1700 – Look What Day It Is!

Look What Day It Is!
Also, I got you a new calendar for Christmas.

A Better Calendar

I bet you didn’t know that once
The calendar had thirteen months.
Back then, one month (now lost to us)
was known as Mercedonius.

But here’s the catch: it didn’t show
but every other year or so,
and IF it happened – yep or nope –
was chosen by the Holy Pope.

But thirteen months was much too long.
The calendar was clearly wrong.
But thanks to Caesar, months were changed.
Their names and lengths were rearranged.

And mostly, that’s the way it stayed –
with changes Julias had made –
for fifteen hundred years or so.
But was it perfect? Close, but no.

The thirteenth Pope called Gregory
was worried that Nativity
and Easter’s ever-shifting date
were being celebrated late.

He made a minor tweak or so,
that years that end in double-oh,
no longer “leap” like other years
when Feb. the 29th appears.

“Except”, he said – that clever guy –
“Each forty decades passing by,
allowing years to leap is best.”
2000 leaped like all the rest.

The calendar we’ve come to know,
while still a couple seconds slow,
is better than it’s ever been.
That’s why it’s called “Gregorian.”

Major props go to Matt R. Of Birmingham, AL who won doodle #1700 and the option to chose the theme for the doodle and poem in a one-day auction on the Lunchbox Doodle facebook page. Ever the joker, Matt challenged me with the theme of “Widespread Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar.” Here’s hoping I lived up to the challenge!