慶應文 2010 B

Some have likened the calendar to a clock; this is, of course, a mistake. A calendar hangs by my desk but there is no way I can tell the date just by looking at it. The calendar is more abstract; it is a systematic way of naming the days by allocating each to a year and a month and maybe a week. It enables us to label the days in the past and in the future and to arrange them all in order. If we know the date of two events we know which was the earlier and which the later; the calendar enables us (1 )to make or impose unambiguous commitments for the future; without a calendar, a diary would be a muddle. In another meaning of the word, a calendar is an almanac, a program of future events or a record of past events, each assigned to a day or a year.

The calendar is thus a human invention. If I want to know the date, I may refer to a newspaper or the radio or look at my calendar; I could ask a friend. If I were on my own, however, like Robinson Crusoe, I would have to remember the date on which I was marooned and note the days as they passed, maybe marking them with notches on a stick. If I were to lose count, I would have extreme difficulty in recovering the date. It could only be done if I remembered the year and knew of the precise date of some future astronomical event such as an equinox or an eclipse that I might be able to observe. If, like Rip Van Winkle, I had slept for many years and lost track of the year, there would be no way I could ever recover the precise date; I would be cast adrift in time with no land in sight.            

All calendars are based on the succession of days and nights punctuated by the waxing and waning of the moon or the rhythm of the seasons and the movement of the sun. In the beginning, our remote ancestors had no traditional knowledge of the regularity of the motions of the sun and the moon to guide them. (2)Only after they had learnt to count and do simple arithmetic, and after many nights of careful observation of the heavens, did the calendar begin to take shape. Before that, they had no calendar to help them plan ahead or organize their experience of time―just a succession of days and moons and seasons.

Any picture attached to the calendar is there purely for decoration, but reference to the printed form tells us the day of the week of a particular day or how many days are left till Christmas. The calendar in the abstract has many other significant functions.

Our ancestors were already recognizably like ourselves some 10,000 generations back. At first they lived by searching out edible berries, roots, nuts―whatever was edible; by scavenging and by eating such game as they could catch. They hunted and they gathered. They spread across the globe, and as they travelled they had to learn when and where to find the local food; they had to follow the game and maybe migrate themselves to avoid the winter cold. Any signs that they could discern of the timetable of natural events were crucial to their survival. They may well have watched the sun, the moon, and the stars for clues.

Some 10,000 years ago, after the glaciers had receded for the last time, people learnt to grow crops and to domesticate animals. As food became more plentiful, they became even more dependent on the seasons, for they had to know when to sow and when to reap their crops.

About 4,000 years later, food had become sufficiently plentiful to support cities in the great fertile river valleys of the world. (3)Standing armies were needed if only for protection from marauding barbarians, and great civil engineering projects were carried out. To feed the soldiers and the workers, the peasants were taxed, and to do this properly, dated records had to be kept; bureaucrats, especially, need a calendar. The rich cities attracted conquering barbarians who in turn adopted the way of life they found. Empires were created and trade started between the centres of the ancient world. Money was lent and bargains agreed; records of these agreements needed to be signed and dated. Civilization was well on its way and with it came a pressing need for a calendar.

Emperors and kings kept their power and privileges by ensuring that there was enough food and that marauders from beyond the city walls were kept at bay. One way of doing this was to intercede with the 'unseen powers behind the scenes' ―the gods. These had to be placated with sacrifices and rituals and there were proper days for these activities. The calendar came to be organized by the priests.

The intimate links between the behaviour of the heavenly bodies, the seasons, and the calendar maybe suggested that the sun and the moon and the planets were themselves associated with gods, perhaps even were gods. Thus the uneasy alliance between religion and astrology came about. It became necessary to watch the heavens for omens and only undertake important activities on days when these were good. An adequate calendar is essential for these prognostications. In time astrology gave rise to astronomy as we understand it today.

Today, if there were no calendar, then examinations, concerts, races, parties, football matches, to mention just a few activities, could not be arranged for more than a few days ahead with any expectation that the participants would all turn up on the designated day. The compilers of airline and shipping schedules and railway timetables would have real difficulties. The lawyer can argue that if the suspect was dead on the fourteenth day, he could not have committed the crime on the fifteenth; the ( ア ) must know not only where to point his telescope but when; the ( イ ) must know by which date he must plant his potatoes and on which day the market is held to sell them; the surgeon and patient must meet on the same day; to the historian, the calendar is all important for ordering and making sense of the past. The list goes on and on.