Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-06-14
Names of the Months and Their
Meanings

The question concerning the number
/ or Sundays in February has brought me
some interesting letters, and the ques-
| ton was asked me why the second
month was called February.
! AS you know. we use. with few mod
| ifications, the Roman calendar. Rome
was mistress of the world and her con-
| quered provinces were elevated. not de-
! graded. She improved her territories
! and encouraged literature. The man
| who wrote "Omnia Gallia divisit est"
was the founder of laws and roads as
! well as the one who put us under
| more universal method of computing the
! passage of time by introducing Roman
/ methods everywhere. England was, of
course. the one from whom we got our
! weather lore and fables about the
months, but they are of Roman origin.
! January was named from Janus the
! porter of their NEUROLOGICAL heaven. or
abode of their gods. He was repre-
scented as having two faces. looking over
the old year and the new. There was
festival to this god on the first day
! Of the year. and it is from this ancient
merry making that we get our new year
celebra tions. Janus was also Worship
ped as the god of the sun. And while
l am writing this l am reminded that
three wise men who visited our Savior
were afterwards, according to tradition
baptised by St Thomas in January, and
| their remains were put in the beautiful
cathedral that was at Cologne, but is
now a mass of ruins Until Numa Pom
pilius, who died 672 b. c., the year had
only ten months. He added January and
February.
This second month has two sets of ex-
plantations. Some say it comes from
7 Ia 81 Nak.,.
god of the lower regions. others say
it comes from februare, meaning to ex-
plate or purify. The Romans had a
date of publication in the month, but it
was not at it's beginning
March gets its name from Mars god
of war. He was next to Jupiter in hon
ors, and we know that today there is a
typical representation of Mars on earth
April was dedicated to Aphrodite
venus the goddess of budding beauties.
March winds and April showers
Bring forth May flowers"
And our month OF May derives the
name from Maia, a feminine divinity
who was worshipped on the first day OF
May.
Our sixth month was named for Juno
the queen of mythology, and was at
called it Midsummer month.
July. with his fervid noon unsinews
labor" When March was the first
month of the Roman year July was
called the fifth month. But julius Caesar
named it for himself. although if was
proposed by Marc Anthony, and ! think
he. too, should have been honored. As
so many questions are asked about dog
days | will state here that they origi-
mated with the superstition that the
star Sirius made dogs go mad from the
third of July to the eleventh of Au-
gust.
st. Swithin's day is July Is and if
that day be fair we may look for tenn
perate winter. and a wet Saint Swithin's
day means forty days of rain, says SUI
perstition.
but the Emperor Augustus took the
same liberty with names that his ances-
tor did and changed this name to mem
orize himself
The other months were allowed to
keep their Roman numerals although
September is no longer the seventh
month
And October has this quartrain:
October has it's name from octa, eight;
Though tbs the truth perhaps It's
well to state,
Such SKIES and such sevens the months
were knocked to,
That ten became translated into octo \
November and December are only
Latin names for nine and ten, and the