The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1892-12-31
MEANING or THE MONTHS.

MEANING OF THE MONTHS.
How They Came to Be Named-Ev0lu-
ton IF the Present Calendar.
January begins the year and looks
both ways-toward the year just past
and that just coming. It was therefore
named by the Romans for their god Of
war, Janus. He had two faces. and
was therefore called Janus Bifrons,
which may be freely translated "Holy
Two-front." Originally this was only
the eleventh month, and the four pre-
ceding were named from Septem, Octc.
Novem and Decem, as they then were
the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth
months. It would take small volume
to explain how, as quaint old almanac
says, such skies and such sevens the
months were knocked to that ten be-
came translated into Octo. Suffice it tc
say, January begins the year now, and
the other months are to be explained in
their turn.
February was an unfortunate month
from the start. The Romans did not at
first intend to have any such month, but
finding the year all askew they added
some days at the last of it, and desig-
mated them as the days ito purify"
(.sfebruare" in old Latin). Finding they
had set the time too early they put tho
new month after January and measured
it by the moon. When they began to
''purify" for the coming summer they
ate beans instead of meat, and therefore
named the season Lent (''lentes"-
beans) By miscounting the days, how
ever, their year soon got two months be-
hind, and Julius Caesar overhauled it
again.
March is name of war. The Romans
named it for Mars, their war god, per-
haps because winter and spring contend
for the month. We owe the. Romans ono
for making this the third month, for
this laid the basis for some of our finest
old crusted jokes, such as sMarch
FORTH addressed to the retiring pres.
dent, and the chestnutty minstrel COM
mand to the stage soldiers, January,
February, March" Let us remember
the Romans, even for this little. On
second thought, let us remember them
all the more as they were not in a gen.
eral way humorous people.
April is supposed to be so called be-
cause things open about that time
(Latin "aperire'). 1t is the aperient
month, SO ospeak. Having no mythology
the month is in this latitude sacred to
catarrh. When the new humanity does
away with all old superstition and re-
establishes pure Saxon language, as it
promises to do, this will probably be
called Springchickenmonth or Kuch-
leinmonath or Sneezereezer or some
tender little name of that instructive
sort.
May IS by common consent the syno-
nym for flowers and poetry. women and
children, music and moonlight-every-
thing sweet and soft. AS a matter of
fact the popular poetry for the month
would suit the last half of it and the
first half of June much better The
Romans named it from Maia. daughter
OF Atlas and mother of Mercury, The
Romans seldom got married in Nav. as
the festival of the dead was celebrated
early IN the month. 1t is bad omen to
be taken sick in this month-especially
Aor IdrmeTS Suu gardeners.
Juno was the wife Of Jupiter in clas-
sic mythology ard made it hot for him
hence June. Some say, however. that
1t was so called because it was the
month for young men Guniores). Juno
was the great goddess of motherhood
and growing nature. and SO the Romans
honored this month with her name. She
was also subject to sudden storms of
wrath and jealousy and was very vim.
dlctive, which led Virgil to ask
In heavenly minds can such resentmeuts
dwell?
August. with its thirty-one days, is a
perpetual reminder of how Augustus
Cesar (Octavius) slipped up on his uncle
julius. He insisted on having big
month named for himself also. and So
pulled the whole calendar around SO as
10 bring two thirty-one day months to-
gether in midsummer, as in midwinter
at the same time changing the name
from Sextilis, or the Sixth (Which it then
was). 10 Augustus. Dog days" prevail
IN this month, because the sun is in CAMS
MAJOR, and Sirius rises about the samo
time as the sun--at least SO the ancients
thought-but it is now known that tho
neiiacai rising of Sirius is peculiarly in
determlnate, and therefore every dog
now has his day.
september is the month, and the 14th
the particular day on which tho croot;o,