Tuesday, October 15, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is October 15th, 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

I want to take you back to the spring of 2020. Oh, you remember, those Pacific and Halcyon days of COVID-19. A running joke was that none of us knew what day of the week it was—days, weeks, and eventually months blended together, and while we joked about it, it was extremely unsettling.

We will make no apology here at the Almanac for talking a little about time and how we keep it, and how it corresponds to our preferred festivals and religious observances (which we all have in our own way).

So, first, how do we count? Humans have historically used base 10 or 12—that is, we count in collections of 10, although the Sumerians and Egyptians used 12. It makes sense. You can count in fingers and thumbs (10), or on one hand, you can use your thumb to count the 12 sections on the inside of your four fingers.

(Some say the Mayans used base 20 because it was warm; they wore sandals and counted fingers, thumbs, and toes…)

The sun or the moon makes its daily trip through the skies, so we can count days and seasons based on that. A lunar calendar (the ones many ancient civilizations and Christopher Gillespie prefer) is based on a 28-day schedule that can be broken into four weeks of seven days. Cool.  

But when did we start counting? Are we in year… 17? 40,000? Control the days, dates, times, and hours and control the people… so, we have days, months, and times based on the names of gods and leaders. When the 10-month Roman Calendar expanded to 12, who do you think the months of July and August were named after (the Augustus: Julius Caesar) who helped consolidate his power by flipping the calendar from the lunar to the solar (or something very close to it, used by the Egyptians because figuring out the Nile flood schedule was essential to existence). And so, at the time of Christ, we have a Julian (almost solar) Calendar, but what year was it? Well, it was likely around the year 42 or maybe 751. That would be the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus or the 751st year after the founding of Rome. Or it was around 3757 on the Hebrew calendar. 

It wasn’t until the 6th century that our years came into use- BC (before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini: the year of the Lord). This didn’t become prevalent until the 700s. If you are a regular listener to this program, you might remember the impetus in the church to get a common calendar. This was because it was believed that celebrating Easter together was of central importance.

This is why the when was essential but the naming was usually never an issue- the Quakers and the Portuguese (among others) have tried renaming our pagan days of the week and months.

However, as the world grew older and its people became more technologically advanced, they realized the Julian calendar was close but inaccurate. The date of Easter- established as the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21st was “slipping” into winter. And so all the Pope’s horses and all the Pope’s men went to work. For context, it was the 16th century, and the church had other issues, which wouldn’t help the case of calendar reform. Nevertheless, Pope Gregory XIII published a papal bull (official document) in 1582 with no little practical significance. On the 4th of October that year, the people of Catholic Europe would go to bed and wake on this, the 15th of October- which was really the 5th, but to adjust for the new calendar, ten days were “lost.”

But as this was the Reformation century, Protestants distrusted the Pope and thought it was some sinister plot and thus kept the old calendar, making historians go mad, having to keep track of different calendars based on different confessions. The German Protestants didn’t adopt the calendar until around 1700, and the English didn’t until 1752 (this is why you may see characters like George Washington with two birthdates- he was born on the old calendar).

Most Eastern churches retained the old “Julian” calendar, and this is why there is an “Orthodox” Easter every year, usually after the Western Easter.

Today, we remember the so-called 10-day slumber that ended, at least for Catholics (Protestants got later 10-day sleeps) on this- the 15th of October on this day in 1582

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and a timely word from Psalm 39:

“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;

    let me know how fleeting my life is.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

    the span of my years is as nothing before you.


Everyone is but a breath,

    even those who seem secure.

“Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;

    in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth

    without knowing whose it will finally be.

“But now, Lord, what do I look for?

    My hope is in you.

Save me from all my transgressions;

    do not make me the scorn of fools.

9 

I was silent; I would not open my mouth,

    for you are the one who has done this.

Remove your scourge from me;

    I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin,

    you consume their wealth like a moth—

    surely everyone is but a breath.

“Hear my prayer, Lord,

    listen to my cry for help;

    do not be deaf to my weeping.


I dwell with you as a foreigner,

    a stranger, as all my ancestors were.

Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again

    before I depart and am no more.”

 

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 15th of October 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wishes you a happy Tys-day, named after the Norse equivalent of Mars or Ares, the God of War—he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man feeling like Sesame Street’s Count von Count (that’s that muppet's real name). I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.