern Society Both calendars are really close in similarity.

In a way both calendars actually could be used in modern day society since individuals are so familiar with how both calendars work. However, since people are just more familiar with the term “Gregorian Calendar” and since this calendar is currently more up to date, the “Gregorian Calendar” would most likely be more useful in todays’ culture. Although there are many other types of calendars used in the world that can be compared to the “Gregorian Calendar”, this calendar has been found to be the most “internationally accepted civil calendar” of today, (TimeandDate, 2013).