Julian-Gregorian calendar questions

[jflevin at MAIL.UCR.EDU]

At 06:42 PM 4/4/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> >>  But here is my
> >>question, were the days of the week the same in the Russian Empire
> >>and Europe?  If, for example, October 18, 1905 (New Style) fell on a
> >>Wednesday, was October 5 (Old Style) also a Wednesday?
> >
>
>Jules's Levin's question is not simple at all. I see two separate
>questions here:
There are two separate questions here, but I, Jules Levin, was not the
originator of the question, but only the first answerer.  I answered only
one of the questions.  That was, as I understood it, whether if the
Gregorian and Julian calendars disagree on the date of the month, do they
also disagree on the day of the week at any given time.  The answer is
no.  With the qualification that the time varies from Greenwich Mean Time
across the planet, so that a Tuesday segues into a Wednesday over 24
latitudinal intervals as the planet rotates, the day of the week is the
"same" everywhere that observes the 7-day week.  (There would be another
small hitch in that the Hebrew day changes at sunset, not at midnite...I
don't know about the Moslem day).  When it is Easter Sunday in Rome, it is
still Sunday, though ordinary, in Moscow, Tel Aviv, and Mecca, and Tokyo,
for that matter.
That's how I understood the original question.  But I realize now that
perhaps the questioner meant something else--naturally if the Julian
Calendar lagged behind the Gregorian by 13 days, a given date, e.g., May 1,
would fall on different days of the 7 day week.  When the lag extends to 14
days, this would not be true, but when it moves on to a 15 day lag, once
again May 1 would fall on different days.
The idea that the Julian is more accurate is a fantasy.  Eventually a
holiday tied to it will move into another season...I believe I once read a
mention in Chekhov (?) to the fact that some date--a Saint's day
perhaps--when something was supposed to happen, a tree to bloom perhaps, no
longer had this phenomenon.  In this respect the Julian is like the Moslem
calendar, so out of synch with the solar year that Ramadan moves through
the seasons within one lifetime.  The Hebrew calendar avoids this by
throwing in an occasional leap month--Adar 2---and is supposed to be even
more accurate than the Gregorian.
Jules Levin

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