The Calendar Telling The Story Of Time

What time is it - and how do you know? Keeping track of time is no easy matter with a year made up of approximately 365.25 days and a month of about 29.5 days. Do you rely on the moon or the sun or a combination of the two? This course will examine how people have sought to mark the passing of time, starting at places like Stonehenge in England and Newgrange in Ireland. Do you operate a 10 day week like the Ancient Egyptians and Revolutionary France or a seven day week like the Babylonians and Jews? Do you have 30 day month as in Egypt or 20 day months as in Mexico and what do you do about those 5 extra days? What do you do if the calendar gets out of sync? Then you need a figure like Julius Caesar of Pope Gregory XIII to sort it out.  When the British government decided to adopt the Gregorian Calendar in 1752 there were riots and people demanded "Give us back our lost 11 days". Today we live in the age of the atomic clock. Come and join in an extraordinary story which mixes history, astronomy, mathematics and politics as we seek not just to tell the time but the story of time itself!