What Month Is This?

Calendars date to ancient times because of the need to know when to plant and when to observe religious holidays. The seasonal cycle of the sun is most important, but the lunar cycle, from full moon to full moon, is easiest to follow. Calendars combine solar and lunar elements.

Ancient Egyptians had a year of 12 months of 30 days each, with 5 days added at the end. Some Near Eastern societies preferred months of 29 or 30 days, adding a leap month every third year. Traditional Jewish and Moslem calendars are a variation on this pattern.

Ancient Chinese and Hindu calendars are also based on lunar years.

The Aztecs had two calendars, one of 365 days for use by the common people, divided into 18 months of 20 days each, plus five extra days that were considered unlucky. The other calendar was of 260 days, based on placating the angry, competing gods.

The ancient Romans numbered each month of their 10-month year, starting in March. So September is the seventh month, December is the tenth. January and February were later added to the end of the year. Still later, Quintillis, the fifth month, was renamed to honor Julius Caesar. Sextillus was renamed to honor Augustus.

Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, and his Julian calendar was used in Europe for centuries. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII altered the means of calculation. October 15 followed October 4. The Gregorian calendar made adjustments so that the error from true value is 3 days in 10,000 years.

Common people opposed the change, convinced it was a scheme by landlords to extract more rent. Catholic countries were quicker to adopt the change than Protestant countries. England did not change until 1752, when it declared that the day after September 2 would be September 14. Russia waited until 1918, but the Soviet Union and Iran chose more accurate calendars. The Iranian year begins on the vernal equinox, the first day of spring.

The ancient Mayans had the most accurate system, a year of 365.242036 days. Scientists calculate that the Earth revolves around the sun once every 365.2422 days.

In The Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan had fun with the leap year day of February 29 in this song to the hero, Frederic:

For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I've no desire to

be disloyal,
Some person in authority, I don't know who, very likely the
Astronomer Royal,
Has decided that, although for such a beastly month as February,
twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty,
One year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and-
twenty.
Through some singular coincidence-- I shouldn't be surprised if
it were owing to the agency of an ill-natured fairy--
You are the victim of this clumsy arrangement, having been born
in leap-year, on the twenty-ninth of February;
And so, by a simple arithmetical process, you'll easily discover,
That though you've lived twenty-one years, yet, if we go by
birthdays, you're only five and a little bit over!

January, the month that looks back to the old year and ahead to the new year, is named for the two-faced god of beginnings and endings, Janus.

February takes its name from Februa, the Roman festival of purification.

March honors Mars, the Roman god of war.

April, a month of inconstant weather, may derive its name from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and we know how constant that is. ; - )

May may have been named for the Roman goddess of spring, Maia.

June may have been named for Juno, patron goddess of marriage. ("After love comes marriage..." sometimes.) ; - )

July was named for Julius Caesar.

August was named for the first Roman emperor, Augustus.

Names of the rest of the months are based on Latin numbers: septem (seven), octo (eight), novem (nine), decem (ten) although they no longer have the same position in the calendar..

For more about calendars, go to: http://ancienthistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://astro.nmsu.edu/%7Elhuber/leaphist.html