The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar: A Miscellany of History and Myth, Religion and Astronomy, Festivals and Feast Days

by Michael Judge

Our changing concept of time, and the surprising, often mysterious origins of the calendar, comes to life in this richly informative, beautifully written book.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Reference, Mythology, Anthropology, Technology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2004

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a gentle survey of the origins of the modern Calendar. It explores the history and significance of the major feasts that punctuate the calendar each month. The result is a book filled with interesting facts illuminating many facets of Western culture. It can provide the reader an interesting browse but certainly it is not in any sense a scholarly study and those looking for such will be disappointed.

Perhaps the writer's style is a bit too flowery in places and I found some sequences of historical summary a bit boring. National, social, and cultural stereotypes abound and these can become rather tiresome.

He makes one significant error which should be corrected in later editions. Judge quotes a verse from the "Rubaiyat" which he states is translated by "Robert" Fitzgerald. However, the quatrain quoted is from the famous translation by Edward Fitzgerald.

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first I found this book interesting in spite of its haphazard writing style; I understand that it is a miscellany, so I was reading it as such, as a sort of light-hearted, intriguing mish-mash of information that I could use as a jumping-off point if there was anything I wanted to know more about. But the author offers almost no sources at all for his research - not any kind of notes or bibliography at all beyond a list of credits for the few images used. Not only does that mean the book isn't helpful as a starting place for any in-depth research, but I am wary of books, especially historical books, that offer no support for their claims. Eventually, I just stopped reading.

[verbava · Rating 1 out of 5]

автор так старається писати гарно, що на інформацію слів майже не залишається. ба гірше, тут є ліричні примітки, але нема посилань і списку літератури, тому не зрозуміло, звідки береться навіть та нечисленна інформація, яку автор таки вирішив подати, – а запитань до неї чимало.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a very interesting premise and subject, but enough flaws that I could only give it 3 stars. The history of the calendar and its associated mythology was certainly very interesting, and I did learn quite a bit. I am a little concerned about exactly what I did learn, though, as there were some obvious factual errors in the book. The entire thing is totally unreferenced and there is no bibliography, so I have no idea where the author got most of his information. Rather than TELLING us, for example, that the Romans witnessed certain ancient pagan festivals, it would have been much better to provide a source and a quote. There also wasn't a lot of discussion about scholarly disagreement over various aspects of the calendar's history, which might have added to the book.

In general, I think my main complaint about this book is that too much text is devoted to telling us how we are supposed to FEEL about the calendar rather than just presenting a history of the calendar itself. It's an interesting subject! We have all lived through all the months and can determine whether we feel gloomy, cheerful, etc. on our own. The language is really overblown, e.g. (p105), "February is a womb, rich with the hidden promises of the frozen earth" or (p169), "During the last days of August, we relish her gifts while observing no command of the calendar save one: that summer is like a child waiting to grow up, and that the journey, so long anticipated, should perhaps next year be enjoyed more fully..." Or, more frustratingly and vaguely misogynistic (p192), "Women's hearts, after all, are as unknowable as the final configuration of the Seven Sisters. All that we can do is catch them from the corner of our eye, and hope they look back."

The author has some literary tics that were somewhat distracting. Things like repeating himself in consecutive sentences, which I guess is for effect but didn't really do much for me. For example, when discussing the Sumerians being a more effective cultural than military force (p18): "As a power, they passed away; as a people, they infected their conquerors with the subtlety of thought... As a power, they passed away; but in all the subsequent empires founded on their fall, Sumerian astronomy became the thing to do...".

There were also, as I said, some obvious factual errors. A couple of examples: 1) Saying that Columbus discovered the world was round (p80). "Then something happened on the round world; it was found to be so". Really? The Greeks had established that pretty conclusively 2000 years earlier and this was widely accepted in Columbus's time. 2) Not knowing the distance from the Earth to the Sun (p221). "Life's song, the song of the sun; energy translated into leave, bowel, heart, muscle, and throat from a furnace blazing 29 million miles away." Sorry, but try 93 million miles. Did this book have an editor?

I think this book is in general a decent overview, especially if you want the mythology angle to the calendar. It is definitely not without issues but it is a very quick read and interesting enough that I would recommend it with reservations.

[Jack · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rubbish. I picked this up from the library after a few catalogue searches for astronomy and calendar related books for my worldbuilding hobby. (How would multiple suns and moons influence how time is measured, and how it is named?)
Judge has no bibliography and makes noticeable errors, so I had to put the book down halfway when it was obvious I'd get nothing out of it. This is one of those books obviously intended to be enjoyable and edifying for a non scholarly audience, like an episode of QI without the jokes, but ends up being the kind of book I would consider buying for a nerdy 10 year old, and regret doing so due to the mistakes.

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our calendar—the one we rely on to tell us what days we work, when to celebrate a birthday, and when to get feverishly busy to prepare for the holidays—did not always exist in its current form. This book by Michael Judge offers the fascinating history of how the calendar came to be as it has evolved from ancient times.

It's a relatively short book, and since it covers time since we humans began measuring it, the book is best described as a summary. In the subtitle, Judge describes it as a "miscellany of history and myth, religion and astronomy, festivals and feast days," and indeed "miscellany" is an accurate noun to use.

Find out:
• the origin of the names of each day of the week.

• why so many Christian holy day celebrations have pagan origins, due in large part to clever popes.

• the Roman Catholic church's extraordinary influence on the calendar we still use today.

• something fun—that you probably never noticed—about the iconic image we have of Father Time.

• the luckiest month for finding your future husband or wife.

I think the most interesting part of the book is the second half where Judge describes many of the festivals and holidays we celebrate, from the big ones like Easter, Passover, Halloween, and Christmas to the lesser ones, such as Groundhog's Day and April Fools' Day. He offers lots of odd facts and tidbits, such as how the Roman Catholic church helped create April Fools' Day, the one and only pagan celebration that has survived the ages, and the date of the first Thanksgiving (it wasn't in November!).

What impressed me the most about this book is the quality of writing. Michael Judge is almost poetic in how he presents this "dance of time" through the centuries.

But do note this: The Kindle version is rife with typos. That said, many of the so-called typos are so egregious, they seem more like writing errors. Lots (and lots!) of missing apostrophes, apostrophes that do not belong, lots (and lots!) of missing periods at the end of sentences, and poor punctuation top the list.

And there was one eye-popping (and to be honest, hilarious) typo: The first chapter is titled "And Life Time's Foot," which is (supposed to be) a quote from Shakespeare's play "King Henry IV." The last word should be "fool" and not "foot." It's also missing a comma. The correct version of the quote is: "And Life, Time's Fool." Well, THAT's a big difference!

If you can survive the typos, the book is a delight to read.

[Jessica Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

So , this book was an effort to read more than historical romances. I decided when I go to the library I would choose at least one book from non- fiction. I’m so glad this was my first choice.

A truly beautifully written book. Reminding me that learning can be joyful and poetic. With science, history, mythology, and religion intertwined, there was a lifetime’s worth of knowledge in this book. I think I will buy it. It’s a gorgeous, informative epic that speaks to the child and scholar in all of us.

[B. Rule · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this book never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. I learned next to nothing about the purported origins of the calendar, and had good reason to doubt most of what the author relayed as true. But Judge isn't concerned with history or factual matters; his sympathies are with the mythic, ancient ways of experiencing time as cycles and epicycles, the almost mystic coming into being and passing away of the generations. And how hard he works to impart that poignant feeling!
This book is a cascading rush of fulsome, purple prosody, intended to capture the heart of the reader and to lull his mind into drowsing at its post. It's old fashioned, and it's kind of nice. I think the title of this book is at best a bait and switch and its contents must be almost wholly rejected and cast out by the light of reason. Nonetheless, I still hold some small affection for its efforts, perhaps less skilled than the author would hope, to elicit a feeling of communion with nature and with time. Don't read this if you have the soul of a logician. If you want to sigh while thinking of Celts dancing and spilling blood in the moonlight (the devil take the details of whether they ever actually did), this is the book for you.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Judge is prone to long rhapsodies. There are some interesting factoids in the book, but the prose led me to skim. I suspect the first half of the book could have conveyed the same information in a fraction of the pages.

Even though it's explicitly a book about the Western calendar and IndoEuropean influences on that calendar, the Western focus goes a little too far sometimes. Judge mentions that the 7 day week comes from "the Orient", but doesn't elaborate any further. Also, Judge sometimes mentions stuff like the Jesus story is known the world over, or that all children celebrate Christmas. Or that Westerners don't have a harvest festival anymore except Thanksgiving. (Because the non-Christian-Americans don't count, even though many have harvest festivals.)

And there was at least one irksome mistake. He mentions that there are 304 days in the calendar + 60 "unmonthed" days. He says some months got a day added (instead of subtracted) and two months were added, but somehow the result was a 355 day calendar. That would imply that the two months were 51 days or less in total. I finally had to check wikipedia.

[Ginger Hopper · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was enjoying this book and finding historical reasons for how and why our calendar is set up was interesting. However, then I came to a part of the book discussing the month of May and its connection the the Bona Dea rites of Ancient Rome. The author states that Clodius , a male, sneaked into the all female ritual for Bona Dea in 62 BC and he was therefore killed and his ally, Cicero was exiled. While it has been rumored that Clodius did sneak into this ritual held at the home of Julius Caesar ( and Caesar did divorce is wife because of this) , Clodius wasn't killed because of it and he wasn't actually murdered until 10 years later due to rival gang fights and Cicero was not Clodius' ally but an enemy that Clodius himself had exiled. So now I question everything that I've read in this book. Sigh.

[Anthony R. Vecchiarelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is sloppy in so many ways. Evidently the publisher doesn't employ proofreaders or editors. Lots of punctuation errors. The apostrophe is almost never used to show possession. There are numerous factual errors. This author thinks the sun is 29 million miles away from earth. That's just one. I have read about holidays in other publications where a far more detailed description of how the holidays were celebrated was given. Some of the descriptions are really sappy. There are some bits of interesting information, but you could do better elsewhere. Save your money and don't buy this book.

[Deborah Stepp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prose that is almost poetry tells the story of our calendar today. Fun to read.

[Vic Hao]

This book is interesting but the reader must be wary because it has factual errors. For example, in chapter 3, it refers to the implementation of the Julian Calendar by Julius Caesar (upon the advice of Sosigenes) by making the annual calendar match the actual solar year. “Sixty-seven days had been added to the year. The Long Year, indeed: 44 B.C. lasted for 432 days.”
I checked this with the Encyclopedia Britannica, which states that this “long year” was not in 44 BC but in 46 BC.: “To align the civic and solar calendars, Caesar added days to 46 BCE, so that it contained 445 days” (https://www.britannica.com/science/Ju... and https://www.britannica.com/science/ca...).
The author of “Dance of Time” appeared to have mixed up the year of calendar change with the year of death of Caesar. He wrote: “Caesar died during the Long Year, the year he had created.” The book (a digital edition I bought from iBooks) also says that Caesar died in A.D. 44. This of course was a typo since Caesar was assassinated in B.C. 44.
I hope that the author corrects this error especially in the digital editions of the book so that it does not perpetuate a major factual error on the history of the calendar.

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth look at the historical trends that gave us our pagan, historic holidays. There’s a real lovely connection between pre-historic Europe and the Americas here that I found very beautiful — living in the States, I always felt very far away from the roots of civilization (well, as we know it now), and to recognize that so many celebrations are the same — it’s really lovely. It’s really really lovely. I feel a lot less alone. I want to learn the constellations. I want to feel the agricultural calendar. I want to honor all the gods who have blessed this mortal time. And this book is such a wonderful call to that feeling. None of us are alone — we’re part of a greater sense of human time, along with all our ancestors. And what a delight to partake in celebration with all those who came before.

[Sjervey · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent review of the origins of various aspects of the calendar from the days to the months to the festivals. Many holidays are recycled from the holidays of earlier cultures. Judge views that somewhat cynically. The reality is that the rhythms of life have a universality but religions also need to reinterpret the celebrations to reflect their own understandings of the relationships between God and humans. This is more a matter of education than of opportunism. Nevertheless, this cynicism is a minor element in an otherwise outstanding overview of a major movement of civilization, the human interface with the rhythm of the calendar year and its cycle of seasons. A very worthwhile read.

[Nicole Normand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book discounted on Amazon via Bookbub; this is my honest review
It took me a few years to read this book but it was well worth it. The RC church powers reach everywhere in every day life, our current calendar, festivals, traditions, etc. "the church had become, in essence, a spiritual dictatorship." Well said, and proven time and time again. I actually learned how young Zeus transformed Amalthea’s horn into the cornucopia. Quite interesting. Sometimes poetic, sometimes just stating facts, the author is fluent in the origins of the calendar and is not shy about putting the blame where it belongs.

[Rick Rodrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meander not an argument but an enjoyable read.

Not what I expected. I expected a natural history of the calendar. What I got instead was a gentle weaving of the myths and legends and the history of the calendar. Not what I expected but a gentle easy read with compelling stories, intriguing bits of history and an optimistic call to action. Although I only gave this book 3 stars, it is definitely worth a reed. It is an easy and enjoyable read. Well worth the limited time it takes to read.

[Anne Elliott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nonsense

This author has little knowledge of the true meanings and practices associated with most of these ancient pagan holidays. Nowhere does he mention that they involved human sacrifices, communal sex orgies, etc. any actual search of records reveals that Christmas, Easter, May Day, Halloween, harvest Home all were of ancient origins and all were involved in satanic rituals which have nothing to fo with God, Christ, or Christianity!

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was something I read over twenty years ago and it was an aha moment for me, when I learned our holidays are tied to old pagan festivals which in turn are tied to the movement of the earth through the constellations and tied to equinoxes (Easter), solstices (St. John the baptist day, Christmas) and cross-quarter days (mayday, Beltane, Walpurgis night, Halloween, Groundhog Day, Lammas), good starting book on holiday lore and its connection to the rounds of the sun through the year.

[Gillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the title was "The Dance of Time: Origins of the Western Calendar," and said in the introduction that this book exclusively focuses on Classical (Greek/Roman) or Judeo-Christian sources and origins, I would not have had any issue. Without this meaning or clear definition of scope, I found it a bit naive, idealistic, and short sighted.

[Patricia Cherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Very Enjoyable and enlightening book

I have been curious about the calendar and time for many years, but no one was able to answer my questions.

This book answers them all. Descriptive yet educational reading.

[Chris Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately numerous factual errors detract from what could have been an outstanding book on the calendar.

[Annie Miracle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. I wouldn’t recommend it, though, as it contains several factual errors and is not well researched. Also be aware that it focuses almost entirely on Europe and the United States.

[Jim Manis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun history to read. Much of the information is available elsewhere, but it's packaged nicely here.

[Alex]

To be fair I didn't make it past the 2nd chapter of this book. However, there were enough factual inaccuracies in those first 2 chapters to convince me not to waste my time.

[Sbeez · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, well written.

[Kaathryn Waddell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

This book explains and links the pagan and Christian beginnings of the calendar. It's a wonderful tale! Very enjoyable indeed.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful story.

[K L R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read, interesting topic; minus a star for not citing any sources, minus a star for wasting my time with passages of poetic fluff that doesn't tell me anything.