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February 8, 2010

The Best Ways To Shed Weight

If you decide that you want to keep to a traditional style diet, as a rule of thumb, you should find a weight loss plan that is rich in fresh fruit and vegetables; low-fat dairy foodstuffs; white meat and fish; whole grain cereals and a lot of drinking water and by that I mean at least eight to ten 250mm glasses a day.

Being heavy can cause a lot of other issues, in addition it being a problem in its own right. Obesity makes quick movement, stretching and reaching difficult. Excess perspiration can be an embarrassment and it can result in rubbing. The range of fashionable clothing available can be constrained too. In addition to these problems, studies have shown that being overweight invariably leads to health problems such as high blood pressure, cardiac troubles, sleep problems and diabetes.

The only resolution to this bundle of problems is to lose those spare pounds around your waist by embarking on a healthy weight loss diet plan and following it faithfully. I will give you a few general pointers below to help you slim down and decrease the risk of spending your latter years running in and out of hospital.

Almost all of the traditional weight loss diet plans proposed by dietitians and nutritionists start with the simple exhortation to reduce your food consumption to the amount you require to carry out your every day routine. The problem is that it sounds simple, but it is one of the hardest things to do. It takes a lot of determination on your part. However, you could start by eating and drinking three-quarters of what you normally eat. Once you can handle that, reduce the percentage again.

Try to make every calorie count. By that, I mean, if you are going to eat 200 calories, make certain that they are contained in food that will do you good and keep you feeling satiated. A bar of chocolate will give you a blood-sugar rush for 20-30 minutes, but a doorstep of a cheese and salad sandwich made from whole grain bread washed down with a glass or two of water will give you plenty of fibre and vitamins and fill you up for a couple of hours.

It is always a good idea to keep a journal of what you consume and when. This way you can compare days and weeks and see what works best. It also helps if you are reducing your consumption in stages. Mark what you eat with the number of calories in that portion. If you do not know accurately, guess it. Writing something down is better than nothing.

The next part is the part I don’t like – exercise. Regular exercise. The good news is that it does not have to be too much. Two thirty minute walks a day is quite helpful. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Or walk in your lunch time and after your evening meal. If you like, frequent visits to the fitness center are even better, but they are also easier to miss or give up altogether.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with lose weight programs. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight? Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

February 6, 2010

Minor Holidays And Occasions In The USA

Hereunder is a directory of minor holidays and occasions in the United States. Some of them are virtually unknown, and others are quite obscure.

April Fools’ Day – (April 1): the day for practical jokes (only before noon in the UK). Its origins are obscure, but it bears a similarity to an ancient Roman festival for the goddess of nature.

Arbor Day – (last Friday in April): devoted to trees and their preservation. It is held on December 22 everywhere else in the world.

Armed Forces Day – (third Sunday in May): a day to honour the US armed forces.

Citizenship Day – (September 17): replaced Constitution Day in 1952 by presidential proclamation.

Daylight-Saving Time: was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but became the Uniform Time Act in 1966. It is not observed in Hawaii, the Eastern Time Zone of Indiana, most of Arizona (except on the Navajo Reservation), American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

Election Day – (Tuesday after the first Monday in November): presidential elections are held in years divisible by four and elections for all members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate in years evenly divisible by two.

Fathers’ Day – (third Sunday in June): was first celebrated in West Virginia in 1908, but this distinctively American holiday was not made official until 1972.

Flag Day – (June 14): was first celebrated in 1877, which was the centenary of the adoption of the modern design. Truman approved the Flag Day Bill in 1949.

Groundhog Day – (February 2): on this day the groundhog peeps out of his burrow. If he sees his own shadow there will be six weeks of Winter to follow, otherwise Spring is just around the corner.

Halloween – (October 31): All Hallow’s Eve is the day before the feast of All Saints. It started as a pagan custom honouring the dead and a celebration of Autumn. ‘Trick or Treat’ is purely American with no historical foundation.

Kwanzaa – is a secular celebration by African-Americans to commemorate their African heritage. It commences on Dec.26th when a candle in a candelabrum is lit every day for seven days. It was first observed by Maulana Karenga in 1966.

Mothers’ Day – (second Sunday in May): was conceived by Anne M. Jarvis of Philadelphia as a way for children to pay homage to their mothers. It received presidential proclamation in 1914.

National Maritime Day – (May 22): was proclaimed in 1935 to memorialize the SS Savannah’s first successful transatlantic crossing by a steamship in 1819. It is also a day of remembrance of merchant mariners who died in defense of their country.

National Teachers’ Day – (Tuesday of the first full week in May): is when pupils are meant to honour the teaching profession.

St. Patrick’s Day – (March 17): has been borrowed from Ireland where it is their national saint’s day.

St. Valentine’s Day – (February 14): was originally to honour two saints martyred by Emperor Claudius (214 – 270), but has been devoted to lovers since the Middle Ages.

Susan B. Anthony Day – (February 15): Anthony (1820 – 1906) worked for women’s rights and suffrage.

United Nations’ Day – (October 24): commemorates the endorsement of the UN Charter in 1945 by the then five permanent members of the Security Council.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

February 4, 2010

How To Begin Natural Weight Loss

The most renowned or notorious country in the world for overweight and obese people is the United States of America. Regrettably, it has become one of the things that tourists first talk about, when they get back from a holiday in the USA.

For instance, my father was a Second World War teenager and had always wanted to go to America. It was the first thing he did when he retired. Three months travelling wherever he could think of by bus and when he came back he was full of tales about whom he had met and what he had seen. but he could not hide his amazement about how many really fat people there were there.

I believe the organizations who say that this is largely to do with Americans’ love of hamburgers, pizzas and doughnuts; foodstuffs that have only recently become popular in Europe. Great Britain was the first country to follow the American way, as you would imagine, because it was easier for the advertisers, both countries speaking English.

Sure enough, Britons are becoming obese at an disturbing rate too. Those adverts and trends are also visible in mainland Europe, but at least there are enough warnings now. Anybody who falls for into the junk food trap these days, only has himself to blame. We have been warned.

I now travel a lot in Asia and it is a crying shame to see rehashes of old adverts promoting junk food. For example, Thai food is one of the best in the world, yet Knorr is trying to persuade family cooks that they do not have time to prepare sauces or soups; that they should tip the salty contents of one of their boxes into boiling water and that nobody would know.

I can assure you that they would know where I live. However, firms like Knorr know, that if they can sabotage one generation then they have won. Likewise with McDonald’s, get one generation of parents to take their children there every week and it becomes a family tradition. Bang! They are in!

I saw it happen in the UK and it is so hard to see it happening in Asia too.

If you want to know the secret of losing weight naturally, I will tell you. The best of all methods is to only eat food that you have prepared yourself. There you are, easy! Or at least easily said. We can moderate that rule if necessary, to include food that has been prepared by people with your interests at heart, people who love you. You can also include good quality restaurants, but that is just about the limit.

Do not eat potato crisps or chips, shop-bought biscuits, cakes, pies, pasties, hamburgers or sandwiches. If you long for that stuff, then get up and cook it yourself! This is how to lose weight naturally. It is called eating well and people used to do it naturally because in those days, there were no fast food stores and people took home made sandwiches and salads to work or school.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

January 28, 2010

Disappointment and Rapid Weight

It is a good idea to set yourself targets, if you want to achieve a goal. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this. For instance, if you are a size 14 and you spend a fair bit of money on some beautiful size 8 dresses as motivation, you will probably feel quite cheesed off if you are not wearing them a month later.

It is not a good idea to make yourself feel awful, so the right way to have done this would have been to set smaller, more easily attainable, less expensive goals. A consequence of disappointing yourself like that could be depression or / and desperation and desperation to meet your targets can lead to stupid decisions.

Foolish decisions like following a fad diet, because it promises you rapid weight loss. There is no such thing as sustainable rapid weight loss without a change of lifestyle. Yes, you can go for surgery and have lumps cut off yourself or you can pump yourself full of diuretics and squeeze the water out of yourself, but the weight will come back, unless you change the way you live.

Any diet that promises rapid weight loss without recommending a healthier, more active lifestyle is doubtful. Many of these kinds of diet are fad diets. The organizers of these diets are only interested in selling you magic potion drinks or powders as meal substitutes. I have even seen one company selling magnetic earrings which were ‘guaranteed’ to make you lose weight, if you dieted and did more exercise!

Of course you will lose weight if you diet and exercise, but carrying the earrings around with you is not helping. It just adds to the depression when you read in the newspaper that the guru you have been following is outed as a con artist.

Here are a few tell-tale signs to help you spot a phony diet:

Any diet that requires you to miss meals should start red lights flashing. If you stop eating, you are reducing the amount of calories you are consuming, so you can expect to lose weight. That is not rocket science. You do not need to pay for advice like that.

However, this approach does not necessarily work either. If you miss a meal, your blood/sugar levels will drop and that has different consequences for different people, but none of them are advantageous. It will also increase the likelihood that you will overeat at the next meal. It would be better to eat a salad, an apple or a banana instead.

Any weight loss program that says you can lose weight without exercising or without dieting is definitely iffy too, because exercise is necessary for good blood circulation and metabolism, which are vital to your losing weight and living healthily.

However, exercise alone will not guarantee good health, you have to diet too. In this context ‘dieting’ just means eating healthily.

You do not have to wear anything special to lose weight either. Electric vibrating belts, magnetic earrings, sweat-inducing cummerbunds and the like, do not work. Full stop. They do not work and in a similar vein, powder and liquid substitutes are not worth it either. Get a liquidizer and make your own or just eat properly.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with losing weight quicklys. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

January 26, 2010

Plug-in Hybrid Cars vs Hybrid Cars

Hybrid cars are on everyone’s minds these days. Twenty, forty, or fifty dollars for a tank of petrol? Who in their right mind really wants to pay that sort of money? But, frustrated, the fuel customer sighs, but pays up. However, hybrid vehicles are being applauded for the little amount of gas they need to operate, and they are being driven off the forecourts of car dealerships each and everyday in ever increasing numbers.

So, what about a plug-in hybrid? Most consumers have heard that these vehicles are great too. Then, someone might be asking him or herself, what exactly a plug-in hybrid is? How they work, and what the difference between a plug-in hybrid and a regular hybrid is?

Plug-in hybrids are capable of running solely on batteries, but they can run on gas also. These kinds of hybrid cars have some of the characteristics of hybrid vehicles. They are also very similar to all-electric vehicles.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles must be charged externally by plugging them into an electrical power source. The combustion engine of plug-in hybrid vehicles is engaged only as a back up. These cars can run only on batteries if desired, but it is expected that these types of hybrid cars be plugged in every day.

Hybrid cars travel just as many miles as a conventional car. Designed to go the extra mile where fuel-mileage is concerned, hybrids can be driven on the highway, in cities, or wherever else a person needs to go.

On the other hand, plug-in hybrids are meant to be driven commuter-length distances, meaning between twenty and sixty miles. Used in this way, the plug-in hybrid does not have to make use of its back up combustion engine, but plug-in hybrids can go further using gas as well.

Hybrids help to minimize pollution, but they still pollute the air. Compared with plug-in hybrids, hybrid cars still have a long way to go where pollution is concerned. Since plug-in hybrid cars can run solely on their battery power, they don’t have to emit waste fuel emissions. That means that plug-in hybrids don’t have to pollute the air.

Plug-in hybrids actually do combat greenhouse gas emissions and plug-in hybrids use virtually no oil imported or not. Studies have shown that electric hybrids emit at least 67% less greenhouse gases compared with gasoline cars. Since the product used to power plug-in hybrids is renewable, the difference in greenhouse gas emissions may be even greater than the study determined.

And so there you have it. Those are the main differences between plug-in hybrids and regular hybrid cars. It makes a big difference, but you would be surprised how little that matters at the current moment. And that’s only because plug-in hybrids are not being sold to consumers at this present time. But this article should get you excited about the wonderful plug-in hybrid car, coming soon to a dealership near you.

And it’s going to be a spectacular debut too. People already really like regular hybrid cars, but they haven’t seen anything until they see the new plug-in hybrid cars. However, for now, maybe they should just be satisfied with what they have, because who knows? Before plug-in hybrid cars come out, something even better might be introduced onto the market.

If you are interested in the working parts of New Hybrid Vehicles, just visit our website at http://new-hybrid-vehicles.com Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.

January 21, 2010

Is Fasting For Fitness A Good Idea?

A lot of people do not understand their bodies. That much is obvious because they think that fasting will help them become fitter. They feel convinced that their bodies will feed off their excess fat and that they will lose weight as a consequence. They also appear to imagine that they will automatically end up with more muscle, just in the right places too. Some take up fasting for fitness because they think that it will rid them of the toxins in their bodies.

Another belief that these fasters have is that they are will be able to flush out all of the toxins in their bodies by drinking plenty of water at the same time as not eating food. Even if this is true, it would be a long procedure that would mean that you would have to fast for at least five to seven days though in order to conclude the detox process, although it is still not clear scientifically whether fasting is the right approach for those that desire fitness.

There are many other paths to fitness that do work well though. For example, you can cut back the amount of food that you eat. Cutting back is not fasting, it is dieting and it is not only far more effectual, it is also far less difficult. This, together with drinking plenty of water and increasing your amount of physical exercise will help you to get fitter.

If you drink a lot of soda like cola or lemonade, which are full of sugar, like a lot of kids do, or lots of cups of sugared tea or coffee, like a lot of adults do, then just exchanging those drinks for water or weak tea will help you lose weight quite rapidly even if you do not make any other changes to your diet or your amount of exercise.

It is also possible to damage your body if you take on on a demanding exercise regime only relying on body fat to keep you going. Your body almost certainly will not be able to supply enough energy to fuel such a change, because your metabolism will be too low.

Someone going about it in this way, can become very weak and dizzy. It is not a good idea to risk injury because you have not given your body all the energy it requires to accomplish the tasks you are asking it to perform.

It is best to consult a doctor before you make any changes to either your diet or your fitness routine. Confer with your doctor about your thoughts on fasting and fitness. They will be able to inform you whether they feel it is something you can try or whether it is just too risky.

Fasting is all right if you have do it for religious purposes, but do not attempt much physical exertion. Ask a Muslim how he or she feels during Ramadan! Fasting for long periods can lead to high blood pressure and even liver damage. So, be very wary before trying to starve yourself fit, there are much better methods.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with losing weight quickly. If you have an interest in losing weight, too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

January 20, 2010

What Is a Fly Fishing Calendar?

Are you wondering what the best times to try to schedule a fly fishing trip are? Well, when we talk about a fly fishing calendar, we are not quite referring to a printed calendar that you can hang on your wall. We are talking about targeting and specifying the right times to fish and the right places at which to fish.

The main thing you have to think about when you are considering drawing up a fly fishing calendar is: when will the water be at the optimum temperature? That is, the temperature that is best for catching fish. The right time to go fishing will depend on the region that you are looking at for your fly fishing trip.

In some places, like California, the fishing is pretty good all the year round. Whereas in other locations, such as Washington, you will have to stay away from the water in the winter as the freezing temperatures will stress the fish and they will not be as plenteous.

Generally speaking, the fly fishing calendar shows that the best fly fishing is in the spring and summer periods. Early fall will also find some places seeing good fishing as well. Almanacs can be useful to steer you towards the best fishing times and places as can constantly updating Internet web sites that are run by dedicated local fishermen.

Many places will give weekly, and sometimes even daily fishing reports on their websites. They can tell you where the fish are biting and where the best places in the river are to cast your line. They generally keep these areas of their web sites up-to-date fairly frequently. So you can get excellent reports just by looking at what other anglers have to say about their fishing experiences.

Usually, fish like warmer water, although, there are other species like salmon and steelhead that thrive in colder water. However, in general, warm water will attract more fish. Nevertheless, if the water is too warm, the fish will be sluggish and will swim to locations where the water is cooler.

The fly fishing calendar used most often by experienced fishermen has been compiled over a long period of time. They expend a considerable quantity of effort to estimate where and when the best fishing will take place. Then they share it with others. That is one of the best things about fly fishing – the camaraderie and the sharing that can come about because of a mutual affection for the sport of fly fishing.

You can create your own fly fishing calendar with a little time and effort. Just do your homework and keep copious notes. When you see a trend, you will know that it is time to go fishing! Then you should be certain to help your fellow anglers by passing on the information via a local club or the Internet, if you are talented at it, because others will be trying to figure out what you already know. You know that most fly fishermen would do the same for you, do you not?

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

January 18, 2010

Free Weight Loss Diets

The race to fitness is on and a lot of people are getting in on the act. Some people do it in order to achieve a sexy body, some people just do it because they are ashamed of their body, while others do it just to remain fit and healthy. As such, there are many fitness programs available on the Internet, in gyms, spas and fitness centres all over the world. Some are too expensive – so expensive that you will lose weight just by trying to earn the money needed to pursue these fitness programs.

You might not need to go to the gym or the spa or any fitness centre and spend much just to slim down and obtain that desired beautiful body. There are many books available in the bookshops offering weight loss programs that are convenient and free. However, the books are not cheap though. These weight loss programs are gaining immense popularity due to their publicity, testimonials and reviews and you may be confused as to exactly which one to follow. So before you choose which weight loss plan to follow, try reading the following summaries of the most popular diet programs out today.

The Atkins’ New Diet Revolution by Dr. Atkins: This weight loss program promotes a high protein diet and less carbohydrates. You can eat loads of vegetables and meat but must not eat bread and pasta. You are not restricted on your fat consumption so it is all right to pour on the (correct) salad dressing and freely spread on the butter. However, during the diet, some people may find themselves short on fibre and high on fat and cholesterol. Grains and fruits are also severely limited.

The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet by Drs. Heller. This diet plan also advocates low carbohydrate food. It approves eating meats, vegetables and fruits, dairy and grain products. however, warns against consuming too many carbohydrates. “Reward” meals can be very high in fats and saturated fats.

Choose to Lose: by Dr. Goor. It recommends restricting your fat intake. You are given a “fat” budget but you are given free reign on how to spend it. It does not pressure people to regulate their carbohydrate consumption. Eating meat and poultry as well as low-fat dairy and seafood is OK. You may also consume vegetables, fruits, cereals, bread and pasta. This weight loss plan is quite healthy, because it advises healthy amounts of fruits and vegetables as well as saturated fats. Watch your triglyceride levels though. If they are high, trim down on the carbohydrates and eat more unsaturated fats.

The DASH Diet. Advocates eating a moderate amount of fat and protein yet lots of carbohydrates. It was primarily created to reduce blood pressure. The diet plan follows the pyramid food guide and encourages a high consumption of whole wheat grains and fruit and vegetables and low-fat dairy. Some dieters think it advocates too much consumption to create significant weight loss.

Eat More, Weigh Less: by Dr. Ornish. Primarily vegetarian fare and strictly low-fat. Warns to watch out for non-fat dairy and egg whites. This diet plan is low in calcium and restricts the consumption of healthy foods like seafood and lean poultry.

Eat Right for Your Type: This diet is really unusual because it bases its recommendations on your blood group. For instance, it recommends plenty of meat for people with the blood type O. However, diet plans for some blood types are nutritionally imbalanced and too low in calories. Furthermore, just for the record, there is no evidence that blood type can affect dietary needs.

The Pritkin Principle: It is focused on trimming the number of calories by eating watery foods that make you feel full. Eating vegetables, fruits, oatmeal, pasta, soups, salads and low-fat dairy is fine, although it limits protein sources to lean meat, seafood and poultry. It is healthy because it provides low amounts of saturated fats and large amounts of vegetables and fruits. However, it is low on calcium and limits lean protein sources.

Volumetrics: It recommends consuming fewer calories. It recommends about the same foods as Pritkin but restricts fatty food and grain foodstuffs like popcorn, pretzels and crackers. This diet is reasonably healthy given the high amounts of fruit and vegetables. It also recommends eating fewer calories and saturated fats.

The Zone: It is fairly low on carbohydrates but moderately high on proteins. It encourages low-fat protein foods like fish and chicken plus vegetables, fruits and grains. It is also healthy but short on grains and calcium.

Weight Watchers: High carbohydrates, yet moderate on fats and proteins. A very healthy diet plan and very flexible too. It allows the dieter to plan his own meals rather than offering recipes, although there are WW TV dinners in the shops.

Are you interested in a rapid weight loss program? If so, please visit our website entitled Quick Weight Loss You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

What Is A Promotional Strategy?

Even if you were to invent something earth-shattering, you would not earn any money from of it if you left the invention on your desk. The only way you can profit from it is by selling it and in order to achieve this, you have to inform people that it exists, that it is for sale and where they may get it from. In other words, you have to advertise it.

The US Patents Office has issued thousands patents for items that never made it and many of those did not make it, not because they were not good ideas, but because their inventors did not know what to do with them. A business is more or less the same as a new invention. It has to be advertised, unless it is situated in the middle of the only street in town.

Having already started the business, it is to be hoped that, you have already worked out your intended market and evaluated the need for your goods or services. Now you have to convert those potential customers into contented customers and this is where your promotional strategy comes in.

A promotional strategy is nothing more than a for reaching your intended market, which is of course the people most likely to require your services or products. At its simplest, your promotional strategy might consist of just hanging a sign over your door and relying on word of mouth from satisfied customers to circulate, so doing your advertising for you.

In some cases, this is indeed all the advertising a business requires, but the cases are not that widespread really. It works, if you are operating in a very small town or if your product or service is unique or very specialized or if you enjoy a long-standing good reputation. However, usually, customers require more details to go on before they will be attracted to your business.

Therefore, the objective of your promotional strategy should be to get in touch with the greatest quantity of potential customers by the most economical use of your means, which may include money, personnel and facilities. This means that you have to divine the channels of communication most used by your potential customers and try to get a message to them through those. This is normally constrained by a budget.

Advertising involves the purchasing of time or space in the media you have chosen in order to market your business to your intended market. You then have to decide which form of advertising you are going to use: institutional or product advertising. Institutional advertising markets the firm’s name as in: ‘Larry’s Boot Shop – The Best In Town’, whereas product advertising is more specific and might read: ‘Nike Walking Boots – 30% off at Larry’s. Offer Finishes Soon!’

Both forms of advertising can be successful and lend themselves better to some media than to others. Institutional advertising is better carried out on shop signs, sign-written vans or windows or promotional calendars, that is, static, long-term, business name advertising and product advertising is better done by newspaper, magazine, radio and TV, where one-off special offers can be promoted.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching promotional wall calendars. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

January 12, 2010

Calendar – Which Calendar Do You Mean?

In the West, we tend to think that there is only one calendar, but there are dozens of them around the world. And what is more, there were probably hundreds of them previously. All defunct now either because ours is more accurate or because theirs did not fit in with our commercial way of life.

But that does not mean to say that people do not still use those old-fashioned, defunct calendars. Oh, no! Governments have given up their old, traditional national calendars, but in general, country folk still refer to them, even if they can no longer get hold of a printed version. I cannot go into all the calendars here, but I will mention half-a-dozen of them.

Lunar Calendar – There is some indication that early man used marks on bone to record or indicate the passage of time 25,000 years ago, almost certainly calibrated by the Moon’s phases. A calendar can be created based on the lunar cycles; it creates a year of twelve months (the word ‘month’ is from the word ‘moon’), but only 354 days, which is, eleven short of the time it takes the Earth to revolve around the Sun. The Chinese still use a variety of the lunar calendar but they resolve this issue by inserting extra moths every now and then to bring ‘time’ back into alignment with the Sun.

Solar Calendar – The ancient Egyptians were the first people to employ a Solar Calendar, although it could justifiably be called a stellar calendar. The new year began for them when Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest star in the night sky, rose in the same place as the Sun. This more often than not coincided with the flooding of the Nile. This calendar was of 365 days; twelve months of thirty days and five holy days. Therefore, it was only one quarter of a day off the true year. However, this meant that slowly but surely, the new year did not concur with the flood. Scientists have worked out that this calendar was adopted in either 4241 BC or 2773 BC.

Julian Calendar – In 46 BC , Julius Caesar realised that a number of parts of the empire were using different calendars, so he instructed the dating system to be unified. Sosigenes came up with a calendar of 365 days with an extra day every four years. Therefore, in 46 BC, the longest year on record, Caesar added days to the year to bring it back into alignment with the seasons. 46 BC was 445 days long! The vastness of the Roman Empire ensured that this calendar was the defacto calendar of the Western world.

Julian Day Count – In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII instituted a new calendar, but the year after that Joseph Justus Scaliger developed a system of counting days, not years. It starts with 1 on January 1st 4713 BC. On this date the Julian and the lunar calendars and the Roman tax dating system all coincided; something that will next happen in 3267. January 1st 2001 was Julian day 2,451,913

Gregorian Calendar – from at least 730 AD, it was spotted that the year from vernal equinox to vernal equinox was short of the 365.25 days in a year. This meant that the date of Easter was moving back. So he dropped 10 days from 1582 by jumping from October 4th to October 15th and proclaiming that century years would only be leap years if they were divisible by 400. Consequently, 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was. This is the calendar we still use today.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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