who invented the egyptian calendar
Johnson, B. Early man divided the day into temporal hours whose length depended upon the time of year. The calendar is still not perfect, but its so steeped in history and tradition, we dont bother questioning its inaccuracies. Each month was divided into three 10-day periods known as decans or decades. Their lunar calendar had a 13th month every two or three years and eventually inspired the Jewish calendar still in use today. To add some levity to the situation, many humorous products came out including these 2021 calendars, which give a clever nod to the toilet paper shortage that occurred during the pandemic. Why Are There Only 28 Days in February? Explore Egyptian achievements, such as how King Menes unified Egypt, then discover the advances made with pyramids and obelisks, examine hieroglyphics, and learn about the Egyptian calendar. About 4000 B.C. Why September is the Most Popular Month for Birthdays. Depiction of an Egyptian hieroglyphic calendar. Britain made the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. "Ancient Egypt: Birthplace of the Modern Calendar." Ox-drawn plow - 2500 BCE http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/04/the-origin-of-the-7-day-week-and-the-names-of-the-days-of-the-week/, Sopher, P. (2014, August 21). Retrieved from, Leap years repeated February 23; there was no February 29 in the Julian calendar. [54] It was probably based upon astronomical observations of Sirius[15] whose reappearance in the sky closely corresponded to the average onset of the Nile flood through the 5th and 4th millennium BC. Worship was seen as a suitable way to start a new week. [70] For example, an account that Sothis rose on III Peret 1the 181st day of the yearshould show that somewhere 720, 721, 722, or 723 years have passed since the last apocatastasis. Caesar vs. Augustus. This article was most recently revised and updated by, 22 Questions About Time and Timekeeping Answered, Our Days Are Numbered: 7 Crazy Facts About Calendars, https://www.britannica.com/science/Julian-calendar. The Ancient Sumerian Calendar. By the 40s bce the Roman civic calendar was three months ahead of the solar calendar. The word weekend was first used in 1879. The History of the Egyptian Calendar. The calendar that is used nowadays in the West originated from the Roman calendar. Following Scaliger,[80] Censorinus's date is usually emended to 20July[w] but ancient authorities give a variety of 'fixed' dates for the rise of Sirius. Retrieved from, One was the first with 365 days in a year. Janus is the perfect representation of the first month of a new year. The Aztec solar year had 18 months, each with 20 days. In order to keep it in general agreement with the civil year, a month was intercalated every time the first day of the lunar year came before the first day of the civil year; later a 25-year cycle of intercalation was introduced. The first original decan position due to the precession in ancient times started at 0 of Cancer when the heliacal rising of Sirius (Egyptian Sepdet; Greco-Egyptian: Sothis) on sunset like Jewish and Islamic calendars marking the Egyptian New Year and now the 1st decan falls on 0 of Leo at July 20 in the Julian calendar, that is July 22/23 . Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Greece, Egypt, and Rome all contributed in some way to the calendar we use today. Pottery making was well advanced by 3000 B.C. Retrieved from, After Alexanders conquest of the Persian empire, the Macedonian calendar came to be widely used by the Greeks in the East, though in Egypt it was supplanted by the Egyptian year at the end of the 3rd century bce. The Februalia festival lasted all month in Rome and was held as a way to banish evil spirits. Marks on either container can be used to give a record of hours passed. This calendar didn't have any leap year and there were 365.2425 days in a year. Retrieved from, The Hebrew calendar was created in Israel. This calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the earlier Roman calendar, a largely . The modern calendar is a hodgepodge of astronomy, religion, and politics from many different ancient civilizations. 1. [62] It has been suggested that during the Nineteenth Dynasty and the Twentieth Dynasty the last two days of each decan were usually treated as a kind of weekend for the royal craftsmen, with royal artisans free from work. Wait, How Many Hot Dogs Do Americans Eat? EGS60321C014. Each had a purpose. Retrieved from, The civil year was divided into three seasons, commonly translated: Inundation, when the Nile overflowed the agricultural land; Going Forth, the time of planting when the Nile returned to its bed; and Deficiency, the time of low water and harvest. It wasn't until around 4000 BCE that they added an extra five days to keep up with the solar calendar, for a total of 365 days. [12] Otto E. Neugebauer noted that a 365-day year can be established by averaging a few decades of accurate observations of the Nile flood without any need for astronomical observations,[13] although the great irregularity of the flood from year to year[a] and the difficulty of maintaining a sufficiently accurate Nilometer and record in prehistoric Egypt has caused other scholars to doubt that it formed the basis for the Egyptian calendar. After all, he is credited with creating the Julian system of telling time in Rome. As Rome made the switch to the Gregorian calendar, no one bothered to change the names. Retrieved from, The Maya called it the "universal cycle.". Sosigenes had overestimated the length of the year by 11 minutes 14 seconds, and by the mid-1500s the cumulative effect of this error had shifted the dates of the seasons by about 10 days from Caesars time. This calendar is lunisolar and is heavily based on mathematics. It differs only in its era, which is dated from the ascension of the Roman emperor Diocletian. A persistent problem of Egyptology has been that the festivals which give their names to the months occur in the next month. 724 North Highland AvenueAurora, Illinois 60506, P: (866) 312-5646 The civil year (etos) was similarly dissociated from the natural year (eniautos). Setting a calendar by the Nile flood would be about as vague a business as if we set our calendar by the return of the Spring violets. Ancient and Religious Calendar Systems. The earliest Egyptian pottery was unglazed red earthenware. In 238 BCE, Egyptians even invented the leap year. Retrieved from, The Aztecs in central Mexico used a carved stone to keep track of time. He had two faces, one that looked into the past and one into the future. Water drips through a small hole in one container to a lower one. Retrieved from, https://sites.psu.edu/caesarvsaugustus/conclusion/, Wynne, K. (2020, March 17). Thus, the lunar months that were in principle parallel might diverge widely in different cities. A team of researchers from the University of St. Andrews found 12 large pits in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that mirrored the moons phrases. Time will tell what else we uncover in the future! This "Alexandrian calendar" corresponds almost exactly to the Julian, causing 1Thoth to remain at 29August except during the year before a Julian leap year, when it occurs on 30August instead. Egypt's 1st Persian occupation, however, seems likely to have been its inspiration. This civil calendar ran concurrently with an Egyptian lunar calendar which was used for some religious rituals and festivals. In later sources, these were distinguished as "first", "middle", and "last". Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt - In US Dollars. The ancient Egyptians originally employed a calendar based upon the Moon, and, like many peoples throughout the world, they regulated their lunar calendar by means of the guidance of a sidereal calendar. Temporal hours were of little use to astronomers, and around 127 CE Hipparchus of Nicea, working in the great city of Alexandria, proposed dividing the day into 24 equinoctial hours. In fact, as the evidence from the second half of the 5th century bce shows, at this early time the calendar was already no longer tied in with the phases of the Moon. Retrieved from, https://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-roman.html, Boeckmann, C. (2020, December 30). The Egyptians noted that the heliacal rising of certain stars, such as Sirius and Orion, matched the first day of the 36 successive decades and called these stars decans. The last five days of the year corresponded to the birthdays of five deities: Osiris, Isis, Horus, Seth and Nephthys.Since the Egyptians did not take leap years into account, their calendar got further and further away from the seasons. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, it was translated into Arabic (in 827 CE) and later into Latin (in the 12th century CE). In ancient Rome, Maia oversaw the growth of plants. Before then, people believed in and worshipped gods and goddesses. Where it got its name: Novem Latin word for nine. https://www.learnreligions.com/the-roman-februalia-festival-2562114, Marzano, A. The ancient Egyptian calendar was invented more than 5,000 years ago and was originally based on the 12-month lunar cycle. Wouldnt it be amazing if we got all of February off work today? https://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-the-number-of-days-in-a-month-not-equal.htm, Hogeback, J. [72] Although it is certain the Egyptian day began in the morning, another four years are shifted depending on whether the precise start occurred at the first light of dawn or at sunrise. https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/popular-links/walk-through-time/walk-through-time-ancient-calendars, Calendar World. A summer hour, with the longer period of daylight, would be longer than that of a winter day. Retrieved from, Back to School Means Anytime From Late July to After Labor Day, Depending on Where in the U.S. You Live. Pope Gregory XIIIs reform (see Gregorian calendar), proclaimed in 1582, restored the calendar to the seasonal dates of 325 ce, an adjustment of 10 days. The ancient Egyptian calendar was based on the cycles of the sun and the moon, which are not exactly 365 and a quarter days long. Each season was divided into four months of 30 days. A Walk Through Time - Early Clocks. Iranian Calendar Converter. https://www.thoughtco.com/ancient-egypt-birthplace-of-modern-calendar-43706 (accessed May 1, 2023). The ancient Egyptians called the plant djet or tjufi or wadj, forms of the concept of . Only once every 1,460 years did their calendar year coincide precisely with the solar year. Where it got its name: Unclear. Boddy-Evans, Alistair. The Egyptian calendar was broken down as follows: One week was ten days. https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2021/03/15/most-and-least-favorite-day-week-poll, Scientific American. The early Egyptians noted that the beginning of akhet (inundation) occurred at the heliacal rising of a star they called Serpet (Sirius). Retrieved from, Today, the Hebrew calendar is still used for Jewish religious observations. These were often carved from wood and sat on the boss or CEOs desk. Because this calendrical year was nearly a quarter of a day shorter than the solar year, the Egyptian calendar lost about one day every four years relative to the Gregorian calendar. https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/planting-for-power-in-ancient-rome/, Brewminate. Some Egyptian clepsydras have several sets of marks to be used at different times of the year, to maintain consistency with the seasonal temporal hours. Like other calendars, it has 12 months, only these are broken into sacred months and non-sacred months. Ptolemy III's Canopus Decree attempted to correct this through the introduction of a sixth epagomenal day every four years but the proposal was resisted by the Egyptian priests and people and abandoned until the establishment of the Alexandrian or Coptic calendar by Augustus. . Not sure about the geography of the middle east? Nowadays, a majority of countries use the Gregorian calendar, which was invented by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. https://aau.ac.ae/en/blog/how-and-why-did-the-hijiri-calendar-begin, Gonzalez, S. An Exploration Into the History and Significance of the Planner. (pg 7). The Egyptians had calculated that the solar year was actually closer to 3651/4 days, but instead of having a single leap day every four years to account for the fractional day (the way we do now), they let the one-quarter day accumulate. [30], The days of the lunar month known to the Egyptians as a "temple month"[24] were individually named and celebrated as stages in the life of the moon god, variously Thoth in the Middle Kingdom or Khonsu in the Ptolemaic era: "He is conceived on Psntyw; he is born on bd; he grows old after Smdt". Some even believe it can predict the future. Tut was born in the village of Mantoot, which still exists, and belongs to the Abu Qurqas Center, Minya Governorate, Upper Egypt, with the same old name. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/14/back-to-school-dates-u-s/, SFN Today. (2018, September 11). The pattern alternates between shorter and longer months, with the exception being July and August which each have 31 days. This astrological device was exported to India and then to Medieval Europe via Islam.). The civil year comprised exactly 365 days,[q] divided into 12 months of 30 days each and an intercalary month of five days,[59] were celebrated as the birthdays of the gods Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Taylor said that "14C data made a world prehistory possible by contributing a time scale that transcends local, regional and continental boundaries.". The Egyptians appear to have been the first to develop a solar calendar, using as a fixed point the annual sunrise reappearance of the Dog StarSirius, or Sothisin the eastern sky, which coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile River. There have been hundreds of calendars throughout history. The original Roman calendar only had 10 months. Retrieved from, Retrieved from, The correct figures are lunation: 29 d, 12 h, 44 min, 2.8 sec (29.530585 d); solar year: 365 d, 5 h, 48 min, 46 sec (365.242216 d); 12 lunations: 354 d, 8 h, 48 min, 34 sec (354.3671 d). https://www.history.com/news/why-do-we-have-leap-year, Ted Ed. This calendar was used for religious festivals. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-time-division-days-hours-minutes/, Planeaux, C. (2015, November 6). The importance of the calendar to Egyptian religion is reflected in the use of the title "Lord of Years" (Nb Rnpt)[65] for its various creator gods. This could make the difference between life or death for ancient civilizations! Hence, every four years it would fall behind the solar year by one day, and after 1,460 years it would again agree with the lunisolar calendar. It can be accessed on desktop or through a mobile app on Android or iOS platforms. Regardless, there were always 12 months in a year. Not to be outdone by his great uncle, Augustuss name also inspired a month of the year. The 7-day week was first found in the Babylonian calendar. . The Tomb of Nefertari By Paul Groffie. Check out this timeline to learn more about the evolution of the calendar, from full moons in ancient Mesopotamia to funny calendars that were released during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from, One of the first decorative advent calendars was used in Germany and had 34 small candles attached to cardboard. Retrieved from, The ancient Egyptians had many calendars. Why We Have a Seven Day Week and the Origin of the Names of the Days of the Week. . The name just kind of stuck. The Coptic calendar, or the "Martyrs' Calendar," relies mainly on the . Chinese Calendar. Julian calendar, also called Old Style calendar, dating system established by Julius Caesar as a reform of the Roman republican calendar. The sun calendar did not work very well. The Egyptians appear to have used a purely lunar calendar prior to the establishment of the solar civil calendar[16][17] in which each month began on the morning when the waning crescent moon could no longer be seen. And so 36 x 10 = 360 days. They were able to distinguish between a simple year and a leap, an astronomical miracle at the time. The first season - was called Akhet, which means flood or inundation. The History of the Calendar. Regardless of all these changes, you shouldnt assume that the Gregorian calendar is 100% accurate. Business was thriving in the 1920s, leading to the first desk calendars ever made. 11 Facts About Earth Day. This means that as the years passed, the Egyptian months fell out of sync with the seasons, so that the summer months eventually fell during winter. Parker connected the discrepancy to his theories concerning the lunar calendar. Early Roman Calendar. Note that the names of the three natural seasons were incorporated into the Civil calendar year (see below), but as this calendar year is a wandering year, the seasons of this calendar slowly rotate through the natural solar year, meaning that Civil season Akhet/Inundation only occasionally coincided with the Nile inundation. Rather than using the moon, the Ethiopians tracked the progression of time using the sun. Following Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian Empire, the Macedonian Ptolemaic Dynasty came to power in Egypt, continuing to use its native calendars with Hellenized names. The Egyptians created their own calendar, which used the moons cycles and a star named Sirius to keep track of time. Each name was based on some aspect of Roman culture, whether it was their customs, political figures, mythology, or use of Latin phrases. How the Moon Made the Calendar. February is short because of leap years. Current understanding of the earliest development of the Egyptian calendar remains speculative. The second calendar, used for administrative purposes, was based on the observation that there was usually 365 days between the heliacal rising of Serpet. The original lunar calendar, however, was not abandoned but was retained primarily for agriculture because of its agreement with the seasons. Retrieved from, Three seasons and five holy days was one year. Retrieved from, According to them, the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut decided to marry. The Aztec Calendar. In 238BC, Ptolemy III's Canopus Decree ordered that every 4thyear should incorporate a sixth day in its intercalary month,[90] honoring him and his wife as gods equivalent to the children of Nut. Harrison's last watch, the H5 of 1770, was . https://thesis.honors.olemiss.edu/1156/7/Gonzalez%20SMBHC%20Thesis.pdf, Click Americana. The idea is to create an impression for the entire year. The sun god, Tonatiuh, was right in the center, and he was surrounded by many other figures in Aztec mythology and astrology. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/ancient-egypt-birthplace-of-modern-calendar-43706. https://www.iranchamber.com/calendar/converter/iranian_calendar_converter.php, Agovino, T. (2020, June 20). British orrery maker John Gleave represented the Egyptian calendar in a reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism. solar calendar, any dating system based on the seasonal year of approximately 365 14 days, the time it takes the Earth to revolve once around the Sun. The Sumerians in Mesopotamia made the very first calendar, which divided a year into 12 lunar months, each consisting of 29 or 30 days. A lunar year had 354 days, but since the Romans believed even numbers were lucky, they changed things around so that each month had an even number of days. Brands like Coca-Cola, Ford, Jack Daniels, Kelloggs, and Taco Bell have used promotional calendars in their advertising. . Retrieved from, Retrieved from, 1 These five days became a festival because it . [14][p] A recent development is the discovery that the 30-day month of the Mesopotamian calendar dates as late as the Jemdet Nasr Period (late 4th-millenniumBC),[56] a time Egyptian culture was borrowing various objects and cultural features from the Fertile Crescent, leaving open the possibility that the main features of the calendar were borrowed in one direction or the other as well.[57]. Retrieved from, Each month on this calendar had 29 or 30 days, depending on whether or not the first day had a full moon. Retrieved from, This caused them to lose out on 11 days, leading to what some historians believe was a massive riot. It only made sense for Julius Caesar to be represented somewhere in the Roman calendar. Retrieved from, If the Romans were in the midst of war, they would even plant balsam and ebony trees during this month to signify victories in battles. How and Why Did the Hijiri Calendar Begin? A tablet from the reign of the First Dynasty pharaoh Djer (c.3000BC) was once thought to indicate that the Egyptians had already established a link between the heliacal rising of Sirius (Ancient Egyptian: Spdt or Sopdet, "Triangle"; Greek: , Sthis) and the beginning of their year, but more recent analysis has questioned whether the tablet's picture refers to Sirius at all. This is a replica of an ancient Egyptian design for a door lock. Retrieved from, [19], Parker and others have argued for its development into an observational and then calculated lunisolar calendar[22] which used a 30day intercalary month every two to three years to accommodate the lunar year's loss of about 11days a year relative to the solar year and to maintain the placement of the heliacal rising of Sirius within its twelfth month. Ancient Egyptians created a calendar as a means of tracking agricultural seasons. Newspapers started advertising with paper calendars to get more subscriptions. The ancient Egyptians then discovered the lunar year and divided it for seasons, months, days and hours. Fun fact: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Mothers Day was first observed on May 10, 1908. Where it got its name: Mars the god of war. [68] The occurrence of the apocatastasis in the 2nd millennium BC so close to the great political and sun-based religious reforms of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton also leaves open the possibility that the cycle's strict application was occasionally subject to political interference. These star tables provided the astronomical data used by Gregory XIII for his reform of the Julian calendar in 1582. What is Americas Most and Least Favorite Day of the Week? These twelve months were initially numbered within each season but came to also be known by the names of their principal festivals. A Brief History of the Smartphone. This is just the way of the world. Ancient Egypt was run according to three different calendars. Their calendar has 13 months and is 7 years behind the calendar that we use today in America. However, they did not account for the additional fraction of a day and their calendar gradually became incorrect. It is also associated with local festivals such as the annual Flooding of the Nile and the ancient Spring festival Sham el-Nessim. The Influence of Astronomy on Minutes and Hours. The Sumerian calendar was very different from the one we use today. Although, the Sumerians are credited as the first to track time, some historians believe the Europeans had a system that could be even older! At midday, when the sun was at its highest, the shadow clock would be reversed and hours counted down to dusk. Our editors update and regularly refine this enormous body of information to bring you reliable information. Its a giant dry erase board that costs $199.99. The Hijiri calendar doesnt have any leap months or days. The common citizen used, along with the civil months, the seasonal time reckoning based on the direct observation of the Moons phases and on the appearance and setting of fixed stars. (2015, January 2). The first Roman calendar was introduced by King Romulus. Thus, for example, Hecatombaion 16th was called 6th after the 10th of Hecatombaion. The Macedonian months were Dios (in fall), Apellaios, Audynaios, Peritios, Dystros, Xanthicos, Artemisios, Daisios, Panemos, Loos, Gorpiaios, and Hyperberetaios. The Egyptian Traveler's Survival Kit By Jimmy Dunn. Since this number doesnt divide evenly into the 365.2421 days that are in a year, the months are always a different length. Overall, these time-tracking techniques may seem outdated, but theyre not that different from the paper wall calendars and phone calendars we use today! Retrieved from, The flood cycle . The standard hour of constant length was never employed in ancient Egypt. are experts on all things printed and promotional. Papyrus is the Greek name for the plant and may come from the Egyptian word papuro (also given as pa-per-aa) meaning 'the royal' or 'that of the pharaoh' because the central government had control of papyrus processing as they owned the land and, later, oversaw the farms the plant grew on. At the same time that Babylonians were looking forward to the lengthy last weekend of the month, the Egyptian empire was growing in the west. 48% of people feel like they dont have enough time to do what they want to do. This civil calendar was split into twelve months of 30 days with an additional five epagomenal days attached at the end of the year. While the men were fighting in the Vietnam War, the women at home could use these calendar towels to dry the dishes after preparing meals and to keep up with their childrens schedules. Unlike most people who used a lunar calendar, the Egyptians began their day with sunrise instead of sunset because they began their month, and consequently their day, by the disappearance of the old Moon just before dawn. It included the months of Tekh, Menhet, Hwt-Hrw, and Ka-Hr-Ka. This digital calendar is an easy way to get reminders about upcoming events, birthdays, and holidays. Infoplease knows the value of having sources you can trust. Keeping Time: Origins of the Days of the Week. The ancient Egyptian calendar - a civil calendar - was a solar calendar with a 365-day year. [email protected]. Each such cycle is calculated to be 2,880,000 days long (about 7885 solar years). Religious families used advent calendars to track feasts that were meant to honor saints. Each month, in principle, consisted of 30 days, but in roughly six months the next to last day, the 29th, was omitted. By studying the phases of the Moon, the Mesopotamians created the first calendar. A Brief History of Time Measurement. The wealthy would skip work and spend the entire month praying and meditating. It just depends on your individual beliefs and traditions. Where it got its name: Juno the goddess of love and marriage. ; the Maya were simply one of cultures that used it. As a result of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, a great wealth of knowledge of astronomy was exported from Babylon into India, Persia, the Mediterranean, and Egypt. Retrieved from, See Vintage Calendar Girls & Pin-ups from the 40s & 50s. 2. https://news.gallup.com/poll/187982/americans-perceived-time-crunch-no-worse-past.aspx. The IBM Simon is considered one of the earliest smartphones in use. problem the Egyptians invented a schematized civil year of 365 days divided into three seasons, each of which consisted of four months of 30 days each. Calendar, Names of Days. It is thought that, like most agricultural societies, the ancient Egyptians originally organized their calendar according to the cycles of the moon and the agricultural seasons ().Most scholars agree that the Egyptian day began at dawn, before the rising of the sun, rather than sunrise. The earliest sources (clay tablets of the 13th century bce, the writings of Homer and Hesiod) imply the use of lunar months; Hesiod also uses reckoning determined by the observation of constellations and star groups; e.g., the harvest coincides with the visible rising of the star group known as the Pleiades before dawn. Calendars keep our society moving forward. It just exists we dont really question why or how. Boddy-Evans, Alistair. Heres how: Astronomy was huge when it came to keeping track of time. To develop a calendar, you need a regular event that is predictable. Mesopotamia, Rome, and Egypt had calendars, so the Babylonians wanted to follow suit with one of their own. Turkey Facts for Thanksgiving Day. Age 11 to 18. Nearly all Eastern Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar to establish the dates of movable feasts such as Easter. Because of the discrepancy between these two calendars, the Egyptians established a second lunar calendar based upon the civil year and not, as the older one had been, upon the sighting of Sirius. The months arent all the same number of days due to the rotation of the moon. The Egyptian calendar was based of a year of 365 days, with twelve months and three seasons. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The reform was resisted by the Egyptian priests and people and was abandoned. This came to be after taking a close observation of the helical rising of the serpent. The Nile, the Moon and Sirius: The Ancient Egyptian Calendar By Richard Weininger. Demotic, another form of writing that was developed in the 800s B.C., was used for everyday documents, as well as for literary works. Three weeks was one month. Records suggest that early shadow clocks were based on the shadow from a bar crossing four marks, representing hourly periods starting two hours into the day. Where it got its name: Maia the goddess of fertility and growth. Ancient Egypt was run according to three different calendars. Infoplease is a reference and learning site, combining the contents of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an atlas and several almanacs loaded with facts. The Athenian months were called Hecatombaion (in midsummer), Metageitnion, Boedromion, Pyanopsion, Maimacterion, Poseideion, Gamelion, Anthesterion, Elaphebolion, Mounychion, Thargelion, and Scirophorion.
