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The Christian calendar has years of 365 or 366 days. It is divided into 12 months that have no relationship to the motion of the moon. In parallel with this system, the concept of weeks groups the days in sets of 7.
Two main versions of the Christian calendar have existed in recent times: The Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. The difference between them lies in the way they approximate the length of the tropical year and their rules for calculating Easter.
What is the Julian calendar?
The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar (bust at right) in 45 B.C.E. Author David Duncan says the Julian calendar was born of Caesar's tryst with Cleopatra.
Before the Julian calendar was introduced, priests in the Roman Empire exploited the calendar for political ends, inserting days and even months into the calendar to keep the politicians they favored in office. Tired of the chaos that this undependable system eventually gave rise to, Julius Caesar finally set out to put the long-abused calendar back on track.
It was in common use until the 1500s, when countries started changing to the Gregorian calendar (section the modern year). However, some countries (for example, Greece and Russia) used it into the 1900s, and the Orthodox church in Russia still uses it, as do some other Orthodox churches.
In the Julian calendar, the tropical year is approximated as 365 1/4 days = 365.25 days. This gives an error of 1 day in approximately 128 years.
The approximation 365 1/4 is achieved by having 1 leap year every 4 years.
What is the Roman calendar?
Before Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 45 B.C.E., the Roman calendar was a mess, and much of our so-called "knowledge" about it seems to be little more than guesswork.
Originally, the year started on 1 March and consisted of only 304 days or 10 months (Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December). These 304 days were followed by an unnamed and unnumbered winter period. The Roman king Numa Pompilius (c. 715-673 B.C.E., although his historicity is disputed) allegedly introduced February and January (in that order) between December and March, increasing the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. In 450 B.C.E., February was moved to its current position between January and March.
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