The Human Illusion of Time

There was not (and is not yet) any noticeable celestial event (phenomenon) that can be used as a point of origin for calculating years. That incomparability between calculating days and years caused a severe problem for anybody who tried to create a calendar. Subsequently, one more odd solution was developed for such a matter. As soon as ancient people had a strong imagination of the gods, those gods became responsible for zero point of years calculation. Hence, zero point for the beginning of years was associated with one old well-known event described in legends or myths. Thus, in Greek tradition, the God Chronos became responsible for several years between the current year and the beginning of years and for continuous changes of days, months, and years.

Different events in different countries were used as marks of first years. As a result, each calendar has its number of years between the current year and the first one. For example, "The Roman republican calendar was a dating system that evolved in Rome before the Christian era. According to legend, Romulus, the founder of Rome, instituted the calendar in about 738 BC." Hence, according to that calendar, the current year (2012) becomes 2750 (2012+738).

That way helped ancient people to use calendars with a deep connection between their lives, myths, and legends. From their point of view, there was something divine in passing days, months, and years. Nothing could be held instantly between days and months; each season had the magical power to raise vegetables or blow winter winds. Each year has something beyond the understanding of their mind. Something rules seasons and organizes each year the same way. Summer never appeared before spring, and winter seemed only after autumn. That circle was so strong that people believed in the divine power that kept it and a large circle of their lives for years. Events in a man's life had the same order beginning from the day of their birth. Childhood was ever before adult years, and after that was senility, and once again, senility and mature wisdom were never before childhood.

Again, young persons of ancient people asked the following questions to their parents. What is responsible for the inevitable circle of years and has enough power to rule people's lives from childhood to senility? The ancient sages have found an answer to that question comparable to the ancient point of view, according to their philosophy and belief system, that was the divine power of the Chronos. God rules everything and gives a perfect place for each event in the world order. That order exists eternally, as well as the power of any god. Hence, Chronos is responsible for each change in the world. It is the divine power of God to support each circle of changes and repeat them again and again in the endless circle of renovation.

One of those circles was the most noticeable day circle of change. That circle changed day and night. The same circle had a divine connection to a year circle by the relative duration of day and night during a year. Still, the entire duration of day (and night) was never equal to the same value. That aspect of divine power intrigued ancient people. How can Chronos keep that relationship between the duration of day and night on each day of the year? That aspect was the best indication of Chronos' divine power.

In ancient times, many centuries after the beginning of astronomical observations, people had to use something with a minor duration than the minimal observable period of celestial events and lesser than the duration of a solar day. Presumably, it was the reason for developing better conditions for trade and human activity during the day. The calendar had enough power to organize human activity during the year. Still, making a deal with any event that lasted less than a day was useless.

That task had a severe problem. Ancient people did not have any suitable celestial event to create a connection between the duration of that event and the duration of a day. There was only one possible way to solve the problem. They try to use some circle of well-known recurrent celestial events and divide its duration into several stages. The easiest way to achieve that goal was the creation of a correlation between the solar day's duration and a new artificial recurrent circle of events. It was necessary because that event must happen repeatedly during a day and be observable as a recurrent process. However, it must be calculable when that event occurs repeatedly during the day. Only some set of events that happened from sunrise to the present stage of a day gives information about the current stage of the duration of a given solar day.

Finally, they used the duration of Solar Day and divided it into several stages. Hence, each stage possessed its number to be distinguishable from the other stages (they were numbered), and a link was established between the duration of the celestial day and the duration of the new artificially made process. That link involved the relation between the location of the Sun and the location of the shadow of an object. Almost every object can be used to indicate the location of the Sun during the whole celestial day because of the unique connection between the location of the Sun in the sky and the casting of a shadow of any object. Thus, the motion of one celestial object in the sky became traceable by humans everywhere they like. Moreover, any devices that use that way stay synchronized with each other and have the same readings without any additional effort from humans. A device that uses that principle of operation is called a sundial.