why are there only twelve signs of the zodiac?

Answer 1

The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, began on 1st January, with the length of months alternating between 31 and 30 days - except for February, which had 30 days in a leap year and 29 days otherwise. (This replaced an earlier Roman calendar which had 10 months of alternating 30 and 31 days, followed by a "winter gap", the length of which varied from year to year. The last year of this old calendar actually had 445 days.)

Complications to the Julian system began when the Senate wanted to name a month after the then Emperor Augustus. To avoid slighting the Emperor, the month named for Augustus must be as long as the month named for Julius, and should follow it directly. And so July and August became 31 days each, and February surrendered an extra day. (To avoid 3 successive 31 day months, September was shortened to 30 days, October lengthened to 31, and so on.)

The Romans initially introduced leap years every 3 years, but by about 9 BC it was seen that the calendar was getting out of step with the solstices, so leap years were abandoned altogether, until about AD 4 or 8, when leap years were re-introduced as every 4 years. Even this was not completely accurate, giving an error of 45 minutes in 4 years, or 3 days in 400 years. In time, this miscalculation became quite noticeable.

Around 150 AD Christian churches decided to take over the pagan festival of Saturnalia (the winter solstice) and celebrate 25th December as Christ's birthday. Later, when the cult of the Virgin Mary became popular, it was thought that the Christian era should start on the day of Christ's conception, that is, 9 months earlier on 25th March, which they named Ladyday. The year began on 25th March and ended on the following 24th March.

All moveable feasts in the church calendar relate to Easter. In turn, gospel tradition related Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover, which in turn was related to the spring equinox, the phase of the moon and the celebration of the Sabbath. Over the centuries, by following the Julian calendar, the Easter festival was slowly but surely moving away from the spring equinox towards the summer solstice. The new system adopted by Pope Gregory in the 16th century, specified a calendar with a year length of 365 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes, 20 seconds. Therefore 3 days had to be dropped every 400 years. So those years which were divisible by 100 would only be leap years if they were divisible by 400. To correct errors which had built up over centuries, Pope Gregory declared that Thursday 4th October 1582 in the Julian Calendar should be immediately followed by Friday 15th October in the Gregorian Calendar.

Scotland and most Roman Catholic countries of Europe adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 or soon after. Most Protestant countries however ignored this Papal decision for another 200 years. In England, they still followed the old Julian Calendar (year ending 24th March) until 1751. Lord Chesterfield's Act of 1751/2 stated that the year 1752 would begin on 1st January and end on the following 31 December. In addition, in 1752 only, the calendar was adjusted to omit 11 days (2nd September was followed by 14th September) to bring their "new" (Gregorian) calendar back in line with most of the rest of Europe.

Orthodox countries (those following allegiance to the Patriarch of Constantinople) were even slower to change. Russia, for example, did not convert to the new calendar until after the Russian Revolution. An interesting consequence of this was that when London hosted the 1908 Olympic Games, the Russian team arrived 12 days late because of it! Turkey was the last major European country to adopt the Gregorian Calendar - on 1st January 1927.

Answer 2

The possible reason why there are only 12 signs goes back to the Bablyonians. All the constellations that the signs are based on are take up differetn degree positions in the sky in the days before computers and protractors and the like it would have taken them a long time to draw an accurate chart. to simplify matters they divided the sky into twelve equal portions as it easier to draw twelve equal portions than all the different portions that the zodiac really are they also removed ophicius the 13th sign of the zodiac.so that there ended up with twelve 30 degree signs of the zodiac.

Answer 3

Hi-good answers-good question...in answer to Court about the way that the signs split up a month...it's because the timing begins when the Sun leaves one sign at 29 degrees and 59 minutes and enters the next sign at 0 degrees 00 minutes.

Answer 4

12 hours,
12 months,
12 NEW MOONS per year also.

The chinese calendar is set more accurately on moon phases than the roman, and it starts each year on a different day if we compare with our calendar ---- it's totally based on the positions in the sky.

I'd add to that 12 nations, 12 eras, 12 species and 12 planets, but that's arguable especially with scientists. The 13th constellation is a prolongation of the scorpio I think... still have to read Ptolemy and others.

Answer 5

Becasue there are only 12 months in the year. One zodiac sign per month.

Answer 6

Because there is only 12 months in a year. You wouldn't need more than 12 because they would have no month to be under.

Answer 7

Because there are only 12 months

Answer 8

12 months in a yr. 12 signs 12 months.

Answer 9

There is actually 13 Zodiological constellations... other being Ophiuchus which rests between Sagittarius and Capricorn. If you were born towards the beginning of your sign u could essentially have been born under a diff. sign.

Answer 10

yeah because there are 12 months. but there isn't one sign for the entire month which i don't get. like march is part pisces AND part aries... why?