The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-04-18

to be seven days in "a week These
days did not have any names for many
centuries except by their numbers, a.
the first day and second day. otc,
but in course Of time the Scandinav
ians gave them names in honor cf
thcil gods, the sun and moon and Sat
urn and Wooden and Thor, etc. Wod-
en- was their greatest god and Thor
was the god Of the clouds. Wcdncs-
day used to be "Wednesday and Thurs
day was Thorsday. They believed
that Thor made thunder by picking up
two great mountains in the sky and
clapping them together and that lie
was ten miles high and his arms
twenty 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. was thinking
about this month of April and how it
got its name from Latin word that
means to open" because during this
month the earth begins 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 ended with De-
cember and began with January, be-
cause their god Janus was double
faced god and with one face looked
back at the old year and with the
other looked forward at tho new year
That was pretty and appropriate. Be-
fore the reign of Numa, January and
February were not ig the beginning Of
the year, but those old Roman empcr-
ors and the old popcs did what they
pleased with time, aud SO January
was made the first month to please
Janus. Then Numa transposed Feb
ruary to please Lupcrcus, another god
who they said was the she wolf that
sucked Romulus and lemus in cave,
and the Romans established yearly
festival in honor Of this she wolf and
called it Fobrucs, which means cxpla-
tion. March was named in honor Of
Mars, another god, and the 25th Of
March was the beginning of the year
for 1000 years, not only with the Ro-
mans, but with many Christian ma
tions. Indeed, it was not changed
from this distinction until the year
1z52, and It scc.Hs 10 me- u pity That
it ever was changed. The time of the
vernal equinox, the 21st Of March,
seems more like new year had come
than does the cold bleak midwinter Of
the first day of January.
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, name
given in honor of Junius, tho god Of
youth. Then came the other four
months, September, October, Novem-
ber and December. Gods and goddess
ses had given out reckon. But later
on Julius Caesar imagined he was o
god.and made 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 or
der to get these two months in. Now,
my young friends, just think Of it,
how the civilized Christian world has
been imposed upon by superstition.
Every day in the week and almost
every month in the year named in
honor of some imaginary god that the
heather people worshiped. Paul
preached grand sermon when he said
tc them: "Whom sc ignorantly wor-
snip him declare 1 unto you" No.
only did we get from them the names
Of days and months, but the names Of
all 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 imagined
sat upon throne on the top of Mount
Olympus, an imaginary mountain far
up in the heavens, and from there
overlooked and blessed the'children of
men. Love is the foundation of char
acter of every god, whether real or
imaginary. 1t is worthy Of remem-
brance that all the historic nations
worshiped gods whom they believed
to be good. No people have ever
worshiped @ god who did not love and
care for the children of men. There
were gods of evil, too, but the people
T. ~ n