It
falls behind about a day for every century. There are several reasons
why Russia has not, up to now, remedied the serious inconvenience caused
by this conflict of dates. One is--the Gregorian Calendar is Roman
Catholic, and named after a Pope. It is, also, inaccurate. Worst of all,
the rectification might--almost infallibly would, under ordinary
circumstances--cause trouble at the outset, especially in one
incalculably important direction.
Russian scientists long ago worked out a new calendar far more accurate
than the Gregorian for thousands of years, and when the change is made
that calendar will be adopted. The fundamental difficulty lies in the
fact that all the people whose saints' days must inevitably be skipped
for the first year in the process of rectification will inevitably feel
that they are being robbed of their guardian angels, that they are
"orphans"--a mournful word greatly beloved of the Russian masses under
multiform circumstances, both material and spiritual--and orphaned in a
peculiarly distressing and irrevocable way. They might even feel when
their saints' days came around quite correctly the next year that some
spurious adventurer--Angel of Darkness--was being foisted upon them.
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