The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-06-09
r AS EDtCATOR.
Tells How the Days and Months
Got Their Names.
The Planets "a Well as Divisions OF
Time Jring to Mind the Devotion
Of the Ancients TO Their
Religion.

did not have any names for many CEN
turtles except by their numbers, as the
first day and second day, etc, but in
the course Of time the Scandinavians
gave them names in honor of their
gods, the sun and moon and Saturn
and Wooden and Thor, etc. Wooden was
their greatest god and Thor was the
god of the clouds. Wednesday used to
be "Wednesday and Thursday was
Thursday. They believed that Thor
made thunder by picking up two great
mountains in the sky and slapping
them together and that he was ten
miles high and his arms 20 miles long.
But the division Of the year into
months and how and when the months
got their names is not generally known
to the young people, and perhaps will
not be until somebody tells them. I
was thinking about this month of
April and how it got its name from a
Latin word that means ''to open,' be-
cause during this month the earth be-
gins to open for the seed to come up
and the grass to grow and the buds on
the trees open into leaves and flowers.
Young people should know that away
back before the Christian era there
were but ten months and the year end
ed with December and began with jan
uary, because their god Janus was a
double-faced god and with one face
looked back at the old year and with
the other looked forward at the new
year. That was pretty and appro-
pirate. Before the reign o fNuma, Jan
uary and February were not in the be-
ginning of the year, but those old Ro-
man emperOrs and the old popes did
what they pleased with time, and so
January was made the first month to
please Janus. Then Numa transposed
February to please Lupercus, another
god who they said was the she wolf
that sucked Romulus and Remus in a
cave, and the Romans established a
yearly festival in honor of this she wolf
and called it Februes, which means ex-
piation. March was named in honor
of Mars, another god, and the 25th of
March was the beginning of the year
for 1900 years, not only with the Ro-
mans, but with many Christian ma
tions. Indeed, it was not changed from
this distinction until the year 1889, and
it seems to me a pity that it ever was
changed. The time of the VernaI equi-
nox, the 21st Of March, seems more like
a new year had come than does the cold
bleak midwinter at the first day OF Jan
uary.
The next month to April was named
in honor Of another god or goddess
named Maias, who was the mother Of
Mercury. Then came June, a name
given in honor of Junius, the god Of
youth. Then came the other four
months, September. October, Novem-
Der and December. Gods and goddess
had given out reckon. But later on
Julius Caesar imagined he was a god
and made a new month and called it
July and Augustus Caesar did the same
thing and called it August. OF course
they had to rob the other months of
some of their days in order to get these
two months in. Now, my young
friends, just think of it, how the civ
ilized Christian world has been inn
posed upon. by superstition. Every day
in the week and almost every month in
the year named in honor of some mag
mary god that the heather people wor-
SHIPPED. Paul preached a grand sermon
when he said to them: ''Whom We ig-
n~orantly worship him declare j unto
you"
Not only did we get from them the
names of days and months, but the
names of al the planets except one,
and that is the earth that we live upon.
How faithfully they did worship their
gods. How loyal were they to Jupiter,
the god of all gods, whom they imag-.
ined sat upon a throne on the top Of
Mount Olympus, an imaginary o
tain far up in the heavens, and from
there overlooked and blessed the chill
dren Of men. Love is the foundation of
character Of every god, whether real
or imaginary. 1t is worthy of remem-
brance that al the historic nations
wOrshiped gods whom they believed
to be good. No people have ever wor-
SHIPPED a god who did not love and care
for the children of men. There were
gods of evil, too, but the people did net
love them. They feared them just as
we fear the power Of Satan now. The
origin of many things of every day use
In the business of life is a curious and
interesting study. For instance, who
established the exact length of an inch,
a foot, a yard. Who fixed the weight
of a pound of sugar or a ten-dollar coin.
of gold or a bushel Of meal. These
things haven't been fixed so very long.
The nations have been working on
them for centuries and they were not.
finally agreed on until about $50 years
ago. During the reign OF King George
~. the house of parliament in London
was burned up and the standards Of
weights and measures was burned up
with it and it took years to reproduce
them, for although thousands OF peo-
pie had yard sticks and weights and
measures, they were not exactly alike.
Many yard sticks were a trihe short
and there were scales to buy by and
scales TO sell by and 10 with peek meas
ures and hRlf-bushel measures, for
there were dishonest merchants then
and I reckon there are some now. The
first foot measure is said to have been
the exact length Of an ancient Roman