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The modern calendar began its existence in the Christian era, in 526, started by [[Pope]] John I. The chronologist of the Pope, Dionysius Exiguus, worked further on the calendar, especially concerning [[Easter]].
During the Middle Ages, some problems were discovered with the use of the [[Julian calendarCalendar]]: every century had three to four days too many. In the sixteenth century the mistake grew to 10 days. Therefore, in 1582, it was decided that the calendar needed reform. Pope Gregory XIII decreed that [[October 4]] should be followed by [[October 15]] at once. Also, he decided that all of the leap days of the full century years which were not dividable by 400 would be omitted. In this manner, 1900 was not a leap year, 2000 was a leap year, and 2100 will not be.
The average duration of the Gregorian year is 365.2425 days. The diffirence with the real tropical year (365.2422) is so small that a new reformation will be needed in very, very distant future.
This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French.
(Source: [http://wilstar.com/holidays/aprilfool.htm])
==See also==*[[Revised Julian Calendar]]
[[Category:Church History]]
[[Category:Liturgics]]
