Calendar Factory Fired Me For Taking a Day Off 3 Quiz

Answer: There was never a year 0 on the calendar

There was never a "Year Zero" on the calendar. In about 525 A.D., the monk Dionysius Exiguus created the Anno Domini (A.D.) system to count years from what was assumed to be the birth of Jesus Christ. He labeled the year after 1 B.C. as A.D. 1, with no "year zero" in between.

This reflected ancient Roman numerals, which didn't have a zero at all, so, the order went: ... 3 B.C., 2 B.C., 1 B.C., A.D. 1, A.D. 2, A.D. 3, etc. That arrangement carried over into both the Julian calendar and the later Gregorian calendar.

The concept of a Year Zero is used in astronomy and ISO standards but does not exist in the standard historical calendar.

Answer: Julian adds a leap year every 4 years. Gregorian adds a leap year every 4 years, but skips leap years in years divisible by 100, unless they're also divisible by 400.

The Julian calendar simply added a leap year every 4 years, which made the average year slightly too long (365.25 days compared to the actual solar year of about 365.2422 days). The Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1582 AD, named after Pope Gregory XIII, who is credited with introducing it, although he did not come up with its system.

The Gregorian calendar improved the Julian system by following these guidelines: If the year is divisible by 4, it is a leap year, except if the year is divisible by 100, then it is not a leap year (e.g., 2100, 2200, 2300).

However, if the year is also divisible by 400, then it will become a leap year, (e.g., 2000, 2400, 2800). But even despite those specific rules, the calendar still drifts by about one day every 3,200 years.

Answer: The Roman calendar originally had only 10 months

The original Roman calendar (traditionally attributed to Romulus, c. 735 BC) had 10 months totaling 304 days. The months September, October, November, and December get their names from the Latin words for seven (septem), eight (octo), nine (novem), and ten (decem), because the Roman calendar originally started in March, making September the seventh month, October the eighth, November the ninth, and December the tenth. January and February weren't added until around 713 BC.

Answer: 14th century AD

The calendar's origins are likely older, with links to ancient Balinese rice harvest cycles. It administrates the timing of rituals, weddings, cremations, festivals, and daily activities in Balinese Hindu culture, including Galungan, Kuningan, and Saraswati. Its unique time structure consisted of a 210-day cycle of 30 weeks with 7 days in each. Its origin has links to the "King Watugunung" myth's teachings about universal order and ethical consequences. The calendar's structure features 30 weeks named after Watugunung, his mother, and the princes he defeated.

Answer: Aztec

The famous Aztec Calendar Stone, or Sun Stone, was carved in the 15th century, commissioned by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II. However, its system has roots going back possibly to ancient Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmecs of the 1st millennium BC.

The Aztecs dual calendar system consisted of a 260-day ritual calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar, based on astronomy. Cycles lasted 52 years, with rituals conducted at the end of each cycle to renew it. The Aztec Calendar Stone was buried by the Spanish in 1521 and rediscovered on December 17, 1790, during repairs to the Mexico City Cathedral.

It describes a system probably about 3,000-years-old. Its dual calendar system used a 365-day solar calendar (Xiuhpohualli), and a 260-day ritual calendar (Tonalpohualli).

Answer: Sweden

Sweden had a unique idea about making the switch to the Gregorian calendar; they planned to omit all leap days from 1700 to 1740 to gradually align with the Gregorian calendar. But the plan backfired when the Great Northern War was waged from 1700 to 1721, and Sweden...um...forgot to skip those leap days in 1704 and 1708, so now they had a calendar out of sync with both the Julian and Gregorian. So, in 1712 Sweden decided to simply put back in those two leap days to align their calendar with the Julian, so they ended up with 28 + 2 days in February.

A few decades later, Sweden converted to the Gregorian calendar by taking out the last 11 days of February 1753. So, for Sweden, February 30 existed in 1712.

Answer: Great Britain and its colonies

Prior to 1752, both England and Catholic countries like Italy, Spain, France, Poland, etc. viewed January 1st culturally as New Years Day. However, prior to 1752, England used March 25 (Lady Day) as the official start of its legal, civil, and ecclesiastical year from the 12th century onward, until 1752.
Most Catholic countries (France, Italy, Spain, etc.) officially adopted January 1st as the start of the legal year in the mid-to-late 1500s, often before or alongside the Gregorian calendar reform.

Answer: The French Republican Calendar

The French Republican Calendar, aka The French Revolutionary calendar, introduced in 1793, was an attempt to break with religious tradition by starting the year on September 22 and dividing months into 30 days with extra days at the end of the year. It was a solar revolutionary calendar that abolished the 7-day week, and replaced it with 10-day weeks called "décades." It also named days after animals, plants and tools instead of saints and gods, and gave months nature-based elemental names such as Brumaire (Foggy), Germinal (Seed), Floréal (Flower), Fructidor (Fruit), etc. It also had a 10-DAY WORK WEEK.

The calendar was abandoned after 12 years. I'm surprised not sooner.

Answer: 13 months

Auguste Comte's "Positivist Calendar" (Calendrier positiviste) had 13 months of 28 days each, plus an extra "dead" day at the end of the year. That's 364 days, with an extra "blank" or festival day added at the end of the year to reach 365 days. That festival day was to be dedicated to commemorating the dead, and it was not part of the normal monthly or weekly cycle. In leap years (every four years), a second extra day was added to honor "holy women."

Answer: The International Fixed Calendar

The International Fixed Calendar proposed in the early 1900s had 13 months of 28 days each for 364 days plus 1 extra "Year Day" (2 in leap years) outside the week cycle. Unlike Comte's calendar, this one caught on in the 1920s and 1930s, in the business and logistics world, as companies appreciated its consistency for accounting, statistics, and payroll, as every month was identical. In fact, the Kodak Company used this calendar internally for 62 years (1928-1989) because of its simplified accounting.