the month of February 2011
Running time is punctuated from the earliest ages by attempts to measure it, so you know where you are, and in particular to determine all kinds of deadlines, including the taxes and other taxes which have always been among the arguments put forward to justify the endless calculations. The month of February, reminds us in its original calculations these scholars whose aim was to coincide with the passage of time including the path of the sun which governs our days and nights and the travel of the moon has so much influence on our lives and nature.
In an attempt to bring closer to the time of the race the sun and the moon in an Etruscan king Tarquin, it lasted two months of the first calendar year of Romulus that n 'included in that 10 to 304 days. This first gave a sort of months at the time called Hybrid Mercedonius and the various reforms that followed made it our January and February.
Why twelve rather than ten? Apparently it's reference to the fact that there are twelve passages of the moon on a solar year.
From these successive reforms we still leap years. The year 2011 was not of these I will not elaborate further explanation. But I would remind all these stages and these scientific calculations that have marked our journey time over the centuries and which led to the creation of February, to be as close as possible to the length of the path of the sun.
As well as these calculations are accurate rebuked those scholars of the Egyptians and Babylonians, among others, there was still a degree of error of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. The addition of February and leap day, had not filled the gap that was already three days in the fourth century. The Council of Nicaea in 325 asked two astronomers, both bishops in Alexandria, Theophilus and his nephew Cyril to establish tables that would fix the date of Easter. This date determines the entire liturgical calendar and had a considerable importance, it still retains in part on our agenda today. It was important that its celebration be closer to the actual date but drifts training in their race. In 525 Pope John 1 st asked Father Dionysius Exiguus better known by the name Denis the Little, to redo the calculations. He said the previous work and occasionally it also fixed the date to December 25 Christmas day after the winter solstice then fixed by the calendar "Julian" December 24.
rules established for the different dates with a few mistakes, even very low drift continued. In 1200 Conrad of Strasbourg said that the winter solstice has lost 10 days from Julius Caesar.
A little later, the Englishman Robert Grosseteste, a canon of Paris in the aptly named, reckoned that they would add one day every 304 years. He proposed to calculate Easter with a vernal equinox on March 14 instead of 21 March. Another Englishman, Johannes Sacrobosco, commonly called John Hollywood or John of Halifax wrote a treatise " of Anni ratione " in which he proposes to delete one day every 288 years. Proposal without further action. In the middle of the thirteenth century Roger Bacon, a Franciscan, vehemently calls for reform by going directly to the Avignon Pope Clement IV, who dies without having made a decision. In 1345 Clement VI in Avignon elected decides undertake reform. Among specialists and scholars whom he addresses, history has retained John of Meurs and Firmin Belleval offering in a letter "Epistola super reformatione antiques kalendarii" (letter on reform of the old calendar) to remove a certain number of days in a given year and thereafter, removing any one day the 310 years. This reform does not live the day.
At the Council of Constance in 1417, Cardinal d'Ailly, addressed to his peers a "super Exhortatio correctione calendarii" (Exhortation to the resumption of the schedule) by repeating the arguments of Grosseteste of Sacrobosco and Bacon. In 1436 the astronomer Nicolas Curse offers and also without success a new reform. In 1514 Pope Leo X asked the Dutch bishop Paul of Middelburg, astronomer, to chair a commission to the amendment of the calendar. The various rulers consulted did not meet the requested opinion, the reform was abandoned. Letters exchanged by members of this committee fall into the hands of a Germano-Polish astronomer, Nicolas Copernicus, one of the greatest geniuses of his time. Its hard work we must remember this: land is a single planet orbiting the sun and the rotation is done in 365, 2425 days . This work will play a major role in the reform called "Gregorian . The Council of Trent (1545-1553) addresses the issue of further drift from the date of Easter, without providing a solution, but he asked the Pope Gregory XIII (Ugo Boncampagni), to undertake further studies. In 1582 a doctor Luigi Calabrese Lilio astronomer and a Jesuit Bavarian Christophorus Clavius, reach conclusions either by Luigi Livio who died before 1576, but by his brother Antonio, himself a physician and astronomer, the reform commission, chaired by Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto. A summary of these findings " compendium is subject to political figures because they are the ones who should take steps to implement reform. Gregory XIII, February 24, 1582, sign the bubble Inter extremely serious " which establishes the calendar that bears his name" Gregorian " and is still in force today as most universally recognized and applied as closest race time. All other schedules contain provisions which involve additional days or months, as our month of February, except the purely lunar calendar, but are now completely out of step with the seasons. In 1603, Clavius publish a document of 600 pages that will give all the explanations for the implementation of this calendar restored under Pope Gregory XIII "Romani calendarii has Gregorio XIII Pontifice maximo restitutive EXPLANATION. You want to say whew! I wanted to remember the names of all those scholars who have contributed their calculations on the stroke of time to establish a schedule that is a true and fair reference because their name is forgotten and we selected only Julius and Gregory ..!
I'll spare you the details of the implementation of this reform in France than in other countries. Yet it will still come back to these long and complex calculations because year "Gregorian" is too long 0000.3 days. In three thousand years it will be necessary again, to adjust our schedule. There will therefore still more reforms that will be required in February or at any other time of year.
How do you think it is not so! The moon goes around the earth on an elliptic curve that runs in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2 seconds , showing us his face in phases, new moon, the crescent and full moon. This is the synodic revolution. The Babylonians had made over the duration of this course an error of 0.00005 days! This curve rises and falls around the earth. This is called the sidereal revolution which lasts 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes and 11 seconds . This curve it away or closer to the earth, perigee or apogee and puts 27 days 13 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds between two consecutive passages at the same point. That revolution anomalistic. When the race of the moon around the earth intersects the Earth's orbit, there are lunar node and between two lunar nodes are happening 27 days, 5 hours, 5 minutes and 36 seconds.
Regarding the sun, which determines the day and night, there is first a rising curve, that is to say it is increasingly high in the sky, between December 21 and 21 June, when the days pass with a duration of 8:10 am to 16h 07. This is the period when the earth is warming, where the days are getting longer. This is the time of planting, seedlings, transplanting, shaping the earth. After the summer solstice, the sun goes down curve of each day a little more towards the horizon. Its warm rays become drying. The days are getting shorter. The sap flow subsides. It is the harvest time. The earth has depleted what she gave. It will make inputs of compost, manure and fertilizer. It is the tropical year. We should also mention that the sidereal year is slightly different depending on the position of the sun against the stars on the celestial sphere, and its place in the constellations of the zodiac. And all this is combined with the curve of the moon , up and down repeatedly every month. To be complete and understand how it is very difficult to predict, including the time, we must also say it will take 235 lunar months, that is to say 19 years for solar as the moon is reflected in the same configuration as compared us. This cycle was studied by a Greek mathematician, Meton, who gave his name to this cycle.
To end this long series of enumerations I recall the fact that the equinox itself is not always at the same time as we think. This year 2011 the vernal equinox is March 20 but it will be September 23. It happened that this equinox falls on March 19, and it will happen in 2044. On March 21 this only happened twice in 2003 and 2007. Not to mention the appointment of the sun and moon and thus eclipses!
We face a perpetual race time, race or after the time that will never end. As Charles Aznavour sings so well on a pace that never ends ...:
" time a day, a second time, the running time, or one that growls, time spent, who will be born, time to love and lost, the time for tears, time lucky, dying time, vacation time, the weather glorious, time pre-war time games, the time for business time happy, time lies, the chilly weather and time of dreams, the time of flood, the time for follies, lost time, time of life, the time just never stops, and I know that life is the time of each other's time, yours, mine, ours can become ... time .. time ... ! "
February comes from the Latin" februar "that is to say" cleanse. " If today was baptized our second month of the year we would look for something around the word flu which would not look the best! We did not call so that these fevers because bitter cold hit the population of Rome. This is more fevers but the flu that we maintain the daily media. Flu or gastroenteritis is seasonal and fashion.
Among the Romans it was the month of purification ritual. Hence the origin of the feast of the Purification ritual of the Jewish religion as the parents of Jesus scrupulously respected. It became for Christians the feast of Candlemas or the Purification and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. We made the feast of the Revelation of Light of the World. This light is symbolized by the candles and also by the pancake as the cake symbolizes the sun reborn. Here we go again right in the remains of these pagan festivals that since the Sainte Luce dot the calendar of celebrations which are intended to celebrate the triumph of light over darkness.
These last days of January, the Greeks celebrated the god Pan who was known to terrorize the countryside s and seduce women. His appearance, Actual or supposed, triggered a general flight: the "panic ." This is the etymology of the word. In Rome, on the same register, we organized the Lupercalia, feasts dedicated to the she-wolf who raised Romulus and Romus, celebrations of fertility. Romans assembled in the streets with torches, to eat cereal cakes in honor of Persephone.
Pope Gelasius in 492, tried to end the orgies in which these celebrations degenerated and substituted for the feast of Lupercalia purification. He had the idea then distribute the cakes to hungry pilgrims came to Rome. They were called the "forgotten". These are the ancestors of our pancakes Candlemas. And our candles of Candlemas, are probably the ancestors whose Roman torches were lit.
Also included in this feast of Candlemas, distant memories of the festivals of purification of the Celts, who winter drawing to a close, celebrated the water purification to ensure fertility and fertility with the return of life in the late winter. It was the feast Imbolc.
It is also possible to make a rapprochement with the Roman Parentalia , that is to say, the annual festival in honor of the dead, during which we watched in lighting up candles and torches Pluto and honoring the gods. Hence perhaps this old tradition to keep the candles blessed at Candlemas, in order to turn them on to the dead in our families, or to turn them on when there is a storm of lightning to preserve .... ;!
These reminders and interpretations deserve research depth and developments that can do this column already long!
February, in terms of time, is the month of turning the most dangerous " February, the shortest month is the worst of all at once. " Or:" February, of every month, the coldest, most cunning ". And : "February turns his cap to seven hits, seven strokes behind!" What will happen on February 2 as the proverb says: "A Candlemas, winter stops or takes discipline." Everything could still change February 3 as it will be day of new moon: "At the St. Blaise, winter subsides, but if it doubles again and, for long he does. "
These sharp falls and the temperature rises, causing considerable damage vegetation. The temperature differences between day and night kill plants and trees. Thus, February 2, 1956, in the south, olive trees froze. We must explain that he had very mild in the day, 18 degrees. The sap of the trees had begun to rise. At night the temperature fell sharply to minus 20 degrees. The trunks of olive trees broke under the frost ... "That night they heard the screaming olive! ..."
In fact, it is better fulfill its February contract and is bad because if it is not, we will suffer the consequences throughout the year: "February too soft spring Wrath"; Or: "When the wind forgets February, she arrived in May " And also:" If févrière February do not, any month of the year or less will do! "
In our race after time, we will probably pause Valentine on 14 because it will be close to full moon arrives at its perigee on 18, 19. This could be the spring of Valentine or otherwise, a period of bitter cold. Difficult to be more nuanced and careful! And we will celebrate, especially on the side of Roquemaure Rhone in Provence.
Just a little humor with history, the "story" as they say, because we'll make pancakes. It is said that in 1812, at Candlemas, Napoleon 1 st had wanted to make pancakes and fry them. That was before the Russian campaign. And according to the tradition, it brings good luck to him he blew into the pan. But he missed the fifth. A few months later, smoking in front of Moscow, he told Ney: "This is my fifth pancake!".
I agree it was rather that day a matter of timing, time and moon!
A Diou SIAS!
Jean Mignot
Au 31 du mois de janvier 2011
Pridie Kalenda Februarias
