A random thought.

carteater said:

Why does the year end in December Shirley it would make more sense for it to end in February, and start in March, it would also mark the transition from Bleak winter to blooming (no pun intended) spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and from Scorching Summer to less scorching Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

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StonehamPark said:

To make is as simple as possible.

The year was originally made up of 10 Months. March - December, with 57 unallocated days after December and before March which were just marked as 'Winter'.
January and February were eventually prefixed to the previous 10 month calendar, et voila. Sense.

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Gwylan said:

We adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, not really late 1700s - we lost 11 days in the September of that year (it would have played havoc with the fixture list). It's the reason that you sometimes see two dates given for events/birthdates etc. Should we celebrate the 'signing' of Magna Carta on 19 June or the 30th?

25 March was chosen as it was Lady Day, the feast of the annunciation of the Virgin Mary (ie the day that Jesus was 'conceived'). This is traditionally seen as the start of the years AD.

It's also why the tax year starts on 6 April (5 April, the end of the old year, is 11 days after 25 March)

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Smirko said:

What did the Romans ever do for us.........

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maltaseagull said:

Yes but 31 +28 =59 ?
And what about a leap year?
Did they do that?

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RexCathedra said:

The evidence for two months worth of undifferentiated winter days between the end of December and old new year's day on 1 March is pretty thin...

The pre-Julian Roman calendar was brought round right by periodically truncating February, leaving it at 23 days, and inserting an additional 27-day month (Mercedonius) after the sixth day before the Kalends of March as needed. This is why the adjective bissextile (of or pertaining to leap year) exists - bis = twice, sex = six, referrring to the sixth day before the Kalends of March

This lengthens the year by ~22 days, twice he difference between the lunar 354 days and solar 365-days year.
Intercalate Mercedonius every third year or so, and Bob's your uncle.

The actual length of Mercedonius, or any month, is in fact not fixed, since a declaration by one of the pontifices is what really ends one month and starts another.

"This transfer window ends when I say it ends, dammit!"

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