Our Calendar

's day or Sunday. Dominical letter, one of the first seven le

re placed in the calendar beside the days of the year, so that A stands opposite the first day of January, B opposite the second, C opposite

G, Tuesday by A, Wednesday by B, Thursday by C, Friday by D, and Saturday by E; and every Sunday throughou

the year consist of 364 days, or 52 weeks invariably, the first day of the year and the first day of the month, and in fact any day of any year, or any month, would always commence on the same day of the week. But every common year con

g year, 1838, must begin on Monday. As A represented all the Sundays in 1837 and as A always stands for the first day of January, so in 1838 it will represent all the Mondays, and the dominical

e the year 1865 commenced on Sunday, 1866 on Monday, 1867 on Tuesday, the dominical letters are A, G and F, respectively. Therefore, if every year consisted of 3

on the same day of the week; if they all consisted of 365 days, or 52 weeks and one day, they would all commence one day later in the week than the year preceding; if they all consisted of 366 days, or 52 weeks and two days, they would commence two days later in the week; if 367 days or 52 weeks and three days, then three days later, and so on, one day later for every additional day. It is also evident that every additional day causes the dominical letter to go back one place. Now in leap-year the 29th day of February is the additional or intercalary day. So one letter for January and February, and another for the re

the same order, on the same days of the month. Thus, for the year 1801, the dominical letter is D; 1802, C; 1803, B; 1804, A and G; and so on, going back five places every four years

century, for the leap-year is not suppressed in every fourth centurial year; consequently the cycle will then be continued for two hundred years. It should be here stated that thi

ct will be the number of years in the cycle. Now, in the Gregorian calendar, the intercalary period is 400 years; this number being multiplied by s

the Julian and 497 in the Gregorian calendar, three intercalations being suppressed in the Gregorian every 400 years. Now 497 is exactly divisible by seven, the number

he intercalation is made there must necessarily be a change in the dominical letter. Had it been so arranged that the additional day was placed after the 30th of June or September, then the first letter would be used until the intercalation is made in June or September, and the second to the end of the year. Or suppose that the end of the year had been fixed as the time and place for the intercalation, (which would have been much more convenient for computation,) then there would have been no use whatever for the second dominical letter, but at the end of the year we would go back t