STAR HUSTLER REVEALS:

True Meanings Of The Seasons

"Happy RamaHannaKwanzMas"

by Kevin J. Walker, The New Star Hustler

thewordnetpaper @ excite dotcom

Science on the NetPaper

We have the custom of celebrating many things of which we have lost the knowledge of their ancient origins. These rituals, seasonal celebrations and other calendar conundrums will be explored in this latest of occasional articles on things astronomical and historical. We also explore the evolving new holidays such as Kwanzaa which is starting to spread on a global scale from humble beginnings in southern California in 1966 by Professor Maulana Ron Karenga.

"Christmas Eve Eve" is already evolving into a minor holiday of its own as the drive to celebrate any and everything takes hold of the populace from October to January. A caller to Milwaukee's 1290 WMCS -AM Friday morning show with Cassandra Cassandra and Keith Murphy made a new contribution to the lexicon when "G" grouped them all together, and wished everyone a "Happy RamaHannaKwanzMas."

"G" thereby was incorporating the holidays of the Muslim month of introspection and deprivation of RAMADAN; the Hebrew HANUKKAH; the newly created African Descended Middle Class post Christmas to New year's day celebration of KWANZAA; and ending with Christmas. So everyone is accounted for except the Asian celebrations, and the Hindus. And the North and South Native American Continent. And of course the Inuits of the Arctic Circle. Did I forget anybody?

This article was already being typed when the local news had a bit about a Wisconsin state legislator who wanted to financially punish school systems who ordered books using the now accepted designation of BCE for "Before Common Era" instead of BC for "Before Christian" era. I would direct the Distinguished Gentleman to a Hebrew calendar, where it is in the year of 5700-something, or the Asiatic or Hindu or South American tribal calendars which all are older than the Christian era ones. Which incidentally were actually created by Roman pagans!

The New Star Hustler title I’ve appropriated while astronomical writing under Brotha Science was taken from the name once used by fellow Wisconsinite Jack Horkheimer, the original Star Hustler and the director of Florida’s Space Transit Planetarium. He is the fellow you might see at the sign-off times of local Public Broadcasting affiliates in three minute talks about astronomy.

I always found his talks informative, and used them when I started to talk to school children and during my retreat trips with CAMP TJ PEACE, the Father Son Weekends we hold in Western Wisconsin every September that were organized after the Million Man March.

Out there by the Mississippi river in the Blackhawk recreational district we can see the Milky Way in all its glory; spot a few meteors or satellites as they streak across the night sky; talk about the constellations that were originally named by our African Descended forebears.

Now they bear the Greek, Roman, and Arabic names from those who eagerly studied at their feet and absorbed their accumulated wisdom from establishing civilizations on the planet millennia before, no matter the continued propaganda of those who try and say it was begun in Mesopotamia, now Iraq. (Generally, things that are older have been around for a longer time. Since the artifacts from Northeast Africa, not to speak of those farther south near Ethiopia, are far older than those of storied Babylon, then logic dictates that they were first).

For a real treat at Camp TJ Peace we point out the sacred star of SIRIUS, whose annual rising in the African southern sky was important to civilizations that were barely known and as ancient to those we call “Egyptians,” the Greek name for the KEMETANS of Northeast Africa who schooled the Greeks, Arabs, and Romans who copied their science, art, medicine and architecture.

This included the HEBREWS who during their nomadic residency before leaving the northeast part of the African continent were exposed to the Kemetan religion and fused it with their own during their sojourn in their new Middle Eastern "Promised Land" (NOT their Ancestral Land) that became the basis for their collection of books, letters and lectures we call the OLD TESTAMENT of The Bible, later followed by the NEW TESTAMENT of The Bible. All fourteen major ones or so of them, over some 6,200 years and re-written and edited by hundreds of people in over half a dozen languages and dialects.

The New Star Hustler articles will from time to time be issued when there is news of astronomical interest. Like now, when we have the late December Winter Solstice, which some like to call Christmas.

This season is like most old holidays based on the stars and the seasons. By the time of late December the lengthening days have reached the Northern climes, whose harsh winter guaranteed they’d celebrate its passing! A variety of cultures devised various ways of noting the seasons change and the coming Spring, which is why the Holiday of CHRISTMAS/ YULETIDE/ NOEL /SOLSTICE has so many different traditions and symbols.

Because the Solstice celebration is so old and incorporated so many cultures most of the symbols are agriculturally and PAGAN BASED. There is the EVERGREEN TREE, the Yule Log, Mistletoe, Holly Wreaths, and more. The Evergreen Tree is a strong symbol and is based on the power of something in nature to not only survive the brutal northern winters, but be green, to thrive, and even bear its fruit in the form of cones! This made it well deserving to be made into a symbol for life in the Solstice season.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

There are personal symbols as well, and not just the one you're thinking of who was a latecomer, and drafted into the role.

They include SAINT NICHOLAS, an historical and different person than the mythical one called FATHER CHRISTMAS with whom he was later merged. This was a white bearded figure who was originally inspired by the NORSE GOD ODIN, from whence we get the day of Wednesday, or WODIN’S DAY originally. Incidentally, on our calendar Thursday was THOR’S DAY, after Odin's son, the God of Thunder, analogous to the Greco-Roman god Vulcan, and from where we get the word "Volcano." His wife FREYA gave her name FREYA'S DAY for our FRIDAY, but these Anglo-Saxon heritage markers of the week days are beside our present discussion.

Except for one, which is SATURDAY. This was named for the deity whose ribald drunken Solstice Festival of SATURNALIA which became our Christmas season, and who also gets a planet and even a ZODIAC SIGN. It is ironic when I hear or read of people who decry the "commercialism," carousing and merry-making of the two-and a half month span that now seems to start just before HALLOWE'EN and go into early January.

"JESUS is the Reason for the Season" they rhyme. Uh, NOPE. Actually, the partiers are the only ones beholding to the true origins of this season, and celebrating the breaking of Winter's cruel grip, the lengthening of days, and the promise of Spring. Our ancestors -- well, their ancestors -- organized their lives around the opportunity for farming within a span from roughly March to October. If you'll notice there aren't that many major holidays in that time span. People were way too busy making sure they wouldn't starve!

But this is why our present Western calendars are a cultural and historical and linguistic mosaic, with Roman months based on the 28 day Lunar cycle ("MOONTHS" they were called originally but that was too hard to say, not to say weird); NORSE WEEK DAYS; and Day/Night cycles that aren't really 24 hours long (23 hours 56 seconds, which varies) which means the seconds that pile up have to be put somewhere and so the LEAP YEAR was created. The extra seconds make a whole day in a four year period, so they then are tucked away in the month of FEBRUARY which was shortchanged and could use a few more.

But the increasing diversity of American society means we will have further churning of the cultural calendarial pot. We have Buddhists, Muslims, Wiccans and what have you. And they all have their Holy Days.

KWANZAA INCORPORATES AFRICAN, AMERICAN TRADITIONS

The African Descended educated Middle Class in America have devised another holiday, and it is increasingly being clasped to the bosom of even European Descended Americans who are only too happy to have another reason to party and celebrate. Their merchants also are happy to advertise for Kwanzaa with print, radio and television spots, because it is set to capitalize on post-Christmas sales by starting on the day after Christmas and lasting six days, so it culminates on New Years eve. This holiday truly was designed, and didn't evolve over time. We are close enough to know the date, and the people involved. You could talk to them now in fact.

The post Christmas to New year's day celebration of Kwanzaa was designed by PROFESSOR MAULANA RON KARENGA of southern California as an embodiment of his Black Capitalism initiative in the late 1960s. Also called the celebration of FIRST FRUITS, it is taken from the post-harvest feasts from African tribes and married with

Kwanzaa highlights for six days various communal building qualities such as FAITH, CREATIVITY, PURPOSE, UNITY, SELF-DETERMINATION AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, and expressed in one word KwiSwahili terms. A few of them are:

• Imani = Faith,

• Nia = Purpose.

• Kujichacalia = Self Determination

• Kummba = Creativity

• Harambee = Unity

The six day span is geared toward the young and around the family, with the idea of simple gifts being exchanged. This isn't lasting too long in an era of plastic and electronic cash transfers, and "simple, inexpensive gifts" for some Buppie families is different for others. And make no mistake about it, this Kwanzaa drive is largely a two-parent family, college educated, middle class middle income phenomenon which has transited beyond the African Descended in America.

The main generator of Kwanzaa in Milwaukee is Clayborn Benson, who oversees the Wiscionsin Black Historical Society and Museum. Clayborn as he is called helps administer the Kwanzaa celebration which in Milwaukee has been ongoing for over 30 years. He reports that they have received calls from as far away as India on information so they can establish their own Kwanzaa celebrations.

WATCH NIGHT FROM EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

Another New Old tradition that is coming back is WATCH NIGHT. I hadn't heard of this except in passing from readings, but the idea has a great deal of appeal even to party-hungry people who may be too pooped to party after almost two and a half months of seasonal celebration that is increasingly bereft of any cultural context.

Abraham Lincoln threatened to free the enslaved African Descended (but only in the rebellious states of the Confederacy) with the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which would take effect on the following New years Day.

The news spread like wildfire through the Confederacy, which was the intended effect. Laying down their buckets where they were, and causing economic dislocation throughout a war-weary South, they gathered on New years Eve to bring in the era of their freedom. Who wanted to be asleep during the hours counting down to their liberty?

So the tradition of Watch Night came about, which was a gathering of families and communities to bear witness to the historic moment. The desire to compare themselves to the ancient Hebrews during their mythical captivity in Egypt and the connection to Hanukkah and the lamplights cannot be completely ignored.

This tradition of Watch Night is starting to come back, slowly and with nothing near the acceptance of Kwanzaa which is far more elaborate. I spent a Watch Night with a group here in Milwaukee a few years ago. I was all dressed to go out and party, I had just stopped in for a bit to gather some notes for an entertainment article. But I was drawn into their discussions of history, social issues, and present politics.

There were groups of kids playing and being entertained off to the side but within eye and -earshot of the adults, and there were dishes of home cooked meals that were continually being brought through by the mothers of the neighborhood. It was a too brief taste of the way things used to be before we went off track and started to spiral downwards as a people. But I digress.

RAMADAN is making more headway in America because of the rising numbers of Muslims in America, both from immigration and conversion. Because like Hannakuh its also based on the phases of the Lunar cycle, Ramadan can come in December or in November, and lasts a Lunar Month which is 28 days from the first sightings of the slim crescent moon that is prominent on Muslim flags, which is why during the Shock and Awe phase of the Iraq war some were saying America shouldn't be bombing over in Muslim lands during that time.

Of course, the month long Ramadan holiday season never stopped Muslims from attacking other nations or each other over the ages, as in the case of the multiple year Gulf War between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. The astronomical connections and contributions of the Muslims is the basis for another Star Hustler article, such as just what is in the KA’BAA, that big black box in the center of MECCA? People who studied science and history know what it is. But I digress.

WICCANS AND DRUIDS from the Emerald Isles and the Northlanders would as many other cultures on Terra also use Luna as their reliable calendar. Ireland and places like Norway and such are so near the ARCTIC CIRCLE that the Sun would either gone below the horizon or be standing in the sky for months, or as the case of Ireland the sun stays up ‘til almost Midnight. Not for nothing is Alaska’s motto "the Land of the Midnight Sun." The companion planet we call our Moon has a 28 day cycle, which was more dependable for some people. The female oriented Wiccan belief system, which was worshipful of MOTHER EARTH, saw that the Lunar cycle seemed connected to the FEMALE MENSTRUAL CYCLE, which because of TIDAL ACTION it is, but that’s way, way from the focus of this article, or even the series. So much to get to, so little time!

MICHAELMAS, AND TWELFTH NIGHT

A lesser known European holiday is MICHAELMAS, also called the Feast of The EPIPHANY. This is in early January and originally named for the ARCHANGEL MICHAEL, promoted to being now third in line after the casting out of LUCIFER, THE CHILD OF LIGHT, the Morning Star and among the angels the most favoured of YAHWEH. This was another example of Catholic Church superimposition. Early January is when the Sun's position as seen from from the Northern hemisphere -- which incidentally is where most of the land mass and hence most of the planets population -- starts to see the daylight really emerge from the winter Stasis as it starts to swing back around the Sun. Ironically, at the Winter Solstice point the Earth is at its closest to the Sun!

YHWH is as it was originally depicted we spelled out YAHWEH -- we can guess because some languages, such as the Egyptian didn't write out vowels which is where the mouth parts do not touch during speech. Anyway, Lucifer, the Light Bringer/Child of Light got booted out of Heaven for rebellion, trying to stage a coup against the Almighty (which may yet be ongoing). Not for that Fruit of the Tree of Life thing, that happened after. He doesn't get any holidays that regular people celebrate.

The TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS actually follow Dec. 25. It's true! Look it up. If Shakespeare hadn't named one of his lighter romantic comedy plays "TWELFTH NIGHT" this connection might have been even further lost to the hearts and minds of Humanity. It was a bigger holiday in his time, but don't tell anybody or they'll bring them back. I heard that there was a Santa somewhere around Hallowe'en who had a suit that was black and orange instead of red and white. Now that's pushing it a bit.

Some common calendars were still listing Michaelmas well into the 1980s. A comprehensive one may still show it, like a business or Secretary pocket datebook that includes Jewish, Canadian or European holidays for travelers or commercial use where you'd have to know other culture’s off days.

The date of December 25 has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, either the Biblical or historical one. It's been known by historians as well as theologians for a long time that the historical Jesus was probably born somewhere around mid-September, because the census and taxes were levied after the harvest time that found JOSEPH and his pregnant wife MARY on the road as they reported to what amounted to their county seat. So were lots of others, hence no room at the inn.

The year is 2006, and by custom it was keyed to the date from the supposed birth of Jesus or YESHUA THE NAZARENE, who was crucified because he opposed the oppressive rule of the occupying Romans, and the get along, go along of the Hebrew preachers and community leaders. One would also think the historical date of the Cruci Fiction should have been fixed, so memorable would it have been in the minds of the people of the region. Yet Easter, the most solemn of Christian holidays has no set date. because it wasn't based on an actual event. More on that in a bit.

Not even noted at the time was the actual birth of the troublemaker who so upset the Roman overseers of the Palestine region, and the Uncle Tom Sellouts of his own people who tried to get along with the empire’s henchmen such as Pontius Pilate. This left open a date for the Catholic Hierarchy to plug in to get rid of another Pagan ritual day.

Historians have retraced the time of the historical Jesus/Yeshua’s birth, and came up with a time about six to eight years before the commonly accepted time. In other words, the birth of the person known as the Christ was around 6 or 8 BC! The various dates of Jesus’ birth was basically made up by committee over hundreds of years to reconcile the inaccuracies and contradictions as the Christian bureaucracy grew with the religion’s spreading popularity.

WHAT THREE KINGS? SHOW US THE MONEY

Newspapers and such also trot out annually the story of what was the “Star of Bethlehem,” which irks astronomers and stargazers since there was no such star, hasn’t been, and nobody else in the world seemed to have seen it and written it down or drew it. It was apparently an astrological conjunction, with stars and planetary arrangements that foretold of a great happening. So the star was not a visible star in the sky at all. Remember this when around Christmas time when they bring out that tired old "Three Wise Men/Three Kings following the star of Bethlehem” story yet again.

And as I asked in the http://Blackwebportal.com/wire story about the new Pope B-16, what happened to all the loot and Bling Bling they brought to honour the Baby Jesus? Frankincense and Myrrh is some valuable stuff, let alone the gemstones. His family, although it is not historically supported that they were poor, still could have used it since Jesus wasn’t an only child. Which is something whose implications are used by Dan Brown in “The DaVinci Code” as well!

They’d taken over for the fallen Roman Empire, becoming the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages. They changed the Gospels, rewrote His Story, and put in the Bible all sorts of magical Medieval things and propaganda. The Three Kings story, for one.

If there ever was such a trip -- and rich, powerful kings leaving their lands was always a big deal with retinues, guard soldiers, and a throng of others times three -- if the family in Bethlehem kept even so much as one of the trinkets they’d been offered to commemorate the King of Kings birth, don’t you think:

• Number One: someone would have cataloged the goods, and the trip being noted on both ends in their historical archives; and

• Number Two: the family of Mary and Joseph, in the city of Nazareth would have been living phat for the rest of their lives if they’d only kept the empty boxes of the precious spices they’d been given, let along any one of the valuable jewels.

Not only that, but the upbringing of the child would have been duly noted had he come under such attention of other rulers, and not lost to history. There wouldn’t have been the colossal gap between a highly suspect Virgin Birth, and then bursting full blown on the scene some 32 years later as a Rabbi and community activist and speaker, and tweaker of the Powers That Be.

NO FOOD STAMPS AT THE LAST SUPPER

The idea that Jesus and the Apostles were poor was itself a myth. The Last Supper wasn’t paid for with food stamps. And check out their clothes, and their lifestyles. That took money, and plenty of it. But the myth of poverty was instituted in the Medieval years to make Christianity more palatable to the peasantry. It is not specified that the family of Jesus was poverty stricken, or that he himself as a wandering preacher was poor when he was going about with his retinue of 14 men and women who all had to be housed, fed, and otherwise provided for. These things cost money, even back then.

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” in their poverty was the message because they’d live better in the Afterlife while the bureaucracy socked away much loot from faraway lands of discovery. Later, Christianity by hand-picked preachers would be pushed upon African Descended slaves in the Americas to make them comfortable in their enslavement, but that’s another article too.

Adding to our calendar confusion is that there was a gap from Yeshua was born and when his teachings were accepted, after he was slain for standing up and got smacked down by the Romans. This is about 32 years, so we can throw that into the mix. So when the calendar was made it now says that our year is 2006 A.D, or ANNO DOMINI, Latin for "In The Year Of Our Lord." Give or take 32 years, and another 8 years or thereabouts from the birth snafu earlier noted, and you can see why historians prefer BCE, Before Common Era.

Of course there are other calendars people followed, and this caused some friction as the transition was being made. Local kings also put their stamp on things, so it was noted that “the Comet messenger appeared in the night sky during Good King Such-A-Much’s fourteenth year of his illustrious reign,” as if we’d know what that is thousands of years later!

CRUCI FICTION, AND RESURRECTION. WHEN’S THE DATE?

The CruciFiction was a defining moment, but it was not well-defined enough to become a fixed date in history. This had an effect on the establishment of what is supposed to be the most important holiday of the Christian faith, but it didn’t work out very well.

MO’ HOLIDAYS, MO’ BETTA!

The early Church tried in vain to get the populace to stop celebrating the old Pagan holidays and ways with little success. When they instituted their own competing holidays it only doubled the off days for the peasants, and that was all good!

Then, they hit upon the one idea that worked, but it would take centuries: the Catholic Church just put the holidays right on top of the old Pagan ones, patiently knowing that they would in time whither away and the original meanings become lost to the hearts and minds of Humanity. This is the reason there are so many different symbols for the Easter and Christmas holidays, from the patchwork of nations and Pagan societies from the lands that were converted from the British Isles to the Middle East.

THANKSGIVING is an agrarian feast time when the peasants all around the northern hemisphere got their grub on from the harvest. In Canada and the United states it still has linkages to the aboriginal Native American roots of the original inhabitants and cultivators of the land.

But the sinister WALPURGIS NACHT or Night, now called Hallowe'en was the original New Year's Day in central Europe until the calendars were standardized under the Roman Empire. This is why our months are mostly either Latin number names (October equals the original eighth month, until two more were added, throwing off the count) or named after Roman gods or emperors, such as July for Julius Caesar, and August for Augustus Caesar.

EASTER (Once spelled something like EOSTRE, supposedly Persian or Sumerian) was originally the rebirth not of a resurrected Jesus from his tomb, but of the Earth once again into life-giving Spring, and the returned fertility of the planet. That's why the symbol for Easter is the EGG, for the potential of life. The Bunny Rabbit symbol from around Syria is the sexual and fertility component the pagans desired for their land after the harsh death-dealing winter months. So well known is the symbol that Hugh Hefner used it for the logo of his PLAYBOY magazine.

Easter is an old, old pagan Earth/harvest/nature/fertility worshipping holiday based on the Moon's Lunar cycle, which is why like Ramadan and Hanukkah Easter doesn't have a set date; it moves around from March to April.

Remember as kids during Easter when you thought it was odd for the mixture of RABBITS AND EGGS? Rabbits didn't lay eggs; we were only kids but we were pretty sure of that. Then we dismissed it, grew up, taught our own kids about the TOOTH FAIRY and Father Christmas, and that LEE HARVEY OSWALD Killed President John F. Kennedy, and moved on with our lives.

There is a connection to Easter of the May pole celebration, which is a CROSS QUARTER DAY. The four Equinoxes and Solstices were further divided, with May 1st between March 21 and the summer Solstice on June 21. The peasants were all for that as they had more time off from tilling and hoeing the land. Most of the Cross Quarter days have vanished, but the annual May Day celebration remains, after being softened from having maidens parade butte-naked around a giant phallus, hoping to be made a fertile wife for the young men of the nearby villages, or nightly group sex in the crops to infuse them with fertile power.

This ancient beginning is also why there is no original connection of the Easter holiday to Christianity at all. If it was based on an actual event the date would be set, like the Fourth of July or Valentines Day. Or GUY FAWLKES DAY in England, named for the rebel who tried to blow up their Parliament a few hundred years ago. Hmm. This must be a British thing. It would be like the United States making a holiday for Benedict Arnold. But I digress.

The Cruci Fiction would have been a date that was marked, and easily determined since it occurred under the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire. Like the Nazi regime or the Spanish Conquistadores, tyrannical empires are notorious for their record keeping. PONTIUS PILATE’S people would have noted the occurrence, such as the work detail that was needed in an occupied land with other rabble rousers who would pop up from time to time, to be smacked down.

And surely the HEBREW SAGES would take note, they who chronicled everything such as whom begat whom, although they didn’t much care for the mouthy heretic who was stirring up the people and threatening their rule, even under Roman occupation.

The HISTORICAL JESUS is mentioned sneeringly in their chronicles, but his name of course wasn't Jesus, which is actually an ACRONYM which isn't very complimentary to him. This is aside from the fact that the letter "J" which because its descended from the letter sound "I" used to be dotted, didn't even exist until about 4 hundred years ago. This fact was included in the most excellent movie "Indiana Jones In The Temple Of Doom" where they had to solve a riddle or off with their heads!

Following the destruction of the TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM in the continued unrest in the Roman Empire's SINAI GOVERNORATE following Jesus/Yeshua's state sanctioned execution the Romans were killing up everybody they could get their hands on. THE APOSTLES were high up on their Death List, so they got out while the getting was good. Except for poor SIMON, the fisherman who was RENAMED PETER.

Many of the other Hebrew refugees relocated in far-off GREEK ISLANDS the Romans couldn't touch such as SANTORINI, then named THIRA; and PATMOS, where the BOOK OF REVELATIONS was written. During a trip to the Mediterranean I stayed in Santorini for awhile, and the remnants of the exploded volcano that dominates the western horizon could only have inspired the otherworldly visions depicted in one of the most influential of the Books of the Bible. Santorini (once named for the Italian invaders for ST. IRENE, now over the centuries with a corrupted pronunciation) and its explosive volcano was also the main inspiration for the ATLANTIS MYTH.

That’s for another article too, on the MINOAN CIVILIZATION on the Isle of CRETE. Their black rock ruins dot the landscape all over the islands of the Aegean and Cycladean seas, nobody even bothers to put a fence around most of them, and I walked through them freely during my sojourn as the Travel Griot.

[Question: would that make them Cretans?]

APRIL FOOLS GET DISSED BIG TIME

The beginning of the year was originally set by custom after the date when the days started being longer than the nights. This is just past the Spring Equinox, when the day and night are now of equal length. It took a while for this to be apparent in the Northern Hemisphere, so the custom became April First, about 7 or 8 days or so after the Equinox of what we now call March 22. (This is also why the Winter Solstice celebration is December 25 and not the 21st or 22nd).

The Roman Empire fell from within and after continued southern attacks from CARTHAGE, or northern Africa, near about where modern day Tunisia and Libya; as well as northern Barbarian attacks from the Germanic tribes of Saxony. The Saxons invaded the old Angle-land, or England, and became the ANGLO-SAXONS, but that’s another article for the big pile.

But one thing the Romans left of abiding usefulness is a fairly cohesive calendar, which only needs a bit of tweaking every four years or so. When the new calendar was instituted by the Holy Roman Church a couple of new months were kept that were added at the beginning of the year and the middle for a couple of emperors, which threw off the neat Ten Month calendar.

But it worked out better this way anyway, unlike trying to squeeze in 365 days for 360 degrees, which already was tried by the BABYLONIANS who had a thing about circles. Twelve months can be divided by 2,3,4,5,6,8,10, and 12. Not so for a Ten Month Calendar, which had to have many holidays to make the weeks come out straight, and a strong central authority to enforce universal compliance, which the Romans were and could. Until their final fall in 476 CE, when they tired of the ceaseless barbarian onslaughts and relocated the Roman empire's capital East to CONSTANTINOPLE, the opening of the Bosporus Sea, now the Caspian Sea in present day Turkey. This also meant the establishment of another competing church, the EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH, but that's another article. We're up to about a book's worth now I think.

SHOW HOW ME THE 'INTELLIGENT DESIGN'?!

As an aside, and a foreshadowing of an upcoming article, this calls into question the idea that there is INTELLIGENT DESIGN. A designer could have easily made planets have circular rather than elliptical orbits, and a 25 hour day, and a bunch of other nice things to have, like knees that don't give us problems, or avocado pits that aren't quite so large. But I digress.

This now meant that the date of the New Year had to be moved from