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The Egyptian calendar by Julie A (Dec 4, 2004)
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The specialists say perhaps it’s the best calendar created by humans. The ancient Egyptians had a calendar with years, months and days like us, but the years were counted from the beginning of the new pharaon introduction and during his reign. The months were arranged into three seasons: Akhet, from the middle of July to the middle of
November, These three seasons represented the changes of nature. To get 365 days they added five days at the end of Chemou. |
These days were very bad, so they were considered as birthdays of Osiris, Seth, Isis, Nephthys and Horus (from the 14th to the 18th of July). This calendar had a lot of advantages. The number of days in a month was the same, the weeks didn’t overlap the years or the months. But there was a problem because there was no leap year. Every four years they were one day late. So the first day of the new year was the real first day only every 1,460 years. The days were the same as now. They lasted 24 hours: 12 with the sun and 12 with the night. The Egyptians used astronomy to make their calendar and our specialists used their calendar to make our calendar. So we can say that Egyptian life still influences our life though they lived around 6,000 years ago. |
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