The Gregorian Calendar
10 Lost Days – The Gregorian Calendar
After 1500 years of counting days, the old Julian calendar has fallen behind. Under pressure to set things right, Pope Gregory simply cancels October 6th through 15th. When Catholic communities convert, and Protestant ones don’t, the result makes converting to metric system seem like a lark.
Original Air Date: Nov 13, 2001
Transcript by YouTube
History Bites with Rick Green
It’s easy to think of the Renaissance as an age of discovery but it was really an age of rediscovery.
Europeans rediscovered all the things that the ancient Greeks and Romans had already learned and created and invented now
Greek philosophy at Roman architecture might have been worth learning but their science and medicine they were shaky at
best now along with all this the Julian
calendar that people had been using for
the last 1,500 years just wasn’t doing
the job anymore in fact by 1582 it was
off by close to 10 days so Pope Gregory
the 13th ordered a new calendar and to
correct for the accumulated shortcomings
of Julius Caesar’s old one he canceled
10 days October 5th to 14th gone it
seemed like a simple elegant solution
it wasn’t the resulting chaos was sort
of like what they predicted would happen
at y2k but didn’t ordinary folks were
outraged and confused
and where do ordinary people get to vent
their confusion and outrage on
television welcome to the news for
December the fifth 1582 or as it has
come to be known by many December of the
15th 1582 the church calls it progress
but many call it dangerous heresy
what was supposed to lead to clarity has
created confusion amongst Christian to
find out a little more about how such a
situation could have developed our own
Marjorie Mays spoke to the man behind
the calendar chaos about what everyone
is calling the Ten Lost days to the
faithful he is Pope Gregory to some he
is also the Antichrist
heeding the advice of astronomers
astrologers and others who dabble in the
Black Arts he decreed that the calendar
skipped 10 days now he’s dealing with
calendar chaos
Pope Gregory why are we in this
predicament
well Barger II we all have little
problems nagging problems that we know
we should deal with but just keep
putting off now as you know if we let
these things go on for too long how long
is too long
anything over say 1,500 years this has
been going on for that long
ever since Caesar authorized the Julian
calendar back in the year well zero I
guess we’ve been gaining an extra 10
minutes a year we’ve we’ve been living
on borrowed time Marjorie and it’s time
to pay back the time we owe it’s Tuesday
and you know what that means here at the
Howard Stern burg radio show how a
harlots harlots and more Harley no
Howard it’s not harlot Tuesday the
Gregorian calendar change it’s not
Friday Friday yes not Gary the leper
against right hey Gary haven’t seen much
year-round lately it said that the
Julian calendar was chosen by God and
cannot be altered by Pope’s or kings or
anyone else or at least that’s what some
church officials eccentric Protestant
church officials who their point of view
reflects the obstinate unenlightened
mindset of a religious sect that simply
doesn’t want to listen actually I meant
the Catholic Church officials who for
400 years have refused oh no it’s the
process they won’t listen to reason no
no I of splitter
just fine fine fine dog here what a very
very right that bear didn’t stand a
chance
speaking of watching the fur fly tonight
as you know we’re going to have on our
stage the British singing sensations
Billy Ray Cyrus and the hangman with
their hip achy breaky neck oh but they
were unable to be here tonight because
of a scheduling confusion over the
calendar change I know I know I know
Robert how did Celine the Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire die battling the Holy
Roman Empire a fall on a Turkish bath
Jerome who said abortion is not murder
if it occurs in the first 40 days pope
gregory correct Theresa
how did Christians celebrate Sun
Bartholomew’s day in Paris in 72
massacring Protestants correct Robert
which Christians have rejected the new
Glorian calendar and condemned advances
of science Catholics Protestants what
pungent odor we have something never
before seen on any stage right here for
the first time anywhere ever ballet so
without much further ado here’s balls
NASA Reno dabeli gioiosa bald-ass Serena
Billy Joe so anyway here’s a man who
invented ballet with ballet can you
describe the process of designing the
new calendar will the backroom boys
haggled back and forth for quite a while
until somebody said how about 365 days 5
hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds and I
thought to myself yes that sounds about
right
then what happened well my right-hand
man and Tonio lilius juggled some
numbers leap year every four years
except for every hundred years except
for every 400 years except for centuries
when the Cubs win the pennant
and we still add an extra day every
3,300 years or so but well that would be
my headache Protestants across Europe
didn’t like the idea of any Pope telling
them what to do but they had other
reasons for disliking this Pope a
zealous anti Protestant Gregory gained
infamy after the slaughter of thousands
of Huguenots Protestants in Paris he
responded by ordering a hymn of praise
to God so you can understand if Pope
Gregory was not at the top of most
Protestants Christmas list
more so than Frankfurt Germany where
angry mobs have begun to riot and
protest against mathematicians and the
Pope we go now live to correspondent
wolf man in Frankfurt Tom a lot of
people have their later hosen and a nod
over this one it’s pretty obvious Pope
Gregory Anna’s compass carrying goons
have made a deal with Satan I’m tired of
being bossed around by this bureaucracy
of the Vatican now clearly some of this
is simply a backlash by Protestant
Frankfurt against Catholic Rome but as I
found out from local hotheads that’s not
100 percent of the frankfurters beef we
have a very rigid schedule when it comes
to worshipping Saints right I mean each
saint has his own day right so and what
if we agree to change the calendar I
mean what if I am praying for
forgiveness for my sins to say st. Peter
okay but it’s on st. Christopher’s Day
and then he checks his messages and he
hears st. Peter Oh must be wrong number
right and then I show up at the pearly
gates and Peter goes oh sorry ma’am I
don’t have any record of any forgiveness
of any sort so I don’t know one way
ticket to Beelzebub basement I’m going
to my window I’m sticking my head out
and I’m screaming I’m mad as hell and
I’m not going to take it anymore and
then I see everyone doing the same thing
and I’m like hey cray and so I go grab
my favorite stick I am now Marian if I
asked to borrow some gold coins just for
a few minutes just to put in this bag
would you say yes just to put in the bag
you won’t even know they’re gone
Wow
[Applause]
okay just put them in this coin sweater
here they’re all in there now and now we
have to make these coins sweat and how
do we do that by giving them they’re
sending a message Pope Gregory of Rome
don’t change our calendars otherwise we
might take out our anger in public and
private property here in Frankfurt I’ll
be the first to admit I don’t know the
first thing about mathematics where I
come from we have names for things we
don’t understand names like witchcraft
and heresy so obviously I had to stand
up for my ignorance plus I love a good
riot when we come back I love a parade
especially when it’s people covered in
wieners
back in 1582 when Pope Gregory
instituted the calendar change 10 days
were lost from the calendar but nobody
had much warning so some countries lost
10 days in October but some weren’t
ready till November December or the new
year which created more confusion plus
the Gregorian calendar moved forward the
dates of religious holidays and
traditional celebrations like the
festival of Carnaval now Renaissance
carnivals weren’t about rides and freak
shows back then they were about carny as
in chili con carne meat you couldn’t
have asked for a nicer December day here
in Venice then it sure couldn’t Vanessa
that’s right Venice’s annual festival of
carnival which will only build in
intensity as we approach Lent is being
kicked off in style as we can see here
with all the costume participants coming
out to strut their stuff there are so
many different disciplines wear face
masks with long noses Vanessa the word
carnival comes from carne or meat so
this festival of the flesh is
represented by the three traditional
mediums of food sex and violence
what do long noses have to do with the
oh really and here they come the
unmarried spinsters employs tugging a
plough through the city
you know there’s nothing really quite as
pretty as a woman grunting and sweating
like a dog unless you have an ox dressed
up as a girl with many of the largely
Protestant cities and kingdoms vowing to
ignore the calendar change do you
foresee problems yes some towns making
the change or adjacent to ones that are
not there might be issues with well
missing dentist appointments or going to
church in the wrong day but hey the
Protestants are already in enough
trouble with the big guy hmm
[Music]
which Danish astronomer lost his nose in
a duel and replaced it with an
artificial gold one don’t lukio Tycho
Brahe he I’m is and out of a possible
250,000 Gildan er you have netted a
pathetic 8,000 lose millstone will no
longer grind grain which so will face
the Inquisition but no community has
been hurt as badly as the people of
Flanders sandy El Grande reports on the
land without Christmas when the people
of Flanders received word of the
intended calendar date change they were
uncertain what to do so the flan durians
delayed implementing that change but now
many wish the Flender additions had
acted sooner as word has come down that
the change will go through December 21st
making the following day New Year’s Day
and eliminating Christmas for the
Flender Tyrians this year it was tough
maybe the toughest thing I ever had to
do when I had to tell my kids that Pope
Grinch Gregory had canceled Christmas I
could barely look him in the eye
I run a toy shop 60% of my sales from
the whole year come from Christmas I
mean I just bought 500 of these toys
from Tycho Tycho Brahe he that is the
astronomer look at this
everyone I’m an astronomer so I said to
myself this year I’m gonna do st.
Nicholas Day right I’m gonna be the
perfect father Christmas you know so boy
I grew the beard like I did one on a
special diet so I put on 50 pounds so
you forget I know who’s been naughty or
nice stinkers but I recently heard that
it’s not just a question of losing those
10 days we’ve also got to make
adjustments to the dates we’ve come to
know in future years
like our birthdays so well my birthday
to this point in my life has always been
November the 30th now it’s December the
10th well I’m not sure how much I like
that I’ve always seen myself as a
November the 30th kind of guy and it’s
more than just that my mother named me
Andrew after the day I was born st.
Andrew’s Day does that mean I have to
change my name to and what about
everyone else’s birthdays
I forgot my wife’s birthday once didn’t
stop hearing about it until her next one
and look at the size of that sausage
[Applause]
all wager it is the world
[Music]
butchers parading a 440 pounds sausage
yes Wow and you know you don’t see that
every day you know still this tube steak
is pretty impressive but nowhere more so
than with the Flender Ian children we we
tried to tell that it’s okay yeah maybe
I’ll I’ll get that dolly for Easter
inside and eat straight maybe but then
we heard they’re making some changes to
the lunar calendar so we don’t even know
if they’ll be aids to either but I’m
sure there’s next Christmas there will
be Christmas next year Walter luckily we
still got New Year’s right even though
people gotta get their party started
December 21st hey mister
New Year’s is coming up food and you
think you know how about some nice big
quarter balloons to get the festivities
started sanitized for your protection
what couldn’t you just have taken a few
days off a Lent wouldn’t that have been
nicer for everybody but no he’s wearing
a hair shirt so we all got to suffer hey
lady
we got hood man blind Renaissance
Edition just in comes with everything
you need double stage shirt for the hood
man and instructions on how to spin him
around and it up stakes for six people
to whack the hook man win come on it’d
be great fun for New Year’s
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
and as always carnival you can seize
covered in meat and accompanied by a
cauldron of macaroni I tell you I get
hungry just looking at that guy you know
he seems to chauvinism eat me eat me
bite me but don’t get your shish kabob
skewers out just Africans here is the
old man carnival counterparts let’s old
woman blinks skinny as ever makes your
way through the procession and as
tradition demands she is ofcourse
dressed in black with plenty of fish
hanging off the rail fin body
I believe they use meat stay tuned as
the Protestants tell the Pope what to do
with his new calendar our modern world
lives by the Gregorian calendar and Pope
Gregory has been given most of the
credit for introducing it but the man
who actually figured out the math behind
it was a little-known physician named
aloysius lilius the church looked at
various systems for measuring the length
of the solar year and eventually picked
his as the winning entry but there were
plenty of others who tried to get their
id’s accepted as the official plan
including a calendar Challenger names
calendar is James here brand Protestant
professor a theologian in the German
city of Tuebingen
did you hear the case of the nut tree in
gerousia Italy that responded to the
papal edict by blossoming ten days early
yeah sir Tom the Catholic countries will
be reporting plenty of nut cases in the
next few weeks but I think the calendar
is a matter for civil authorities not
popes if we should be using anyone’s new
calendar to be joseph scaliger ‘he’s
scaliger is of course the Calvinist
astronomer who devised what he calls the
Julian day calendar well that’s right
it’s brilliant now this is where the
future of time measurement lies I mean
one day at a time with no fractional
years no mean year no complicated system
of leap years it’s easy in fact his
calendar doesn’t use your
all but rather a cycle of days that runs
for 80 centuries well yes
think of all long weekends will be huh
the fools and the wild men in a moment
they’ll be descending on the crowd
striking bystanders with pig’s bladders
and stick no that’s good clean fun –
folks if you try this at home please
don’t leave the dog carcass out in the
street
keep Venice beautiful throw the dog
carcass in the canal so and let me say
papal bull is an understatement Gregory
was turning his back on everything the
church is supposed to stand for didn’t
Gregory ban Copernicus de revolutionibus
because it suggested the earth revolved
around the Sun I mean we all know the
earth is the center of the universe look
it it’s right here in the Bible for
heaven’s sake so why is he now trying to
convince us the length of the year
should be measured by this this this
science so you don’t agree by these
calculations of lillius clavius and
others I certainly wouldn’t disagree
with the suggestions that the length of
the year used should be a mean value of
the of the sidereal year and the
tropical year taking into account the
precession of the equinoxes why because
I don’t know what the hell it means in
fact they don’t understand a single word
I just said to you huh
[Music]
it’s gonna only mean it’s time for the
annual it’s the only time all year you
see so many Jews being victimized and
humiliated at once all Jews are required
to run so you’re guaranteed some serious
injuries tells us in his report time
flies when you remove it from the
calendar time usually flies when you’re
having fun well here in Lisbon Portugal
time has flown all right ten days in a
single tick of the clock draw was a
charcoal trader he has orders to fill
deliveries to make bills to pay for him
the new calendar has brought confusion
somebody orders 10 pounds of charcoal
for delivery on the 17th what do I
deliver them tomorrow or in 10 days
right and and what if they put in an
order for the 13th I mean the 13th
doesn’t exist anymore I mean do I still
deliver it huh and if I do what happens
does the charcoal still exist right does
the guy still exist do I exist Antonio
is from the non Gregorian town of
Nuremberg and he’s involved in a
relationship with the girl from nearby
Gregorian regions Berg I think Anna’s
expecting me it’s like I can’t keep up
with her anymore and we never have time
for each other
no I guess men are from a Julian place
and women are from a Gregorian place
over the years Pope Gregory’s calendar
for measuring the years gained worldwide
acceptance Austria and Switzerland
converted by 1580 for Britain and her
colonies didn’t come aboard for another
170 years Sweden made the change in 1700
but dropped only one day this left them
with a different calendar from everyone
else 10 days off from the Gog Orion and
one day off the Julian Japan adopted the
calendar in 1873 while Russia weighed
until 1918 by which time they had to
drop 13 days and Greece which had been
offended by Pope Gregory didn’t switch
until 1924 and even then they kept their
old system for calculating Easter but
eventually everyone was using this
calendar to measure human history and
everyone could agree that history bites
and how do your gold coins look now
Marian the same as ever Chuck that’s
right they look the same but what’s this
left in the bag coin sweat and this is
real gold gold
oh my wondering is this against the law
well Marian the clipping of coins with
scissors is quite definitely against the
law but this process used by the coin
sweating is natural where the same thing
that’s happening all the time in purses
all over the world
[Music]