11-11-11

I just had to post today at 11:11am.

So many people panic or speculate all sorts of things will happen when a particular date arrives.  What we must remember is that our measuring of time is a human development.  Nature could care less that today is 11-11-11 because these numbers correspond to our human manner of keeping track of time.  We don’t “create” time, we simply attempt to keep track of it in an intelligible manner.  The natural world creates a cycle of time through the rotation of the Earth and its revolutions around the sun and we express this in a humanly-conceived manner.

For centuries the passing of years was calculated in reference to the reign of kings, for example, “on the third year of the reign of King David….” not with the numbers we currently use.  Different calendars exist today along with the Gregorian calendar (the one we use) such as the Muslim calendar where the year is currently 1432 and the Jewish calendar where the year is 5772.

At times our keeping track of time has had to be modified.  For centuries Europe used the Julian Calendar devised by Julius Caesar in 45 BC to keep track of time.  The Julian Calendar was inaccurate by 11 seconds per year, so centuries later in 1582, the discrepancy between the calendar and nature was ten days.  Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar by decree making October 4th 1582 of the Julian calendar be followed by October 15th of 1582 of the new calendar which became known as the Gregorian calendar.  Since this was after the Protestant Reformation, the change was quickly accepted by Catholic nations but Protestant nations lagged behind.  England did not reform its calendar until 1752 and Russia until the 20th century.

The passing of hours has been calculated differently in the past also.  We read in Scripture references to the “third watch of the night” or we read that Jesus died at the “ninth hour.”  For centuries, our ancestors spoke of the twelve hours of the day and the four watches of the night, not 24 hour days.  The first hour of the day began at sunrise, the sixth hour was noon and the twelfth hour concluded at sunset.  This means the length of an hour varied throughout the seasons, in the summer an hour was longer than in winter.  Our ancestors payed attention to the placement of the sun to know what time it was. The night was split into four watches based on the movement of the stars, making each watch approximately three modern-day hours.

Therefore, the fact that today is 11-11-11 could have been otherwise and there is nothing to worry about.  Enjoy the day!