The Earth’s tilt means we experience four seasons as we orbit the Sun. So, starting with winter in the northern hemisphere, the Earth moves round and the days get longer and warmer until it becomes spring. The Earth spins three hundred and sixty five times in one year. That’s why we have three hundred and sixty five days in a year.

Today a solar calendar is kept in step with the seasons by a fixed rule of intercalation. But although the Egyptians, who used the heliacal rising of Sirius to determine the annual inundation of the Nile, knew that the tropical year was about 365.25 days in length, they still used a 365-day year without intercalation. This meant that the calendar date of Sirius’ rising became increasingly out of step with the original dates as the years progressed. In consequence, while the agricultural seasons were regulated by the heliacal rising of Sirius, the civil calendar ran its own separate course. It was not until well into Roman times that an intercalary day once every four years was instituted to retain coincidence. Complex cycles The fact that neither months nor years occupied a whole number of days was recognized quite early in all the great civilizations. Some observers also realized that the difference between calendar dates and the celestial phenomena due to occur on them would first increase and then diminish until the two were once more in coincidence. The succession of differences and coincidences would be cyclic, recurring time and again as the years passed. An early recognition of this phenomenon was the Egyptian Sothic cycle, based on the star Sirius (called Sothis by the ancient Egyptians). The error with respect to the 365-day year and the heliacal risings of Sirius amounted to one day every four tropical years, or one whole Egyptian calendar year every 1,460 tropical years (4 × 365), which was equivalent to 1,461 Egyptian calendar years. After this period the heliacal rising and setting of Sothis would again coincide with the calendar dates ( see below The Egyptian calendar). The calendar dating of historical events and the determination of how many days have elapsed since some astronomical or other occurrence are difficult for a number of reasons. Leap years have to be inserted, but, not always regularly, months have changed their lengths and new ones have been added from time to time and years have commenced on varying dates and their lengths have been computed in various ways. Since historical dating must take all these factors into account, it occurred to the 16th-century French classicist and literary scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609) that a consecutive numbering system could be of inestimable help. This he thought should be arranged as a cyclic period of great length, and he worked out the system that is known as the Julian period. He published his proposals in Paris in 1583 under the title Opus de emendatione temporum.

The tropical year and the synodic month are incommensurable, 12 synodic months amounting to 354.36706 days, almost 11 days shorter than the tropical year. Moreover, neither is composed of a complete number of days, so that to compile any calendar that keeps in step with the Moon’s phases or with the seasons it is necessary to insert days at appropriate intervals; such additions are known as intercalations. Observation of the Sun is done at sunrise and sunset. When the Sun is low on the horizon, its path is narrow and obvious, but as it rises, it gets wider and wider. When it’s too high, you can’t tell where it has risen from and have to use other clues for navigation, such as the shape and direction of the waves. Phases of the Moon The Metonic cycle was improved by both Callippus and Hipparchus. Callippus of Cyzicus ( c. 370–300 bce) was perhaps the foremost astronomer of his day. He formed what has been called the Callippic period, essentially a cycle of four Metonic periods. It was more accurate than the original Metonic cycle and made use of the fact that 365.25 days is a more precise value for the tropical year than 365 days. The Callippic period consisted of 4 × 235, or 940 lunar months, but its distribution of hollow and full months was different from Meton’s. Instead of having totals of 440 hollow and 500 full months, Callippus adopted 441 hollow and 499 full, thus reducing the length of four Metonic cycles by one day. The total days involved therefore became (441 × 29) + (499 × 30), or 27,759, and 27,759 ÷ (19 × 4) gives 365.25 days exactly. Thus the Callippic cycle fitted 940 lunar months precisely to 76 tropical years of 365.25 days. The main use of cycles was to try to find some commensurable basis for lunar and solar calendars, and the best known of all the early attempts was the octaëteris, usually attributed to Cleostratus of Tenedos ( c. 500 bce) and Eudoxus of Cnidus (390– c. 340 bce). The cycle covered eight years, as its name implies, and so the octaëteris amounted to 8 × 365, or 2,920 days. This was very close to the total of 99 lunations (99 × 29.5 = 2,920.5 days), so this cycle gave a worthwhile link between lunar and solar calendars. When in the 4th century bce the accepted length of the year became 365.25 days, the total number of solar calendar days involved became 2,922, and it was then realized that the octaëteris was not as satisfactory a cycle as supposed.

Meanwhile, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun. The light and heat from the Sun is less direct, and it is spread over a wider area so it brings less warmth. The tilt means that nights are longer, days are shorter. This is winter in the northern hemisphere.

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Summer is when the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun - this gives us longer days and means the Sun's rays are more direct, stronger and warmer. Another early and important cycle was the saros, essentially an eclipse cycle. There has been some confusion over its precise nature because the name is derived from the Babylonian word shār or shāru, which could mean either “universe” or the number 3,600 (i.e., 60 × 60). In the latter sense it was used by Berosus ( c. 290 bce) and a few later authors to refer to a period of 3,600 years. What is now known as the saros and appears as such in astronomical textbooks (still usually credited to the Babylonians) is a period of 18 years 11 1/ 3 days (or with one day more or less, depending on how many leap years are involved), after which a series of eclipses is repeated. At this point in the orbit, the Earth’s tilt means that the southern hemisphere is facing more towards the Sun. This means that the light and heat from the Sun is more direct and stronger. The days are the longest in the year and the nights, the shortest. This is summer in the southern hemisphere.