In California we’ll be setting our clocks to ‘spring ahead’ tonight and that has made me think about time in general.
Morning, noon, night, days, months, seasons and years are natural to our planet because of its rotations and circling around the sun.
But seconds, minutes, hours, weeks and centuries are all human inventions.
The ancient Romans had a system of alternating the number of days in each month. Their year started in March with the beginning of spring, and the months on their calendar alternated between 31 and 30 days.
But when Augustus became Caesar (emperor) he wanted August, the month named for him, to have as many days as July, the month named for Julius Caesar had.
So he took one day from the last month of their year and added it to his own month. That’s why August has 31 days and February only has 29 in leap year.
And we humans seem to notice patterns in numbers. For instance, someone born on 2/20/20 or 2/2/20 might be considered lucky.
At least most of us no longer believe in horoscopes.
