On the 17th day of Tibi month and 9th year of the rule of Pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes, i.e., March 7, 238 B.C., the meeting in Canopus, nor far from Alexandria, adopted the so-called Canopus Decree. As the historians found out, the meeting comprised priests, fan holders, scribes (those who copied religious books) and other officials. The decree was soon made public, i.e., the inscription was cut on a stone wall in accordance with Egyptian realities of the 3rd century B.C. The scientists translated the text and found out that it contains amendments to the calendar. Here is the quotation: “…in order the seasons would come as they should according to the present world order and no public holiday coming in winter would not come in summer, as Sothys star gets one day ahead every four years, while summer holidays would not come in winter, which has happened and will happen if the year consist of 360 days and five ones that are added, we order to celebrate the holiday of Euergetes Gods after five additional days and before the new year to let everybody know that the former faults in chronology have been successfully corrected by Tsar Evergetes.” The holiday of Euergetes Gods became the 366th day of the year that we now call leap one.
