History – Ancient Egyptian Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or admin purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. Periods in a calendar (such as years and months) are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. However, during Ancient Egyptian times, there calendar was based around the flooding of the Nile. Our current calendar is the Gregorian Calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most of the world. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. Task 1: Take each month in our Gregorian Calendar, can you name an important event in each month. This could be something which is important for everyone that month, just certain religions, or just for your family. As the climate in Egypt is hot and dry, ancient Egyptians relied on the river Nile to provide fertile land to plant their crops. In fact, it was so important that Egypt was referred to as ‘the gift of the Nile’. The River Nile would flood every year and leave behind a rich, black silt that fertilised the soil. This was essential for growing food for everyone. A system of canals that led from the Nile were also used to water fields in other areas. This is called irrigation. The importance of when the River Nile flooded meant the whole farming process would be based around this annual event and so, the Egyptian calendar was made to mark these events. Task 2: You are going to be making an example of an Ancient Egyptian calendar. Follow the instructions on the farming activity sheet and use the attached templates to produce your calendar. The Images below will help to complete the largest circle. .