April Fools

Even though Romans are pagans we generally use the Roman calendar to make appointments because the Roman calendar is so universally used over the entire world. Early Roman calendars had 304 days made up of 10 months. They ignored the 60 days that fell in the dead of winter. Those days occurred, just like they do now, but they were not on the Roman calendar. The Romans just considered them as the passing of time. The first two months were Maritus and Aprilis, equivalent to March and April.

Romulus, in the late 690’s BC added January and February to the end of the calendar. January was named after the pagan god, Janus, the two-faced god. Janus was supposed to be the god that opens doors. The worship of this god was a direct opposition to the true Messiah, Christ, who is the one who opens doors that no one can shut (Revelation 3:7). When the twelve-month Roman calendar went into effect, the month of February was manipulated to try to adjust to the solar year. Between 22 and 23 days would be added to February every other year to make the adjustment. In 46 BC the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar moved the new year from March first to January first. A few Romans still kept March first as the new year. Of course, the people of God kept God’s new year (Exodus 12:1-2) on God’s calendar, which, on most occasions, would begin in late March or early April on the Roman calendar. Many of the Romans in the world of that day called them the April fools.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The Roman calendar floated the months out of season. So Julius Caesar decreed that the year we now know as 46 BC would be 445 days long to make up the difference. Then to insure that difference would not creep back in, Julius Caesar added one day to February every 4 years, inventing the simple leap year. This was the Julian calendar.

Eventually the Julian fix also proved not to be enough. It was based on the premise that the solar year was 365 and one-quarter days long. They were off the mark. The Julian calendar compared to the solar year is a difference of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. This short time interval each year caused a gradual shifting of the Roman calendar months. In 1580 AD, the Roman calendar showed the Spring equinox falling on March 11 instead of March 21. Once again a fix was needed. So Pope Gregory XIII ordered that 10 days be dropped from the calendar. Thursday October 4 was followed by Friday October 15 (The Weekly Cycle, Page 10, Bible Advocate Press). Notice days of the month were dropped but there was no interruption of the weekly cycle. Pope Gregory also added an extra day to February in century years that could be divided by 400. Year 2000 is an example. This is the Gregorian calendar which most people use for conducting their civil (non-religious) activities. Now, using the Gregorian calendar, the difference between the Roman calendar and the length of a solar year is 26 seconds. The willful King at the end of time may use the 26-second difference as an excuse to invent a new calendar. But it will still be a Pagan calendar.

-- wilyelder