The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar

Our calendar—the one we rely on to tell us what days we work, when to celebrate a birthday, and when to get feverishly busy to prepare for the holidays—did not always exist in its current form. This book by Michael Judge offers the fascinating history of how the calendar came to be as it has evolved from ancient times.It's a relatively short book, and since it covers time since we humans began measuring it, the book is best described as a summary. In the subtitle, Judge describes it as a "miscellany of history and myth, religion and astronomy, festivals and feast days," and indeed "miscellany" is an accurate noun to use.Find out:• the origin of the names of each day of the week.• why so many Christian holy day celebrations have pagan origins, due in large part to clever popes.• the Roman Catholic church's extraordinary influence on the calendar we still use today.• something fun—that you probably never noticed—about the iconic image we have of Father Time.• the luckiest month for finding your future husband or wife.I think the most interesting part of the book is the second half where Judge describes many of the festivals and holidays we celebrate, from the big ones like Easter, Passover, Halloween, and Christmas to the lesser ones, such as Groundhog's Day and April Fools' Day. He offers lots of odd facts and tidbits, such as how the Roman Catholic church helped create April Fools' Day, the one and only pagan celebration that has survived the ages, and the date of the first Thanksgiving (it wasn't in November!).What impressed me the most about this book is the quality of writing. Michael Judge is almost poetic in how he presents this "dance of time" through the centuries.But do note this: The Kindle version is rife with typos. That said, many of the so-called typos are so egregious, they seem more like writing errors. Lots (and lots!) of missing apostrophes, apostrophes that do not belong, lots (and lots!) of missing periods at the end of sentences, and poor punctuation top the list.And there was one eye-popping (and to be honest, hilarious) typo: The first chapter is titled "And Life Time's Foot," which is (supposed to be) a quote from Shakespeare's play "King Henry IV." The last word should be "fool" and not "foot." It's also missing a comma. The correct version of the quote is: "And Life, Time's Fool." Well, THAT's a big difference!If you can survive the typos, the book is a delight to read.

To other commentators that were somehow disappointed by the richness of the prose of Michael Judge, let me clarify one thing: reading this book you have not a precise and informative description of all the factors that brought into being our calendar. You get from Michael the reality of how the calendar ended being the way it is: flowing through history, with all the additions, and distortions, and also right observations, that have contributed to the creation of our way of measuring time.In other words, Michael give us the sense of what has been a construction in which facts and fantasy, myth and reality, have participated.Only this elegant flow is apt to represent that process.Two observations:- in the description of the first clock there is a mistyping: the name of that part of the clock that allows to the spring to give the little extra impulse to avoid to the clock to come to a halt, is written "escarpment". That is wrong. Escarpment is a geological formation. The correct name is "escapement" from "escape" - English - from the Italian "scappare" or to run away.- In the part dedicated to the moon, that rightly so Michael says is of the feminine gender in the ancient, and also in the modern culture, there is a non-mentioned exception. In fact in one language, Amharic, national language of Ethiopia, the genders are inverted: the moon is masculine, the sun is feminine.I still have to finish reading the entire book, but I needed to express my opinion that I hope will help in putting this gentle narration in the proper light. This prose vaguely recalls the style of the great Harold Blom, so rich of continuous references and hints popping up from his humanistic culture. I give 4 stars as per advice of Richard Feynman that encourages to never bet on the 100%, even if you are predicting that tomorrow the sun will rise, as usually does, high in the sky.I want to add this final comment after finishing the reading. I confirm that to appreciate the gentle prose of Michael Judge you have to have a classic education, not so much for his style, as for the fact that he constantly implies that his readers know more than the average person knows about mythology, religions and history of science. It happens to me to be such a person, that's why I give to this book 5 stars. I only found a limitation in it: it is largely following the evolution of the topic in the Mediterranean area, it would have been interesting to extend it to include cultures like the Eastern ones. India and China offer a lot on time concept and traditions, not to mention the American Indians, Incas and Aztec that have also an apocalictic vision. Thanks Michal, it was a pleasure.

We danced through everyear finding the fingerprints of ancient cultures still tickling our modern keyboards. This was a pleasant, no, joyful walk through the seasons of our lives!

News of daily disasters readable every minute, the heart cannot hold each event in calm reflection.Here is a book about the heavens as they circle the earth in a repeating pattern. It reconnects us to the natural world and life-cycles way past our earthly concerns,taking us through the year as humans have for ions.

Not what I expected. I expected a natural history of the calendar. What I got instead was a gentle weaving of the myths and legends and the history of the calendar. Not what I expected but a gentle easy read with compelling stories, intriguing bits of history and an optimistic call to action. Although I only gave this book 3 stars, it is definitely worth a reed. It is an easy and enjoyable read. Well worth the limited time it takes to read.

Michael Judge does an outstanding work bringing the history of our calendar to life. His melding of myth, history and culture causes one to view time itself with a greater sense of awe. His book is for anyone who wishes to slow down and enjoy time, rather than spend it.

This is a gentle survey of the origins of the modern Calendar. It explores the history and significance of the major feasts that punctuate the calendar each month. The result is a book filled with interesting facts illuminating many facets of Western culture. It can provide the reader an interesting browse but certainly it is not in any sense a scholarly study and those looking for such will be disappointed.Perhaps the writer's style is a bit too flowery in places and I found some sequences of historical summary a bit boring. National, social, and cultural stereotypes abound and these can become rather tiresome.He makes one significant error which should be corrected in later editions. Judge quotes a verse from the "Rubaiyat" which he states is translated by "Robert" Fitzgerald. However, the quatrain quoted is from the famous translation by Edward Fitzgerald.

I have been curious about the calendar and time for many years, but no one was able to answer my questions.This book answers them all. Descriptive yet educational reading.

Full of interesting facts, and clearly well-researched, this is a good book to dip in and out of. The prose is a bit florid in places, but that's a matter of taste, and better than uninspiring.

I really enjoyed this book. You will learn loads . Well worth a read.

Enjoyable read through the history and background of our modern calendar with explanations for the major festivals and events throughout the year.