ABSTRACT
The familiar, humble secular calendar has actually had a rich and tur
bulent history, with interesting episodes dating long before the Grego
rian reforms of the Renaissance. The reader can scarcely be unaware
that the astronomical year does not equal an integral number of lunar
months, nor is either an integral number of days; yet these inconvenient
incommensurabilities must be reconciled for religious, administrative,
and agricultural reasons. We would like to give a gentle account of cal-
endrical history and calendrical lore by posing sets of questions, some
only a little tricky, which we answer in turn.
