[LMB] OT: leap day and exact calendars (was QOTD #11)

[Tzivia Adler]

> All those agricultural societies have a need to calculate the calendar as 
> precisely as possible; the proper celebration of religious festivals are 
> just a Watsonian explanation, if I may extend the use of that literary 
> term to cultural anthropology.
>
> The most exact calendar we have generated, we humans, in pre-scientific 
> societies, is the 52-year Mesoamerican lunar calendar cycle we associate 
> with the Maya. Not bad for a Neolithic culture!
>
> -- 
> B. Ross Ashley http://brashley46.livejournal.com 
> http://brashley46.no-ip.info

why do they need calendar beyond, planting season, growing season, harvest 
season, rainy season, etc.  its the lunar calendar that needs a leap month 
to keep up wiht the sun, but the solar calendar loses very little time per 
year.

and whats the maya calendar?
ziviya
whose son was born in a leap month, and sometimes gets to be older than his 
friend for a few days :)