Hip Gifts For Everyone!: Fun Calendar Facts and Gifts

Mankind has used the Sun, Moon, Stars and Planets to measure the passage of time through the ages. Ancient civilizations used the motion of all of these through the sky to determine the seasons, months and years. These were the precursors of our present day Calendars.

Our calendars are based on three key astronomical events... Day, Year and Month.

The Christian calendar (Gregorian calendar) is based on the motion of the earth around the sun.

The Islamic calendar is based on the motion of the moon.

the Jewish calendar combines both, in that its years are linked to the motion of the earth around the sun.

Before today’s Gregorian calendar was adopted, the older Julian calendar was used. It was very close to the actual length of the year, but as it turns out, but the Julian calendar did a slow shift off track over the following centuries.

It wasn’t until 1582, by which time Caesar’s calendar had drifted a full 10 days from it's original course, that Pope Gregory XIII (1502 - 1585) finally reformed the Julian calendar. But the "new" calendar, as we know it today, was not adopted uniformly across Europe until well into the 18th century.

The legal code of the United States does not specify an official national calendar. The use of the Gregorian calendar in the United States stems from an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1751, which specified use of the Gregorian calendar in England and its colonies.

A lot of languages, including English, use month names based on Latin.

English ........ Latin
January .........Januarius
February .......Februarius
March ...........Martius
April ............. Aprilis
May ..............Maius
June ............. Junius
July .............. Julius
August ..........Augustus
September ....September (from word septem or 7)
October ........October (from word octo or 8)
November ....November (from word novem or 9)
December .....December (from word decem or 10)

Today you will find some sort of Calendar in almost every home.

Please feel free to browse this wide selection of lovely Calendars in many themes with unique art, and photography, or view others available in these stores.

Just click on the calendar images below to view the inside pages and information.