Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

so that you may be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12, 2.

This is resistance and reformation. On the fight, laugh, feast record, there are about 40 different calendar systems currently in use in the world.

Some of these systems replicate astronomical cycles according to fixed

rules. Others are based on abstract, perpetually repeating cycles of no astronomical significance.

Some carefully and redundantly enumerate every unit of passing time. others contained mystical ambiguities and discontinuities.

Some are codified in written laws, while others are transmitted by oral tradition.

The common theme of each system is to organize the calendar to satisfy the needs and preoccupations

of society.

Besides simply serving the obvious practical purposes, this process of organization provides

a sense, however, illusory of understanding and managing time itself. Thus,

calendars have provided the basis for planning agricultural hunting and migration cycles,

for devonation and prognostication, for maintaining cycles of religious and civil events.

Whatever their scientific sophistication or lack thereof,

calendars are essentially social covenants, not scientific measurements.

Ultimately, that means that things get rather messy when we try to pinpoint exact

dates in history. There are inevitable contradictions and variations, not just because people

have remembered wrongly, but because they have remembered differently. It's why the Russians celebrate their October revolution in November.

It's why until the 16th and in some places the 18th century, the new year began in March, not in January.

It's why Easter is celebrated according to one set of calculations

in the West and an entirely different set in the East. It's why we can assert that the birth of Christ did not occur in the year 1 or 0, but in 3 or 4 BC, and it's why there is no year 0 at all,

...