Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-10-18

French calendar, unlike any other
vet so like the revolutionists who
wanted everything different from
everything else that reminded them
of the old kingdom Is interesting.
They began their calendar on Septem-
Der %. Their first month was Vinde-
MARE. Vintage, the old idea, you see,
brought down from the Saxon. Bru-
maire began October %, was known
as foggy; Primaire, November Il,
frosty and sleety; Nivose. December
81. snowy; Pluviose. January 20,
rainy; Ventose, February IS, windy;
Germinal, March 81, budding; Floreal.
fiowery, April 20; Prairial, hay har-
vest, May 20; Messidor, corn harvest,
June 10; Thermioor, hot, July 10;
Fructidor fruit, August Is.
An Earlier Idea.
This idea of naming the months
from the natural variations Of the sea-
sons was not original with the revo-
lutiouists, as the names of the
months used in Holland and published
in Dutch almanacs long before the
French revolution did the same
thing. The characteristic names OF
the months used by the Dutch, re-
mains of the ancient Gaulish titles,
with their meaning and English equiv
alents, are shown in the following:
January, Lauwmaand, frosty month;
February, Sprokkelmaand, vegeta-
ton month; March, Lentmaand,
spring month; April, Grasmaand,
grass month; May, Bloumaand, bios
som month; June, Zomermaand, sum-
mer month; July, Hooymaand, hay
month; August, Oostmaand, harvest
month; September, Herstmaand,
autumn month; October, Wynmaand,
wine month; November, Slagtmaand,
slaughter month; December, Winter
maand, winter month.
Back in Egypt.
AS the Dutch preceded D'Eglantine
in giving the months names descrip-
tive of the natural processes charac-
terizing them, $50 his method of divid-
ing the year into twelve months OF
thirty days each with five supplement
tary days at the end to complete the
year had been followed by the an
cient Egyptians centuries before a
French republic was dreamed of And
his division of the month into three
periods or decades of ten days each
was modelled after the ancient Greeks,
who followed the same division in
their calendar.
Romans Again.
In the calendar of the Romans,
whose nomenclature ours follows, the
only month bearing a name express
i've of the season connected with it is
that of Aprillis, our April, meaning
to open, in allusion to the buds then
beginning to open or to the fact that
the earth opens to produce new vege-
tation. Four of our months and six
Of the original Roman calendar bore
names designating their numerical
station in the calendar when it con-
sisted of ten months. September was
| the seventh, October the eighth, No
vember the ninth and December the
tenth month in the Roman year when
it consisted of ten months, Of which
March was the first.
Many CHANCES.
When Numa added January and
February to the calendar, placing
them before March, he changed the
numerical order and our calendar now
presents the anomaly of having our
last four months, which are really the
ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth, dis
tinguished by names which mean the
seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth.
October, our tenth month, we cali
the eighth
Like September, October has I'M
dergone some temporary changes of
name, and like that month it soon re-
verted to the one by which it was
originally and is still known. 1t was
first altered to Faustinas in honor Of
Faustina, the wife of the Emperor An
toninus, surnamed Plus. Then Domi-
tian, the despot, decreed that it
should be called Dominitianus, and
still later Commodus changed it to In
victus, but despite their orders it is
still October