Putting A Floor In A V Hull Boat

The Spanish are to blame for that the year begins January 1 and why this does not coincide with Christmas and Winter Solstice

Article extracted from: http://emosqueira.wordpress.com

Following the theme

deconstruction of the holidays we can ask what celebrate the night of 31 December to 1 January? Then it will be the beginning of the new year, that's clear. What is less clear is why the year begins on that date. What is special about January 1? The following vignette puts it well: absolutely nothing.

And if I told you the English are to blame for that year begins January 1 , read on and see the reason for this surprising conclusion, and other facts about the beginning of the year.

moment in the orbit of Earth around the Sun

There

a number of noteworthy points in the orbit of Earth around the Sun These items are solstices and equinoxes (which mark the beginning of the seasons), the perihelion (the point at which the Earth is near the Sun) and aphelion (the point at which the Earth is farthest from the Sun.) All of them are perfect candidates to mark the beginning of the year, the most logical are those that mark the beginning of the season. For example, academic courses start at about the end of summer and beginning of autumn. In the figure below details about the relationship between these points.

So why celebrate Happy Perihelion?

As we see in the image above none of the items listed in line with the new year. The one that comes close is the perihelion, which falls on January 3 (although it can vary each day depending on the year), so we can say Happy Perihelion ! and at least would have an astronomical meaning (and not happy new year which, deep down, does not mean anything.) However

perihelion actually has little effect on life on Earth. Vale are closest to the Sun, but the difference is minimal because the orbit of Earth but elliptical (drawn exaggerated form the majority of cases) is actually almost a circle. Earth is 147 million kilometers from the Sun at perihelion and 152 million km at aphelion. This difference only 5 million kilometers is invaluable to the daily life of Earth. The following image shows a little better as the orbit of Earth is nearly circular (design is shown in yellow). For this reason, although the Earth is closer to the Sun at perihelion in the northern hemisphere do not notice more heat, otherwise we are in winter.

also given the fact that perihelion coincides almost our time the new year and the winter solstice quite simply by chance. Due to the precession of the equinoxes perihelion position is touring schedule giving a complete return to it after about 26,000 years.

So what we celebrate the Winter Solstice Happy?

If the perihelion really little impact on daily life, the solstices and equinoxes actually do affect, mark the beginning and end of the season and we all know what that means (to keep the clothes from the beach Fall out jackets for example). In the winter solstice the Earth is in the position shown in the figure below, with the sun falling perpendicular on the Tropic of Capricorn, marking the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere (and summer in the southern hemisphere).

Any of the solstices and equinoxes would have marked a perfect start of the year, however, is not so, why? Why

year starting on 1 January?: The Roman consuls and Hispanic riots

As stated above the solstices and equinoxes mark suitable for describing a moment when the year begins. In times of Roman Republic, the consuls (top leaders) began his term with the arrival spring. It seems an appropriate time to mark the beginning of the year, life begins to be reborn and we have survived another year the harsh winter (for example the Babylonians also celebrated the start of the year with the arrival of spring). The Roman consuls were put in command of his legions expanding year after year domain throughout the known world.

must also be said that the Roman calendar of the time was a real chaos, initially had 304 days divided into 10 months (Martius, Aprilis, Majus, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December). Now you know it September, October, November and December so called, were the months 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the Roman calendar. The remaining days putting intercalary months were added from one year to another. It is believed that it was the legendary King Numa Pompilius who decided to add 2 months a year (and Februarius Ianuarius), but as the year was now only 355 days remained with occasional intercalary months. Furthermore, the count of years was carried out according to the time when consuls were put in charge of the republic, as we said was with the arrival of spring.

However, in the year 153 BC, something unexpected happens in conquest of Hispania (Spain) by the Romans. The Lusitano manage to defeat the Roman legions taking away their banners in battle (something truly humiliating to the Romans, who considered sacred). A revolt of the Lusitanian join other tribes, and the Celts Vetoni. The latter begin this year its long siege in the town of Numancia . The situation of Roma in Hispania was in a state of extreme precariousness. Rome needs to act quickly and, as appointing two new consuls Quinto Fulvio Nobilior and Lucio Mummius two and half months earlier than normal, ie early January. Later that

Date change became permanent, the new consuls went ahead from the beginning of January, why? probably because they considered most appropriate for the military campaigns to the consul that was taking place to prepare them in winter so that when you actually begin in March, had everything ready. Be any reason for the revolt in Hispania in the year 153 BC caused a change in the beginning of the consular year. In the figure we can see the progress of the Roman troops in the conquest of Hispania, as you see there was a triumphant and that cost them 200 years dominate (compared with 7 years of the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar).

Julius Caesar, the Julian calendar and New Year why not coincide with the solstice

In times of Julius Caesar the Roman calendar was still a mess, having to enter intercalary months from time to time so that the seasons always start on the same date, together with the fact that there was no fixed rule to indicate when to include these months, caused different kinds of abuses. Thus, the length of the year became a political issue and not astronomical, if you wanted to spend more time in office had no more than adding intercalary months As soon as you wanted.

Julius Caesar during his dictatorship, he decided to put an end once and for all this chaos and establish a calendar, the Julian calendar , which is not necessary to add intercalary months to synchronize with the seasons. Just had to add an extra day (leap year) every four years, making it so that the duration of the year was 365.25 days. In fact the year is 365.242189 days, so it was necessary to reform rather minimal (Gregorian calendar) to prevent successive gaps over the centuries. Julius Caesar also renamed the fifth month (Quintilis) putting yours, Augusto repeated something Sextilis month, hence the origin of the names of the months of July and August.

But after that Caesar would give many laps to calendar (46 BC lasted 445 days) why did not match on 1 January with the winter solstice? . The reason is not entirely clear, one possible explanation here point is it was probably that the idea of \u200b\u200bCaesar, but perhaps for superstitious reasons decided that the new year of the new calendar began with the new moon . Thus, the January 1 of year 1 AD was new moon, and the winter solstice was relegated to 24th December.

Christianity, circumcision of Christ and Christmas do not coincide with the solstice

The date of January 1 continued with the arrival of Christianity because they link well with the Christian tradition, remember that Jesus was a Jew, and when the society presented in a Jewish child is in his circumcision 8 days after birth. So Jesus would have been born the night of 24 to 25 December (winter solstice) and January 1 would mark the beginning of the new year coinciding with the day of the circumcision of Jesus .

And here we are another problem, Christmas today does not match the winter solstice, which falls a few days before (specifically on 21 December). Why this gap between Christmas and solstice? We said previously that the Julian calendar was inaccurate and caused a small gap over the centuries (in particular about three days every four years). Thus we come to Council of Nicaea held in 325 AD and convened by Constantine the Great in order to establish religious peace and to build unity of the Christian Church.

In times of Julius Caesar the solstice was on 25 December, but at the time of the Council of Nicea (almost four years later) it had already been delayed three days, with the winter solstice on 21 December and not coinciding with Christmas. Among other things, the Council decided the formula which calculated the date of Easter on these premises would be held on Sunday, not coincide with Passover and Christians should not celebrate the Passover twice in the same year.

It was therefore decided to refer to the equinox and indicate that Easter is celebrated the first Sunday after the full moon after the vernal equinox passed . As the equinox had been postponed until March 21 because of the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar this is the date passed to posterity as an indicator of the equinox when the calculation of Easter. As a curiosity to say that in 2011 Easter dates will be too late, particularly on Easter Sunday is April 24 (dates always vary between 22 March and 25 April). This is because the full moon falls on 19 March, just before the equinox, so we have to wait almost a month to the next full moon (April 18) being the day of resurrection the following Sunday (24 April).

Thus the Council of Nicea forever dissociated winter solstice Christmas. There was a chance to reunite with the reform was the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Since at that time the spring equinox error accumulated 10 days (happened on 11 March). Gregorian reform that error corrected 10 days (making the equinox back to being 21), but did not correct the error three days that accrued from the Julian Calendar institution and conclusion of the Council of Nicea (probably because The date of 21 March and was too established to change at this point).

Thus we see that the New Year and Christmas are linked to the winter solstice, but various causes have led to these dates diverge slightly with time being the solstice on December 21, Christmas on 25 December and New Year on January 1. Also remember that a revolt in Spain was the advance prompting the start of the year the winter solstice (displacing traditional spring equinox). Sources

: Most of the information and images from Wikipedia. Other sources are: 1 , 2 , 3 and 4