The Oxford Companion to the Year

What are the halcyon days? On what date do the dog days begin? How do Chinese, Muslim, Mesoamerican, Jewish, and Babylonian calendars differ from Christian calendars? The answers to these and hundreds of other intriguing questions about the way humans have marked and measured time over the millennia can be found in "The Oxford Companion to the Year." of illustrations.

A storehouse of useful, interesting, and curious knowledge about time and its reckoning, based on the premise that every day is memorable. The book is in two parts: an authoritative survey of the calendar year, and a section on the measurement of time and the calculation of movable feasts. It is illustrated with 16 pages of black-and-white plates.

Part I: the bulk of the book consists of a January-December listing, divided by month and then by day. Each month begins with information, for example etymology of the name and quotations, dealing with the month in general, and each day contains information on holidays and anniversaries, saints and their legends, historical and social customs, and relevant quotations from historical and modern texts. Part I ends with a discussion of seasons, months, terms, weeks, and days in general, a section on the Western Church and the Orthodox Church years, and finally secular holidays not tied to a specific day (e.g. Thanksgiving).; Part II: a more technical section on calendars, throughout history and across the world, and chronology, including computus.