Moon & Calendars
This celestial body's phases gave English the word ‘month’.
What is the Moon?
This religious day helped codify the seven-day rhythm in Jewish and Christian life.
What is the Sabbath?
Author of Tetrabiblos, a work that combined celestial observation with astrological interpretation.
Who was Ptolemy?
An ancient instrument that tells time by the sun’s shadow.
What is a sundial?
A calendar type that uses moon phases but may add months to stay aligned with the seasons.
What is a lunisolar calendar?
The number of classical planets historically associated with the seven days of the week.
What is seven?
This Church Father objected that astrology undermined human free will.
Who was St. Augustine?
This invention allowed societies to measure time reliably regardless of daylight.
What are mechanical clocks?
This calendar used by Jews is lunisolar and uses extra months to align with the solar year.
What is the Hebrew calendar?
Boorstin calls this artificial time unit a ‘gateway to science.
What is the week?
Boorstin contrasts superstition with this emerging discipline that sought patterns through careful observation of the heavens.
What is astronomy?
A portable timepiece that became common from the Renaissance onward.
What is the pocket watch?
The technical term for inserting extra days or months to reconcile lunar and solar cycles.
What is intercalation?
Before the 7-day week became widespread, the Romans used this market cycle of days.
What is eight?
The celestial object tied to the nativity story that bridged popular belief and astronomical curiosity.
What is the Star of Bethlehem?
Boorstin uses this phrase to describe the uniform system that replaced purely sun-based time.
What is clock time?
The 19-year cycle, used to synchronize lunar months with the solar year.
What is the Metonic cycle?
This astrological idea linked each weekday to a heavenly body.”
What is the planetary weekday (planetary hours) system?
The practice that read personality or destiny from the positions of the stars and planets — influential but controversial.
What is astrology?
This later development synchronized time across regions and was crucial for railways and navigation.
What is standard time (time standardization)?