Why we use the Gregorian Calendar

We are at the beginning of a New Year, and as we celebrate the arrival of 2025, we may want to visit how our calendar came to be, and what processes we went through to have the calendar we use today.

When the ball drops at midnight in Times Square, New York; or the fireworks blast over Tokyo, Japan, to bring in the New Year, and in all the different time zones we wait for that stroke of midnight on our clocks, we are all using the same calendar to determine that second when the year changes.

The Gregorian Calendar is the one we have used for centuries, but it was not developed in a short period of time, nor was it formed using only one method. It is a combination of scientific discoveries and religious influences, as well as political decisions.