So who then were the first to invent the calendar? Were they the Egyptians? The Greeks or the Chinese? Do you know that the word 'calendar' originated from the Latin word 'kalendae'? According to archaeologists, the first to do so were the Sumerians. They were able to study the moon and came up with a calendar which depicted a year as a total of 12 lunar months. To make up for the difference between this year and the year of the seasons, they added an extra month in the calendar about every four years. The early Egyptians and Greeks merely copied this calendar.

For the early Romans, they too used a calendar that was according the studies of the moon. Each year, according to them, made up of 355 days. The months corresponding to March, May, July, and October each had 31 days; February had 28 days, while the remaining months had 29 days each. (Doesn't it sound a little like the standard calendar that we have today?) Like that of the Sumerians, an extra month was added about every fourth year. The days and months of the Roman calendar were recorded and kept track of by the high priest. On the calends, or day of the new moon, he also had the job of informing the people of the times of the nones (first quarter) and ides (full moon) for that month.

Interestingly and sad to say, the priests were however, unable to carry out these jobs well, and by the time which was during the reign of Julius Caesar, the calendar was in a big mess: the months during which it was supposed to be spring were recorded as summer months instead! Fortunately, these mistakes in the calendar were later cleared up and corrected by Caesar in 46 BC in the Julian calendar, which was based on the idea that there were 365 days a year, with one day added every fourth, or "leap," year. The ten extra days were then distributed among the 29-day months, to become the standard calendar that we use today!

The Mayas of Mesoamerica had their own unique calendar, in which the days and numbers were associated with fairies and gods. They believed that those who were able to comprehend the calendars understood the supernatural forces that controlled the events that were bound to happen each day, and that they able to see the future. Thus, ruling nobles used their knowledge of calendars to maintain power and prestige in the eyes of the commoners. They had in fact, not one but 3 different calendars, which were used for different purposes, namely the sacred round, the solar calendar and the Long Count. For instance, the sacred round which was made up of 260 days per year, was used to plan religious ceremonies. The solar calendar had 365 days divided into 18 months of 20 days each, with a short month of 5 days (considered unlucky days) at the end of each year. The Long Count counted days from a fixed starting point, the 12 August, 3114 BC, which according to the Mayas, was the day the universe began.

The ancient Chinese calendar on the other hand, was rather different from those of the Sumerians or the Romans. It too was based on the moon and consisted of 12 months of alternately 29 and 30 days, with a total of 354 days in one lunar year instead. In addition, the ancient Chinese gave interesting names to each year. These were names of animals from the ancient times, which ran in this order (from top to bottom, left to right):

The 12 Animals : Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig

(Do you know the story behind the reason for choosing of these animals for each year? And why are they arranged in the order above? Click on this link to find out why… ) This cycle of years was used for astrological purposes, to describe personality traits and to tell fortunes.d.

Even today, some Chinese still use the ancient Chinese lunar calendar instead of the modern English one. Many still name each year according to the traditional animal names. For instance, the year 2000 is known by many as the year of the Dragon and next year would be the year of the snake. Which year according the Chinese calendar were you born in? Interested in finding out the meaning of that year that you were born in? Click on the following link to find out!

The relic of an Aztec calendar stone weighs some 20 tons. The sun god is shown in the center. Other symbols tell of the world's creation and foretell its destruction.

An ancient Egyptian Stone calendar

An ancient calendar showing the months and seasons for the year. Can you decipher what the pictures mean?