From asking How did the ancient cultures determine that the year was actually a fraction of an extra day beyond 365 days? I'm now wondering how cultures like Ancient Egypt, with their 12-month, 30 days per month solar calendar year (360 days), plus 5 or 6 feast holidays to make it 365 or 366 (leap year) days per year.
How did they justify having "random extra days" in their calendar? How did other cultures justify this similar thing in their calendars?
In Egypt, the myth was that Ra had cursed Nut to not give birth any day of the year, then 360 days. She went to Thoth for help. Thoth gambled with Khonsu, the moon god, for his moonlight, and got enough that Khonsu had to wax and wane because of how much light he had gambled away, and Thoth had enough to make five more days, so that Nut could give birth. Thus, they were odd days, not falling in proper sequence.
This was rare. Most cultures simply treated the year as 365 days because that's what it was. Or whatever quantity they thought it was according to their best astronomy, followed by tinkering as needed.
