accurate prediction

What was the ancient Egyptian calendar like? According to what record? Speaking of origin, this ancient Egyptian calendar is more advanced than our "twenty-four solar terms". The ancient Egyptians made their own calendars. Marx said: "It is necessary to calculate the fluctuation period of Nile water."

Egyptian astronomy was born. "The ancient Egyptian calendar was developed from a variety of calendars, including lunar calendar, folk calendar, quasi-lunar calendar and so on.

Lunar ephemeris

This is the early calendar of ancient Egypt, which was optimized by combining the seasonal changes of astrology (especially Sirius). The change period of the latter is a sidereal year, which can be approximately regarded as rejuvenation, with a difference of only 10 minute. However, due to a series of problems caused by the failure to abide by the agreement between the lunar calendar and the tropic year, the calendar was gradually abandoned by political activities, which was rarely seen in historical documents and was only used for religious affairs. At the same time, the Egyptians also guided production according to the relationship with the seasons.

The first month of the lunar calendar begins with the new moon and lasts for 29 or 30 days each month. Every day has its own name, some of which are related to the moon phase. Every year consists of 12 or 13 months. You can refer to the name of the month here, but little is known about the arrangement of1March. Different from the common phenomenon in other areas where the lunar calendar is used, the lunar calendar in ancient Egypt began in the morning rather than at night.

Civil calendar

The civil calendar in ancient Egypt was the so-called Vagus Year ("Wandering Year"), with 365 days in a year, divided into three quarters, 12 months, three weeks per month, and 10 days per week. At the end of the year (or at the beginning of the year), there are five more days as the festival time, corresponding to Osiris, Horus, the sun god, and darkness in turn. It is generally believed that the ancient Egyptian calendar is the origin of the Gregorian calendar. One question is, why do many calendars have similar arrangements, and five days are not in any month?

As the basis of folk calendar, the Nile water level is divided into three quarters: Akhet (flood), Proyet (growth, equivalent to winter) and Shomu (harvest, equivalent to summer). This is because the Nile flooding can make the soil more fertile, which is of vital significance to the people's livelihood in Egypt. From this point of view, the ancient Egyptian calendar is not so much a solar calendar or a Sirius calendar as a Nile calendar. Month only refers to the first month of a quarter, for example, I Akhet is the first month of each year and II Proyet is the fourth month. A date is only represented by a day in a month. (fortune telling)

Quasi-lunar calendar

Quasi-lunar calendar is based on the civil calendar, but it does not depend on Sirius. Its main function is to determine the time of religious festivals. Its leap rule is that if the Lunar New Year is earlier than the civil year, a leap month will be set, and then there will be a leap rule of 25 years.

In addition, ancient Egypt also had similar modern fiscal year settings, which can be seen from Ptolemy II 19 to 27 and Ptolemy IV's reign. The fiscal year begins on 1 day of II Peret and ends on 30th day of I Peret. Another calendar is the same as the civil calendar. In Ptolemy's Astronomical Masterpieces and other astronomical records, there are also some specific periods that do not need to be represented by old year numbers, which are very complicated and will be ignored for the time being. ...

In addition to the setting of 365 days a year later derived from the Gregorian calendar, another contribution of the ancient Egyptian calendar is the division of the zodiac. During the New Kingdom, they had known more than 40 constellations, and archaeologists obtained similar "star map" records in cemeteries and temples.

Egyptian calendar

Idolatry in Egypt usually takes the Eastern Horizon as the starting point of their spiritual source. This idea also deeply influenced the way Egyptians made calendars. Like Mesopotamia, Egyptians originally used calendars based on the moon cycle. But the difference is that Mesopotamia started every month with a new moon in the west at sunset, while Egyptians started every month with a new moon in the east at sunrise. When the influence of the Western Renaissance spread to Egypt, the Egyptian faith began to waver. They soon realized that although the lunar calendar has practical value in most cases, it has many defects. One of the biggest disadvantages is that every cycle in December of the lunar calendar will add 1 1 day every year. In order to make the calendar conform to the solar terms forever, one month can only be added every two years to make up for it.

In three or four thousand BC, the Egyptians tried to abolish the traditional lunar calendar and introduce a new "national" calendar based on the solar cycle. The new calendar is used to serve the national authorities in managing the country, while the moon calendar remains in monk affairs and daily public activities. By recording the movement of Sirius, which appeared at the same time as the sun, they can even calculate that the time for the sun to circle the ecliptic is 365 days. For convenience, they simply divide the year into 12 months, with 30 days in each month. The other five days, as a time period, are mainly used for celebration. Every month is divided into three weeks, each week 10 days. The beginning of each week is determined by the special stars or clusters rising at dusk, rather than trying to match the changes of the moon phase. In order to make the new calendar more effective, they also refined the celestial sphere into 36 parts, so that the night time can be determined by the rise and fall of the stars.

The new Egyptian calendar divides the year into 36 parts, and each part is controlled by a special star. This gave birth to the so-called "ten-degree division of classical astrology" in the theoretical system of astrology, although this concept is often considered as the patent of astrology in the middle century. This is why the ecliptic originally divided into 30 degrees is subdivided into 10 degrees, and each region is controlled by a planet. So sidereal time becomes God's time-that is, the measure of human destiny. Although this fact was not known until symbolism was replaced, the Esna Temple built in 200 BC has shown people the application of 10 degree zoning in astrology.

In the 4th century BC, Firmicus Maternus, a famous Sicilian astrologer, was one of the astrologers who emphasized the important role of 10 division. He declared that the power of the planet in its division was as strong as that in the constellation it guarded. Manili Uss also attributed 10 degree zoning to the symbolic theory of ecliptic zoning. But most astrologers, including the ancient Greek astronomer, geographer and mathematician Ptolemy in the second century A.D.

The founder of geocentric theory) thinks that the 10 degree partition is only the decreasing intensity of planets (such as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Mercury, Venus and Moon) in order of distance from the Earth.

Firmicus Maternus claimed that he presented this theoretical system to Nechepso-"Egypt's greatest monarch is also a truly excellent astrologer, who accurately predicted all diseases and suffering people through the 10 degree zoning theory." In fact, there is no record in history to prove the existence of such an emperor, but it is possible that Firmicus did put forward his theory to Nectanebo II (360-343 BC), the last Pharaoh in Egypt, who was the astrological tutor of the legendary St. Alexander. Such an important astrological system was finally completed in 150 BC, and was named after the legendary Nie Chip Suo and the Egyptian high priest Petociris. Petociris may be the high priest who served Pharaoh in Ptolemy's time in 300 BC. Nechepso and Petosiris were later regarded as the founders of the theory that "the planets have the same powerful power in their own regions and in their own constellations" in the astrological system. Although the exact origin time of 10 degree zoning theory is unknown, at least we can guess that this theory was used in astrology at least before the third century BC.

But in a word, the reason why the zoning theory is arranged in this way is definitely more complicated than the exact time when it was officially used in astrology. Ptolemy believed that the Egyptian calendar was consistent with astrology. But he trusts the Egyptian calendar more because he thinks it is more accurate. However, we can understand that the zoning theory developed in a complicated way in the Egyptian calendar, but it has been well used and simplified in astrology. Ptolemy's main criticism of Egypt's zoning system is that it is arbitrary. The degree used as the basis for drawing a star map describing how planets determine their fate is to divide the years in proportion. He claimed that he had ancient manuscripts, which were suitable for a simple and reasonable division of astrology. He combined the advantages of the two theories and established his own theoretical system, a new theory based on symbolism, trinity and planetary dynamics. This theoretical basis is generally accepted by western astrology circles, and it is explained in detail in William Lily's course of astrology in17th century:

Many centuries later, it was not until Ptolemy's time that astrologers began to formally accept the idea of 10 degree division. After Ptolemy's death, almost all Greeks learned to use his method. Since then, until Christianity unified Europe today, the division of 10 degree is still considered as the most reasonable part of astrology theory.

Although we lack detailed evidence to prove how ancient astrologers used this technology in practice, its application in the period of classical astrology has been fully confirmed by historical materials. Through the revival of people's interest in traditional astrology, these medieval astrology application skills have once again returned to the practice of modern astrology research.

The details of the concept of time deified by Egyptians deserve attention. In Egyptian belief, every star is depicted as a god, in charge of the tenth interval of the ecliptic. The way they make sure is that the star that rises first at the beginning of each week is the master of this week, that is, the god of this week. In the early days, stellar clocks were used to determine the dominant stars every week. This simple device can prompt the exact arrival time at every 10 degree interval even at night. Therefore, astrologers can record these times and use charts to calculate and mark every hour of the night. This method of recording time is usually thought to have originated in 2400 BC, but in fact, the 12 existing cases found in Egyptian temples proved that this method was paid more attention at that time and was an important way to provide wealth for the dead in the underworld. In the temple of Ramesses IV, people found a sitting human figure pattern arranged according to the position of the stars in the sky. Using these astrological positions, it is easy to point out that fourteen days in a year are the exact time of the cycle night.

The further application of the deified time calendar in ancient Egypt is that it can indicate the control of stars at any time through the movement of stars and clusters. These functions are the patron saint of twelve hours during the day in the field of the sun, which is especially important in mythology. Of course, the patron saint of the night is also very important. When the sun god falls below the horizon, he must go through the realms of various gods in every hour of the dark world. These gods opened the door for the sun god and sent him to the next field. Only these night guardians knew the password to open the door. The concept of the hour-interval god is also applied to astrology, especially when the judgment of astrology needs to be accurate to a certain hour or several hours. But later, the planet was unified as the patron saint of every hour and became a very effective descriptive symbol in astrological exploration.

But planetary time is not fixed and continuous like the usual clock, but it will change in length, which is also a manifestation of following the Egyptian calendar. By inventing the water clock, the Egyptians created a 24-hour day for the first time, including 12 hours during the day and 12 hours at night. In vernal equinox, the 24 hours of day and night are equally distributed, but at other times of the year, the length of each hour often changes. Their calculation method is: divide sunrise to sunset into 12 hours during the day, and divide sunset to sunrise into 12 hours at night. Therefore, the daytime 12 hour is longer in summer and shorter in winter; The 12 hour at night is shorter in summer and longer in winter.

Sunset and sunrise have been of great significance since they were defined as "death" and "rebirth" of the sun. The appearance or disappearance of the sun makes people's whole life pattern change from active to silent, and the time calendar left by the Egyptians is a very valuable symbol of this change. Religious ceremonies are usually held at sunrise, eg morning prayers in English churches.

Catholic prayer at midnight or dawn)-one of the functions of a priest-summons the divine power of the planet during the day. This planet is regarded as the commander in chief in the sky at this time, and the guardian planet of this hour is also the agent of this person in this life. In astrology, the order of hours is arranged according to the astrological order of planets: moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, sun, Venus and Mercury. Another religious ceremony (evening prayer, that is, the evening class of seven daily prayers of Catholicism) is held at the eighth hour every day, when the ruler of this hour changes back to the planet that rules this day. Although the name of seven days a week is still named after these planetary rulers, planetary time is considered only suitable for mysticism. The 24-hour isometric system was introduced and developed in the Greek cultural era, but this time system completely separated the connection between daily life and seasons.