Dance of Time : The Origins of the Calendar - A Miscellany of History and Myth, Religion and Astronomy, Festivals and Feast Day

by Judge, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781559707817
• ISBN10: 155970781X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-05
• Publisher: Arcade Pub

Summary

Ever heard that the Romans left 60 days of winter out of their calendar, considering these two months a dead time of lurking terror best left unnamed? Or that they had a horror of even numbers - hence the tendency for months to own an odd quantity of days? How about the fact that the robed and bearded druids of Celtic origin stand behind the New Year's figure of Father Time? And how's this for a metamorphosis: the Ester Bunny, who skips around quaint little English gardens dispensing Easter eggs from a flowered basket, is a corruption of the consort of the consort of Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, who was followed wherever she went by a faithful hare. Three streams of history created the Western calendar - from the East, beginning with the Sumerians; from the Celtic and Germanic peoples in the North; and (again from the East), from Palestine, with the rise of Christianity. Michael Judge teases out the contributions of each stream to the shape of the calendar - to days, holidays and associated lore. In them he finds glimpses of a way of seeing that existed before the mechanical time of clocks, when the rhythms of man and woman matched those of the seasons, the earth and the sky. A lyrical and rewarding celebration of the human urge to quantify the experience of being alive, The Dance of Time takes readers on a fascinating journey across the ages.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: THE TALE OF YEARS
I. And Life Time's Fool	3	(10)
II. The Marriage of Heaven and Earth	13	(22)
III. Calendarium	35	(14)
IV. A Day and a Night	49	(14)
V. Converting the Faithful	63	(12)
VI. Empty Pockets	75	(16)
PART TWO: HEAVEN'S ROUND
Winter
January: The Father of Morning	91	(5)
January 1: New Year's Day	96	(7)
February: The Secret Birth	103	(3)
February 1 and 2: Cross-Quarter Day	106	(6)
February 15: The Lupercal, Saint Valentine's Day	112	(3)
Lent	115	(4)
March: Rain, Mud, and Hope	119	(3)
March 20-25: Quarter Day	122	(3)
Spring
April: Awake!	125	(3)
April 1: April Fool's Day	128	(3)
Passover, Easter: The Dancing Sun	131	(6)
May: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn	137	(4)
May 1: Cross-Quarter Day	141	(10)
June: At the Height of Glory	151	(4)
June 24: Quarter Day	155	(8)
Summer
July: Caesura	163	(4)
August: The Gateway to Splendid Beauties	167	(3)
August 1: Cross-Quarter Day	170	(5)
September: Intimations of Mortality	175	(4)
September 20-21: Quarter Day	179	(12)
Autumn
October: The Dead	191	(4)
October 31—November 2: Cross-Quarter Day	195	(14)
November: The Beauty of the Bone	209	(4)
Thanksgiving	213	(8)
December: The Invincible Sun	221	(3)
Advent: From the Sunday nearest Saint Andrew's Day to Christmas	224	(3)
December 17-25: Quarter Day	227	(18)
December 31: New Year's Eve	245	(4)
Picture Acknowledgments	249	(2)
Index	251