• • • • • Your challenge is to figure out the year in which your mystery person is born. You will be given a riddle having to do with a year on a certain type of calendar, perhaps one you have never even heard of. You and your group members need to figure out what year the mystery person is born in, and what calendar is being used. Once you figure that out, read about that calendar so that you can explain what sets it apart from the rest of the calendars in the class. Your group will do a short explanation to your classmates once everyone has figured out their calendars.

• 1. Your mystery person is having a bit of amnesia. When asked when they were born, they keep saying they don't remember, but they know they were born 3464 years after the year 1464 B.C. When were they born? How old are they? What calendar are they using?

• 2. Your mystery person can't remember when they were born, but keep saying that they could have sworn it was in the year 1421 A.H.? What does that mean? Figure out what calendar they are using, what it means, and how old they are.

• 3. Your mystery person thinks they are from the future, because they were born in the year 5762. Could this be right? What calendar are they using and how old are they?

• 4. Your mystery person can’t tell for sure when they were born, but they keep thinking that it is somewhere around the year 4700. They also said that they kept having this dream that they were a horse, and they were being chased by a dragon. What calendar are they using, and how old are they?

What Time is it?

How Cultural Calendars Measure Time in Different Ways

Measuring Time

•

Scientifically, the year is a complete cycle of seasons.

– A year is when the earth completes one full orbit of the sun. – Its length is measured from one spring equinox to the next spring equinox.

Why Bother Measuring Time?

• Knowing the season was vital when deciding to plant and harvest crops as well as managing livestock in colder climates. • Other cultural and religious practices happened at specific times of the year, so it was important to have some sense of time.

Back in the Day…

• • The obelisks of ancient Egypt, dating from as far back as 3000 BC, were used to measure the progress of the year by the length of the shadow they cast. Stonehenge in Britain was probably built for the same purpose. – It measured the year by the sunrise and sunset angle on the horizon.

Other Signs of Time

• • The annual disappearance and re-appearance of the stars has been used by many cultures. Natural signs such as the blossoming or fruiting of particular plants or the migrations of birds have also been used to mark the passing of the seasons.

B.C., B.C.E. or A.D.?

• For centuries Western Christianity has referenced time in relation to the birth of Christ. – The abbreviation AD stands for Anno Domini, the Latin term meaning ‘in the year of the Lord’. – Years after the birth of Christ are AD while years before this were BC or ‘Before Christ’.

The Gregorian Calendar

• • • • This is the most widely used calendar in the world. The term New Year’s Day was adopted in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Before this the Roman Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar) was used. The Roman influence explains why the months of July (Julius) and August (Augustus) are named after Roman emperors.

The Gregorian Calendar

• • • Julius Caesar overhauled the Roman calendar in 47 BC by changing the number of days in the months to bring the total to 365 days with a leap day every four years. Caesar changed New Year's Day from the northern spring equinox to just after the northern winter solstice.

Sound Familiar?

Muharram: Muslim New Year

• • • The Islamic year begins on the first day of the month of Muharram. It is counted from the year of the Hegira (Anno Hegirae), when Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina (16 July 622 AD). The New Year in December 2013 marks the beginning of 1435 AH.

Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year

• • • On the Jewish Calendar, 2013 is actually year 5773 Rosh Hashanah is one of the most important religious holidays in the Jewish calendar. In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means the ‘head of the year’, and it commemorates the creation of the world.

Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year

• • • The Jewish calendar represents the number of years since creation – Found by adding up the ages of people in the Bible. So when we say that the year is 5773, that means 5773 years from the birth of Adam on the sixth day of Creation. The Jewish year is calculated by adding 3760 to what is known as the civil year (2013)

Chinese Calendar

• • • The Chinese lunisolar calendar is divided into 12 months of 29 or 30 days. The calendar is adjusted to the length of the solar year by the addition of extra months at regular intervals. The years are arranged in major cycles of 60 years.

Chinese Calendar

• • • Each successive year is named after one of 12 animals. These 12-year cycles are continuously repeated. The Chinese New Year is celebrated at the second new moon after the winter solstice and falls between January 21 and February 19 on the Gregorian calendar. The year 2013 translates to the Chinese year 4710– 4711.

Questions

• • • • • • 1. Why do we bother to measure time in days, months and years? 2. Why are there so many ways of measuring time? In a paragraph, of between four and six lines, explain why there are so many different calendars in the world.

3. What are at least two things that all the calendars listed above seem to have in common?

4. What are at least two major differences between the calendars listed above?

5. According to the Muslim and Jewish calendars, what year were you born in?

6. Wouldn't it be simpler if there was just one, single calendar that applied to everyone?