Momma Maya, What's Next?!
Well, the 21st of December 2012 came and went. And we’re still here. In 2011, and in the run-up to December 2012, the speculation surrounding the end of the Maya calendar certainly provoked a fair amount of nervousness in folks, and made some moviemakers very happy with box office receipts. While it marked the day that our solar system crossed the Milky Way’s galactic equator, for many it was misinterpreted to mean that the world was coming to an end. The same sort of thinking was associated with our Western calendar in regards to Y2K, the end of the millennium, in which all the world’s computers would crash causing our modern high tech society to come to a screeching halt. Of course, all the hysteria centered on these calendars was for naught. So what’s with all this hysteria, and panic power implicit in calendars?
Well, that’s just it. Calendars don’t have any such power, implicit or otherwise. Calendars are merely artificial devices, perception, the way in which we interpret time, and the seasons of the year, to help us keep track of the movement of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon in relation to each other. There’s nothing mystical or cosmically significant inherent within them. As S.I. Hayakawa pointed out in his classic book, Language In Thought And Action, “the map is not the world.” And calendars are not the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. Perception is not reality until we panic. This is an important distinction for all aspects of life. Or as Sherlock Holmes put it, "It is a capital mistake to theorize [or panic] in advance of the facts."
For many, our Western Gregorian solar calendar seems to hold some special significance. That is, certain days in this calendar actually have universal, as in the whole big universe, importance. But they don’t. And as such, I don’t attach any significance to any particular day in the calendar that many people, i.e., the herd, deem important. This includes staying up until midnight on New Year’s eve in Western society blowing on little paper horns, wearing silly pointy hats, and singing Auld Lang Syne while surrounded by those inebriated to varying degrees. Ushering in a new year singing times long past, which is what auld lang syne means, strikes me as a bit odd. If it meant new times and friends to come, well, okay ... maybe. But you have to give it credit for staying power, as it was a song written by the Scot, Robert Burns in 1788, certainly a time long past.
Because of my abstinence from the peculiar Roman church Gregorian calendar’s new year celebration tradition, I was asked if I “believe in the calendar.” I’m not even sure I understand the question. But, I think it goes back to the idea that our Western Gregorian calendar has, for some folks, an all-embracing, intrinsic truth, that somehow the Roman church Gregorian calendar’s new year day really is the new year for the universe, or at least our galaxy, and at the very least our solar system, right!?
Don't panic, but according to those folks who track these things, there are about forty different calendars in use today throughout the world with differing new year days! That averages out to a new year’s day about every ten days. Sooner or later someone will attempt to keep each one in a calendar year, thereby making it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
For more than 25% of the world’s population, the Chinese new year is their foremost holiday celebration. While the date of the Chinese new year in their lunisolar calendar varies in relation to our Western calendar, with an intercalary month added every two to three years to bring it into sync with the declination angle of the Sun in relation to Earth, which in turn let’s them know when to expect spring according to the calendar, their new year’s day takes place in our late January to mid-February.
With the direction in which the Western world, and the Global South is currently headed, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that within a decade or so, the Chinese yuan will be the primary reserve currency rather than the US petrodollar. Although, the newly elected US president has said he will slap 100% tariffs on any country that replaces the US dollar in this regard. And within a generation or so, maybe Mandarin Chinese will be the common business language used around the world rather than English. And the calendar new year celebrated will be Chinese. What’s Mandarin for Happy New Year?
On the other hand, it’s no surprise that the Islamic calendar doesn’t recognize the western Christian world’s Gregorian calendar new year either. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar as is the Hebrew calendar. Lunar calendars are agriculturally oriented and sync with the phases of the Moon for purposes of planting and harvesting. And while our Western society uses a solar calendar, farmers still look to the phases of the Moon. If the globalists were to get their way, however, none of this will matter for they will want us eating bugs and grubs all year round.
Muharram is the first month of the Islamic or Hijri calendar. The first day of this month marks the new year. As this calendar is lunar and has 354/355 days to the year, the new year varies in relation to the Western Gregorian calendar. In 2016, the Islamic new year occurred on the Gregorian calendar’s October 25. In 2012, when the world was supposed to end, it was November 15. And according to a report by the Pew Forum on Religion, as reported by TIME.com, the Islamic population is expected to be 2.2 billion in less than two decades. Between the Chinese calendar, the Islamic calendar, and the orthodox Jewish calendar, more than half the world’s population doesn’t sing auld lang syne at midnight January 1 either, including the Greek Orthodox Church whose new year is on September 1 in the Gregorian calendar.
In the Hebrew calendar, Nisan [also Nissan] is the first month of the new year. It is tied to the vernal, or spring equinox. The first of Nisan is the beginning of the ecclesiastical new year. The civil new year begins in Tishri, which is the seventh month. However, when Israel left Egypt, Moses was commanded by God to move the official new year to Nisan, which was known as Abib until the time of Ezra. [See Exd. 12:2ff; also the Sneakers article, Our History In Context].
So how did January 1, which has no tie to any equinox, vernal or autumnal, or any tie to the winter solstice as the ancient Greek calendar did, get chosen as new year’s day? That would be the Roman church's Pope Gregory coming up with a new calendar in 1582. January comes from Janus, the Roman two-faced god of gates [Bill?], i.e., endings and beginnings. However, in the early Roman calendar, March was the first month and March 1 was new year’s day. Pope Gregory’s January 1 supposedly marks the alleged circumcision date of Christ. It wasn't. But you gotta admit, it's a bizarre choice for picking a new year date in anyone's calendar. This kind of puts a new spin on the idea of new year's parties.
Initially, Pope Gregory’s calendar was used only in the Roman church countries. By the mid-1700’s, however, Protestant countries began adopting it as the Julian calendar, of Julius Caesar fame, was becoming too far out of sync with the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. Perception had become too far out of sync with reality. Today, the Gregorian calendar's January 14 is January 1 on the Julian calendar, and is celebrated as new year's day by the Orthodox church.
In England, and all the British territories, including the American colonies, new year was celebrated on March 25, the first day of spring, until 1752. This date more or less corresponded to the Hebrew lunar calendar sacred new year. In order to compensate for the change over from Julian to Gregorian or Roman church calendar, thereby syncing the calendar to mesh with the position of the Sun in relation to the Earth, the day following September 2, 1752 was September 14. More than a few "perceptive" folks back then panicked thinking they lost days of their lives. Some folks in England were so hysterical that they rioted wanting back their lost 11 days. Crazy, eh? Sort of like thinking "covid" was going to kill everyone, and the "safe and effective" jabs would protect you rather than injuring or killing you. Some things, like hysteria and panic, never change. Crazy, eh?
The Russians, being overly cautious perhaps, didn’t celebrate new year’s day on January 1 until 1919. It wasn’t until the atheist Bolsheviks abolished the Russian aristocracy that they adopted the Roman Pope Gregory’s calendar on February 14, 1918. This means that the Red October Revolution in 1917 in reality took place in November. The Bolsheviks adopted the Roman church calender, then banned the churches. And now that Zelensky is doing the same thing with the churches in Ukraine, what might he do with the calendar, make February 24 new year's day for Ukraine? In the end, Gregory just decided that January 1 would be new year’s day in his calendar.
But as calendars go, the West is a bit quirky. The Western world calls its ninth month September. But the Latin septem means seven. We call our tenth month October. Octo in Latin means eight. And, of course, December, our twelfth month is decem, which means ten. September really should be called November. One has to wonder why a pope, whose church performed mass in Latin, wasn’t able to correctly number the months in his new calendar.
And isn’t it a bit incongruous that the pope of the Roman Church kept Janus, the two-faced pagan god as the first month in his new calendar rather than naming it after Christ or the apostle Peter? Don't even go there, Bill.
So more than 440 years ago when Gregory picked January 1, after the twelfth month named the tenth month, as the beginning of the new year in his calendar, let’s just say I’m a bit leery of it really having any special significance. Satirically speaking, at my age, after studying my Mandarin Chinese lessons all day, it tires me out. Having to stay awake until midnight to do silly stuff wearing a pointy hat really isn’t that appealing any more. I’m resting up until February 17, 2026. Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Well, that’s just it. Calendars don’t have any such power, implicit or otherwise. Calendars are merely artificial devices, perception, the way in which we interpret time, and the seasons of the year, to help us keep track of the movement of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon in relation to each other. There’s nothing mystical or cosmically significant inherent within them. As S.I. Hayakawa pointed out in his classic book, Language In Thought And Action, “the map is not the world.” And calendars are not the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. Perception is not reality until we panic. This is an important distinction for all aspects of life. Or as Sherlock Holmes put it, "It is a capital mistake to theorize [or panic] in advance of the facts."
For many, our Western Gregorian solar calendar seems to hold some special significance. That is, certain days in this calendar actually have universal, as in the whole big universe, importance. But they don’t. And as such, I don’t attach any significance to any particular day in the calendar that many people, i.e., the herd, deem important. This includes staying up until midnight on New Year’s eve in Western society blowing on little paper horns, wearing silly pointy hats, and singing Auld Lang Syne while surrounded by those inebriated to varying degrees. Ushering in a new year singing times long past, which is what auld lang syne means, strikes me as a bit odd. If it meant new times and friends to come, well, okay ... maybe. But you have to give it credit for staying power, as it was a song written by the Scot, Robert Burns in 1788, certainly a time long past.
Because of my abstinence from the peculiar Roman church Gregorian calendar’s new year celebration tradition, I was asked if I “believe in the calendar.” I’m not even sure I understand the question. But, I think it goes back to the idea that our Western Gregorian calendar has, for some folks, an all-embracing, intrinsic truth, that somehow the Roman church Gregorian calendar’s new year day really is the new year for the universe, or at least our galaxy, and at the very least our solar system, right!?
Don't panic, but according to those folks who track these things, there are about forty different calendars in use today throughout the world with differing new year days! That averages out to a new year’s day about every ten days. Sooner or later someone will attempt to keep each one in a calendar year, thereby making it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
For more than 25% of the world’s population, the Chinese new year is their foremost holiday celebration. While the date of the Chinese new year in their lunisolar calendar varies in relation to our Western calendar, with an intercalary month added every two to three years to bring it into sync with the declination angle of the Sun in relation to Earth, which in turn let’s them know when to expect spring according to the calendar, their new year’s day takes place in our late January to mid-February.
With the direction in which the Western world, and the Global South is currently headed, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that within a decade or so, the Chinese yuan will be the primary reserve currency rather than the US petrodollar. Although, the newly elected US president has said he will slap 100% tariffs on any country that replaces the US dollar in this regard. And within a generation or so, maybe Mandarin Chinese will be the common business language used around the world rather than English. And the calendar new year celebrated will be Chinese. What’s Mandarin for Happy New Year?
On the other hand, it’s no surprise that the Islamic calendar doesn’t recognize the western Christian world’s Gregorian calendar new year either. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar as is the Hebrew calendar. Lunar calendars are agriculturally oriented and sync with the phases of the Moon for purposes of planting and harvesting. And while our Western society uses a solar calendar, farmers still look to the phases of the Moon. If the globalists were to get their way, however, none of this will matter for they will want us eating bugs and grubs all year round.
Muharram is the first month of the Islamic or Hijri calendar. The first day of this month marks the new year. As this calendar is lunar and has 354/355 days to the year, the new year varies in relation to the Western Gregorian calendar. In 2016, the Islamic new year occurred on the Gregorian calendar’s October 25. In 2012, when the world was supposed to end, it was November 15. And according to a report by the Pew Forum on Religion, as reported by TIME.com, the Islamic population is expected to be 2.2 billion in less than two decades. Between the Chinese calendar, the Islamic calendar, and the orthodox Jewish calendar, more than half the world’s population doesn’t sing auld lang syne at midnight January 1 either, including the Greek Orthodox Church whose new year is on September 1 in the Gregorian calendar.
In the Hebrew calendar, Nisan [also Nissan] is the first month of the new year. It is tied to the vernal, or spring equinox. The first of Nisan is the beginning of the ecclesiastical new year. The civil new year begins in Tishri, which is the seventh month. However, when Israel left Egypt, Moses was commanded by God to move the official new year to Nisan, which was known as Abib until the time of Ezra. [See Exd. 12:2ff; also the Sneakers article, Our History In Context].
So how did January 1, which has no tie to any equinox, vernal or autumnal, or any tie to the winter solstice as the ancient Greek calendar did, get chosen as new year’s day? That would be the Roman church's Pope Gregory coming up with a new calendar in 1582. January comes from Janus, the Roman two-faced god of gates [Bill?], i.e., endings and beginnings. However, in the early Roman calendar, March was the first month and March 1 was new year’s day. Pope Gregory’s January 1 supposedly marks the alleged circumcision date of Christ. It wasn't. But you gotta admit, it's a bizarre choice for picking a new year date in anyone's calendar. This kind of puts a new spin on the idea of new year's parties.
Initially, Pope Gregory’s calendar was used only in the Roman church countries. By the mid-1700’s, however, Protestant countries began adopting it as the Julian calendar, of Julius Caesar fame, was becoming too far out of sync with the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. Perception had become too far out of sync with reality. Today, the Gregorian calendar's January 14 is January 1 on the Julian calendar, and is celebrated as new year's day by the Orthodox church.
In England, and all the British territories, including the American colonies, new year was celebrated on March 25, the first day of spring, until 1752. This date more or less corresponded to the Hebrew lunar calendar sacred new year. In order to compensate for the change over from Julian to Gregorian or Roman church calendar, thereby syncing the calendar to mesh with the position of the Sun in relation to the Earth, the day following September 2, 1752 was September 14. More than a few "perceptive" folks back then panicked thinking they lost days of their lives. Some folks in England were so hysterical that they rioted wanting back their lost 11 days. Crazy, eh? Sort of like thinking "covid" was going to kill everyone, and the "safe and effective" jabs would protect you rather than injuring or killing you. Some things, like hysteria and panic, never change. Crazy, eh?
The Russians, being overly cautious perhaps, didn’t celebrate new year’s day on January 1 until 1919. It wasn’t until the atheist Bolsheviks abolished the Russian aristocracy that they adopted the Roman Pope Gregory’s calendar on February 14, 1918. This means that the Red October Revolution in 1917 in reality took place in November. The Bolsheviks adopted the Roman church calender, then banned the churches. And now that Zelensky is doing the same thing with the churches in Ukraine, what might he do with the calendar, make February 24 new year's day for Ukraine? In the end, Gregory just decided that January 1 would be new year’s day in his calendar.
But as calendars go, the West is a bit quirky. The Western world calls its ninth month September. But the Latin septem means seven. We call our tenth month October. Octo in Latin means eight. And, of course, December, our twelfth month is decem, which means ten. September really should be called November. One has to wonder why a pope, whose church performed mass in Latin, wasn’t able to correctly number the months in his new calendar.
And isn’t it a bit incongruous that the pope of the Roman Church kept Janus, the two-faced pagan god as the first month in his new calendar rather than naming it after Christ or the apostle Peter? Don't even go there, Bill.
So more than 440 years ago when Gregory picked January 1, after the twelfth month named the tenth month, as the beginning of the new year in his calendar, let’s just say I’m a bit leery of it really having any special significance. Satirically speaking, at my age, after studying my Mandarin Chinese lessons all day, it tires me out. Having to stay awake until midnight to do silly stuff wearing a pointy hat really isn’t that appealing any more. I’m resting up until February 17, 2026. Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Italics and [ ] are the author's.
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