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3 answers

I think you mean to ask why there are the 12 divisions of the year into months, and why the week of seven days. They are both really based on the moon. A 12-month calendar is really not very lunar, because a 13-month calendar would fit better. But 12 is divisible by so many other numbers that it is convenient in the extreme. And of course, there are other cycles (feminine ones) that fit the same rhythm.

A week is one fourth of the lunar cycle, and so if you need a regular repeat that's not too long or too short, that fits. You go from full moon one week to waning quarter, to new moon, to waxing quarter.

However, the "real" reason there is the seven-day week established by Genesis. Remember that book is some six thousand years old. Too hard to know about chicken and egg there: did the Hebrews choose the seven-day cycle because it was lunar? Seems likely, but their tradition says it was because God chose it. And they do have lunar cycles in their religion quite a lot.

2006-10-14 02:29:27 · answer #1 · answered by auntb93again 7 · 0 0

12 months is simple. A year ( return of seasons) will have twelve lunations ( full moons or new moons).Seven-day week is an artificial unit of time, in honour of the seven geocentric planets.( I have already discussed the week in an answer)

2006-10-14 09:21:31 · answer #2 · answered by Rajesh Kochhar 6 · 0 0

12 months is how long it takes the earth to go around the sun and 24 hours is how long it takes for the earth to make a revoulution 7 days was a very old french philosiphers favorite number so he named the seven days

2006-10-14 09:19:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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