Help me understand the rollover of the calendar
Each year I struggle to answer a few questions (I always have questions). What makes January 1 the first day of the year? Why aren't we using a clock and time system that makes more sense? Why aren't we using the Chinese or Aztec calendar? As many of you know, this year we will have 1 entire extra second. For those who don't know...um...we get an extra second this year, so if you have a quartz watch, fix it. When you ask? Well, for you in the Central time zone (such as me), it is at 1:00PM today! Here is how it works. Today, my clock ticks: 12:59:5812:59:5912:59:601:00:00 How often does this happen you ask? About once every 18 months. Why? because when the Roman Catholic church put what we use as a calendar together, they were off. Fact is, they were off a lot! This is not the first Roman calendar either. We actually use the Gregorian calendar. Now for the quick history lesson... The Roman Calendar When Rome emerged as a world power, the difficulties of making a calendar we