How Many Days Through the Year Are We?

Calculating days between dates is one of the most useful skills we can master in life. We can use them to estimate how many days remain until something happens or plan when to do things.

Calculating dates can be a tedious task, and sometimes we need some assistance from technology. Fortunately, Google Sheets offers several convenient methods for quickly and accurately calculating days between dates.

Day of the week

In many languages, the day of the week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It can refer to common work days and rest days, as well as religious holidays.

English-speaking calendars divide the week into two parts: a five-day work week and a seven-day weekend. This has been inspired by both Jewish and Babylonian calendars, which had their sabbath on Saturday.

The Hebrew Sabbath (Saturday) was one of God's original seven days, and it has since been a day for Christians to rest and worship. For Jews, Sunday has also long been observed as a day for rest and devotion.

Some consider Sunday to be the most significant day of the week, since it marks Jesus' resurrection and it has become a sacred day in Christianity. Furthermore, Sunday is when many people attend church services, making it an important religious holiday in many countries.

Romans once named each day of the week after a Roman god and planet. Thus, Monday was named after Mars, Tuesday after Mercury, Wednesday after Jupiter, Thursday after Saturn and Friday after Venus.

However, in modern times these names have been replaced by more mundane versions drawn from Anglo-Saxon or Nordic mythology. While Saturday, Sunday and Monday still feature their original Roman names, for the other four days Anglo-Saxon or Nordic gods have taken the place of ancient Roman deities and planets.

For instance, Thursday derives its name from Thor's Day - a Norse version of Saturn's Day. Additionally, it echoes Jupiter, which deals with lightning and thunder.

The name Friday is derived from 'Frigg', an ancient Norse goddess associated with beauty, love and the earth. Additionally, it echoes Venus, another Norse deity associated with love and beauty.

On Gregorian calendars, weeks are numbered sequentially each year to begin with Monday as the earliest week. This numbering system is practiced in some countries such as the United States and Australia but not widely spread elsewhere.

Day of the month

According to the most commonly used calendar today, every month has at least 28 days. However, February stands out as it only has 28 in common years and 29 on leap years.

Romans first calculated there are 365 days and 6 hours in a year by using the movement of the moon. Unfortunately, their system wasn't perfect; so they started altering some months' number of days to accommodate for solar eclipses or extra holidays.

Around 710 BC, Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, added January to honor the god Janus and February from Latin februum meaning purification. Despite these changes in how months were counted, February's 28-day length remained unchanged.

Rome established their calendar based on the Lunation Cycle, or the duration of time it takes for the moon to complete its full cycle. To calculate this cycle, one would average out the number of full moons throughout a calendar year and add up each phase that the moon spends orbiting Earth.

Eventually, this became too difficult to keep track of, so the ancient Romans adopted a system where they separated their months from Lunations and set each month's length by counting days between Kalends, Nones and Ides of the month. While this system helped prevent disruptions in religious ceremonies, it wasn't perfect - still needing improvement.

After several centuries, the lengths of months were standardised and established. Furthermore, the Julian reform introduced a new leap day - ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martias - which dates from 46 BC.

As you can see, the modern Gregorian calendar consists of 7 months that are 31 days long and 4 months that are 30 days. During the Middle Ages, years began on 1 January in western European countries but 25 December or 25 March was used elsewhere around the world.

Due to the universal use of the Gregorian calendar, it can be challenging to determine what day of the year a particular date falls on. But you don't need to - just enter your desired date into our Day of the Year Calculator and you'll instantly know its identity as well as how many days remain until Christmas!

Month of the year

The month is a unit of time that lasts 30 or 31 days and is used in calendars to mark dates. The number of months in a year is determined by Earth's rotation and lunar cycles.

The Gregorian calendar, the most widely used today, uses 365 days as its year. Every four years however, there is a leap year when February adds an extra day to its length.

This explains why there are 12 months in a year. The Gregorian calendar is used by the United States, Canada, Australia and most of Europe for this purpose.

Many countries and cultures use their own calendars to mark holidays, annual feasts, and other significant occasions. These differ from the Gregorian calendar in several ways; for instance, in Islamic and Hebrew calendars, the year begins on different dates than it does on the Gregorian one.

On the Gregorian calendar, months are numbered sequentially from 1 to 31 and days within them follow suit in terms of numbering order. The names of these months may be abbreviated or shortened according to culture.

The most widely-used short names for months are January, March, April, May, July, August and December. Some languages have more specialized names such as Czech which uses "Janu" for January.

According to culture, different names for months exist. For instance, France calls February "Februarius," while Spain gives June its own distinctive moniker: Junius.

Another commonly used name for a month is its Latin translation. For instance, March is known in Latin as "Martius," after Mars, the god of war.

Rome adopted a calendar that followed the lunar cycle, beginning with 10-month months in 700 BC. Decemvirs were added before January and Februarius after January to save 60 days, then changed Quintilis to July in honor of Julius Caesar (44 BCE) and Sextilis to August (Augustus, 8 BCE), keeping their calendar aligned with that of the solar year.

Year of the Earth

The year is the period of time in which Earth orbits around the Sun. There are 365 days in an ordinary year, and one extra day added to the calendar every four years.

The yearly cycle is determined by the Earth's axial tilt. This tilt causes Earth to revolve around the Sun in a circular path, altering the lengths of each season; spring being the shortest while summer and autumn being longer.

There are three distinct astronomical seasons: light years, sidereal years and tropical years. Each has its own distinct astronomical rhythm.

The Gregorian calendar, based on astronomical seasons, has been found to lag behind over time of thousands of years due to a slowing in rotation speed. As a result, days become slightly longer and years shorter in length over this period.

On the Gregorian calendar, the year begins on 1 January and ends on 31 December; however, prior to this change many countries did not base their calendar on this starting point. While some countries switched over to using this date system as part of their transition to the Gregorian calendar, most others simply changed their date systems accordingly.

In the Middle Ages, the year began on 1 September. However, due to objections from the church regarding parties held on this day, it was changed to 1 January instead.

This was done to prevent people from celebrating the new year on a day that had no religious significance or relevance. Additionally, it helped keep dates more uniform, so everyone could use the same calendar for legal and religious purposes.

The Chinese zodiac system assigns individuals born in certain years certain characteristics which they believe reflect their personality and astrological sign. For instance, those born under the Horse sign tend to be energetic, animated and highly active according to Chinese astrology. They possess great charismatic ability and adapt well to environmental demands.