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I know I'm a day late with this one, but although January 1st was the 1st day of the year in the Julian Calendar and later Gregorian modification, you can see where this date fell in the Ancient Egyptian Calendar.
January 1st falls in the month of Rekh Wer in the season of Peret. As far as I know this day held no significance for the Egyptians; however in Roman imperial times there arose the concept of "dies Aegyptiaci" meaning 'Egyptian days' which was the name given to the 24 unlucky days of the year which also happens to include January 1st. According to the superstition, it was considered potential bad luck to undertake endeavors on these days and from the few sources I've read the Romans attribute this belief from Egyptian astrologists.
quote:The Yoruba calendar (Kojoda) year runs from 3 June to 2 June of the following year.
Not sure why that is, but it does go to show you how arbitrary the starting point of years can be.
EDIT: Although I do notice that the Yoruba year's beginning coincides with the arrival of the rainy season in West Africa, whereas the ancient Egyptian year begins with Akhet, or the flood season.
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The Yoruba New Year and the onset of Akhet are similar
As a person who lives in a subtropical desert the monsoon is an extremely important and joyous occasion. Especially to cattle raising cultures. I could see why this is the beginning of the year for Green Sahara cultures and it's not related to just the nile flood.
The Nile River floods annually between June and September due to heavy summer rains in Ethiopia's highlands. The rains cause the tributaries and other rivers that join the Nile to swell, flooding the river. The Egyptians called this season akhet, which means "inundation"
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From what I understand the Yoruba calendar or Kojoda is a lunar calendar based on a 4 day week, 7 week month, 13 month system. The Egyptian ritual (not civic) calendar was also lunar based but consisted of twelve months whose duration differed according to the length of a full lunar cycle. Since the lunar calendar was 10 or 11 days shorter than the solar year, a 13th month called Tehuth was intercalated every several years to keep the lunar calendar in rough correspondence with the agricultural seasons and their feasts. The majority of religious feast days or fast days were based on the lunar calendar instead of the civic/solar calendar.
But getting back to the source I cited on superstitious days Belief in these days of bad tidings was part of the medieval world’s Classical legacy. The ancient Romans were, to put it mildly, a superstitious bunch. Their calendar was peppered with various “dies atri” – “dark” or “black” days when it was considered unwise to embark on any new task, sacrifice to the gods or celebrate a religious rite. Starting in the mid-fourth century, these superstitious, pagan beliefs inveigled themselves into the liturgical calendars of the nascent Church, ultimately morphing into the “dies aegyptiaci” or Egyptian Days of the Christian Middle Ages.
Is it just me or, does anyone else get the sense of some sort of color-racializion of these days. I mean to go from dark/black days to Egyptian days seems to hold some racial connotaions as well unless folks like Lioness want to claim I am "projecting".
Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: But getting back to the source I cited on superstitious days Belief in these days of bad tidings was part of the medieval world’s Classical legacy. The ancient Romans were, to put it mildly, a superstitious bunch. Their calendar was peppered with various “dies atri” – “dark” or “black” days when it was considered unwise to embark on any new task, sacrifice to the gods or celebrate a religious rite. Starting in the mid-fourth century, these superstitious, pagan beliefs inveigled themselves into the liturgical calendars of the nascent Church, ultimately morphing into the “dies aegyptiaci” or Egyptian Days of the Christian Middle Ages.
Is it just me or, does anyone else get the sense of some sort of color-racializion of these days. I mean to go from dark/black days to Egyptian days seems to hold some racial connotaions as well unless folks like Lioness want to claim I am "projecting".
That occurred to me too, but how we could determine it’s more than just coincidence?
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^ I don't know, but it is an interesting parallel.
Anyway, the calendar closest to the ancient Egyptian civil calendar is the Ge'ez or Ethiopian Calendar. The calendar is based on the Coptic Calendar which is essentially the Egyptian civil calendar being comprised of twelve 30 day months and an intercalary month of 5 days.
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