Names of the Months Origin of the Names of the Months January: Janus, Roman god of doors, beginnings, sunset and sunrise, had one face looking forward and one backward, February: On February 15 the Romans celebrated the festival of forgiveness for sins; (februare, Latin to purify), March: Mars, the Roman god of war, April: Roman month Aprilis, perhaps derived from aperire, (Latin to open, as in opening buds and blossoms) or perhaps from Aphrodite, original Greek name of Venus, May: Maia, Roman goddess, mother of Mercury by Jupiter and daughter of Atlas, June: Juno, chief Roman goddess, July: Renamed for Julius Caesar in 44 BC, who was born this month; Quintilis, Latin for fifth month, was the former name (the Roman year began in March rather than January), August: Formerly Sextilis (sixth month in the Roman calendar); re-named in 8 BC for Augustus Caesar, September: September, (septem, Latin for 7) the seventh month in the Julian or Roman calendar, established in the reign of Julius Caesar, October: Eighth month (octo, Latin for 8)

 in the Julian (Roman) calendar.

The Gregorian calendar instituted by Pope Gregory XIII established January as the first month of the year, November: Ninth Roman month (novem, Latin for 9). Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, skipping 10 days that October, correcting for too many leap years, December: Julian (Roman) year's tenth month (decem, Latin for 10). November – eleventh month of the year Latin name - novembris mensis - ninth month Old English - Blotmanad - Blood month History of November November was originally the ninth month of the Roman calendar and consisted of 30 days. It became the eleventh month of the year with a length of 29 days when King Numa Pompilius reformed the calendar and added the months of January and February around 700 BCE. During the Julian calendar reform, a day was added to November making it 30 days long again. Eleventh Month in the Year November is the eleventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendar and was the ninth month in the Roman calendar. It is the seasonal equivalent of May in the Northern Hemisphere.

November starts on the same day of the week as February in common years and March every year. November ends on the same day of the week as August every year. Birth Flower and Birthstone November’s birth flower is the chrysanthemum. The birthstone for November is the topaz. The Origins of the Secular Names for the Months of the Year January Roman god Janus [Ir. gionbhar or gionvar; Russ. genvar; Fr. janvier; It. gennaio; Sp. enero; Port. janeiro; L. januarius. It is evident from the Irish and Russian words, that the first syllable of January, is from the root of L. geno, to beget, Eng. to begin, Sax. aginnan. Var is said to signify a revolution. January then signifies the beginning, or first month. Janus is probably from the same root.] The first month of the year, according to the present computation. At the foundation of Rome, March was considered the first month. January and February were introduced by Numa Pompilius. February [L. Februarius; Fr. Fevrier; It. Febbraio; Sp.

Febrero; Arm. Fevrer; Port. Fevereiro; Ir. Feabhra; Russ. Phebral. The Latin word is said to be named from februo, to purify by sacrifice, and thus to signify the month of purification, as the people were, in this month, purified by sacrifices and oblations. The word februo is said to be a Sabine word, connected with ferveo, ferbeo, to boil, as boiling was used in purifications. This practice bears a resemblance to that of making atonement amoung the Jews; but the connection between ferveo and February is doubtful.] The name of the second month of the year. March [L. Mars, the god of war.] The third month of the year. April [L. aprilis; Fr. avril; Sp. abril; Ir. abrail; Corn. ebril; W. ebrill.] The fourth month of the year. May Greek goddess Maia [L. Maius; Fr. Mai; It. Maggio; Sp.

Mayo.] The fifth month of the year, beginning with January, but the third beginning with March, as was the ancient practice of the Romans. June [L. junius; Fr. juin; It. giugno; Sp. junio.] The sixth month of the year, when the sun enters the sign Cancer. July Roman emperor Julius Caesar The seventh month of the year, during which the sun enters the sign Leo. It is so called from Julius, the surname of Caius Cesar, who was born in this month. Before that time, this month was called Quintilis, or the fifth month, according to the old Roman calendar, in which March was the first month of the year. August Roman emperor Augustus Caesar [L. augustus. The first sylable of this word is probably from the root of augeo, or of awe.] The eighth month of the year, containing thirty-one days. The old Roman name was Sextilis, the sixth month from March, the month in which the primitive Romans, as well as Jews, began the year.

The name was changed to August in honor of the Emperor Octavius Augustus, on account of his victories, and his entering on his first consulate in that month. September [L. from septem, seven; Fr. septembre; It. settembre; Sp. septiembre.] The seventh month from March, which was formerly the first month of the year. September is now the ninth month of the year. October [L. from octo, eighth; the eighth month of the primitive Roman year which began in March.] The tenth month of the year in our calendar, which follows that of Numa and Julius Cesar. November Early Roman Calendar | Calendars Beware the Ides of March! Roman Fasti Some 200 fragments of Roman calendars have been found so far, and they are collectively known as Fasti. What did a Roman calendar look like? The Roman calendar used a system of months, and special days in each month. Some calendars were carved in marble or stone, but many were painted on walls for decoration. Different geographical areas often held different gods in special esteem, and this led to regional variations in calendars.

This doesn’t seem so strange when one considers that even within the US, Mardi Gras often appears only on Southern calendars, and Lincoln’s birthday sometimes does not. In 45 B.C.E., Romans modified their method of marking time to keep it in phase with seasons, but not require intercalation of an extra month. They accomplished this with the Julian Calendar. Month lengths were extended to bring the calendar’s total to 365 days, making it truly solar. This change was accompanied by addition of an extra day every fourth year (after February 23rd) because of the almost six extra hours beyond 365 days in a tropical year. How do you read the calendar? In the calendar of the ancient Romans, the months contained three primary markers  the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides. The Kalends were always the first day of the month. The Nones were usually the 5th but sometimes the 7th, and the Ides were the 15th but sometimes the 13th. All the days after the Ides were numbered by counting down towards the next month’s Kalends.

The holidays were generally bunched together to form continuous celebrations, and the remaining days of the month were usually nondescript workdays. The days were each identified with certain letters and names. The Kalends were always identified as shown in the diagram at right. The archaic form of the K, for Kalends, was used in front of the name of the month. The first letter was called the Nundinae ("nine day") , or the Nundinal letter, and it represented the market day. Every 9th day (counting inclusively) was a market day, but as it shifted every year, a designated letter between A and H would represent the market day for that year. The final letter identifies the type of day for purposes of religious observance or legal business. The top diagram shows a typical non-holiday. The first letter is the nundinal letter for the market day. If the market day for this year was E then this would be a market day. The second letter signifies the type of religious or legal observance required or permitted on this day. In this case the letter C represents dies comitiales, days when committees of citizens could vote on political or criminal matters.

The other letter designations : F stands for dies fasti, days on which legal action is permitted. N stands for dies nefasti, which meant that no legal action or public voting could take place on this day. EN stands for endotercisus, or intercisus, which were "in-between" F or C days in which mornings and afternoons had different designations. NP, the combination of N and P, represented some important type of religious observance of which all records have disappeared. However, they all seem to be directly associated with major holidays. FP also represented some religious holiday, but no definition survives for this abbreviation. The center diagram is a typical festival, or feriae. On these days the day letter follows the holiday name, which is abbreviated in these calendars. These holidays are explained in the write-up for each day. The Romans enjoyed more holidays than the number of our holidays and weekends combined. Roman taxes were also only a tithe, or 10%. One of the hallmarks of progress seems to be that the populace is always made to work longer and, on top of it all, they are taxed more. What were the Roman weekdays?

The Romans did not have weekdays in the same sense as our Monday, Tuesday, etc., however, they did have a defined markers within each month. Originally, the month and the markers were based on the moon. At the time of their early kings, Roman months were of a length identical to the lunar cycle. Each month was divided into sections that ended on the day of one of the first three phases of the moon: new, first quarter or full. All days were referred to in terms of one of these three moon phase names, Kalends, Nones or Ides. At that time a pontifex (priest) was assigned to observe the sky. When he first sighted a thin lunar crescent he called out that there was a new moon and declared the next month had started. For centuries afterward, Romans referred to the first day of each month as Kalendae or Kalends from the Latin word calare (to announce solemnly, to call out). The word calendar was derived from this custom. Day of Kalends Of the three sections, Kalends was the longest  it had more days than the other two combined.

That’s because it spanned more than two lunar phases, starting from the day after full moon and continuing thru its last quarter and waning period, then past the dark new moon until another lunar crescent was sighted. The day of Kalends itself began a new month. It was dedicated to Juno, a principal goddess of the Roman Pantheon. Unnamed days in the early Roman month were assigned a number by counting down following the day of each named phase, day by day, ending with the next of those three phases. The first numbered day in each section had the section’s highest value. Each succeeding day was one number lower than that of the day before. (Similar to the modern count-down when coordination of a group of people is required for a complicated activity such as launching a rocket.) Latin for "the evening before" is "Pridie," a word that was used to refer to the day before each of these named phases. So Pridie was always the day that would otherwise have been numbered two. The count-down was inclusive; the day from which they started as well as that of the moon phase to which they were counting down, day one, were both included.

Day of Nones Nones (Latin nonus or ninth) was originally the day when the moon reached its first quarter phase. When the pontifex initially saw the lunar crescent he noted its width and, using empirical knowledge, calculated the number of days that were expected to elapse between then and the first quarter moon. He then specified that number after he announced the new crescent. If he called out the number six, the day following Kalends would be referred to as the sixth day before Nones. In any given year, the second day of Martius might well have been designated as the sixth of the Nones of March: "ante diem VI Non. Mart." If this were the case, Nones would be the seventh day and Ides would be the 15th day of that month. The difference between these two dates, eight days, was always the length of the Ides section. Use of the word "Nones" (nine) was intended to express the inclusive number of elapsed days between first quarter and full moons. Actually, the time between moon phases now averages about 7.4 days, but they sometimes occur eight days apart.

Eight-day separations of first quarter and full moons now usually come grouped in consecutive lunations. They then give way to mostly seven-day periods. Six of the first seven lunations of 1997, for instance, had their first quarter and full moon phases eight days apart (inclusive nine-day spans). Also, July 1 of 1998 had a first-quarter moon followed by a new moon on July 9, a nine-day period. This helps explain why the unlikely term of Nones, meaning ninth, was used to designate one fourth of the moon’s period that now averages about 29.53 days. Day of Ides Ides, dedicated to Jupiter, was originally the time of the full moon. Because a full moon comes halfway thru each lunation, its day was called Idus in Latin from an Etruscan word meaning "divide." After Ides, the next new moon was expected to appear in from 15 to 17 days. Variations in the length of time before another new moon can be sighted is due to constantly changing positions of moon and Earth relative to the sun. When did they stop using the moon for months?

Romans separated their months from the lunar cycle in the fifth century B.C.E. Month lengths then became fixed. At that time, Ides was assigned as the 15th day in all months given 31 days in length  March, May, July and October. It was designated as the 13th day in all other months. As a result, from then on the Kalends section had from 16 to 19 days, the Nones section had either four or six days and the Ides section, as before, always had eight days. Sometime after Kalends, Nones and Ides were fixed on predetermined days of the month rather than being defined by phases of the moon, Romans used letters A thru H on the left side of each month’s calendar column to indicate days of their eight-day marketing week. The first day of each new year was represented by the letter "A." When did the early Roman calendar begin? The early Roman calendar originated as a local calendar in the city of Rome, supposedly drawn up by Romulus some seven or eight centuries before the Christian Era.

The year began in March and consisted of 10 months, six of 30 days and four of 31 days, making a total of 304 days: it ended in December, to be followed by what seems to have been an uncounted winter gap. Numa Pompilius, according to tradition the second king of Rome (715?-673? B.C.E.), is supposed to have added two extra months, January and February, to fill the gap and to have increased the total number of days by 50, making 354. To obtain sufficient days for his new months, he is then said to have deducted one day from the 30-day months, thus having 56 days to divide between January and February. But since the Romans had, or had developed, a superstitious dread of even numbers, January was given an extra day; February was still left with an even number of days, but as that month was given over to the infernal gods, this was considered appropriate. The system allowed the year of 12 months to have 355 days, an uneven number. When did the Roman republican calendar begin?

The so-called Roman republican calendar was supposedly introduced by the Etruscan Tarquinius Priscus (616-579 B.C.E.), according to tradition the fifth king of Rome. The Roman republican calendar was a dating system that evolved in Rome prior to the Christian era. According to legend, Romulus, the founder of Rome, instituted the calendar in about 738 B.C.E. This dating system, however, was probably a product of evolution from the Greek lunar calendar, which in turn was derived from the Babylonian. The original Roman calendar appears to have consisted only of 10 months and of a year of 304 days. The remaining 61¼ days were apparently ignored, resulting in a gap during the winter season. The months bore the names Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Juniius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and Decemberthe last six names correspond to the Latin words for the numbers 5 through 10. The Roman ruler Numa Pompilius is credited with adding January at the beginning and February at the end of the calendar to create the 12-month year.

In 452 B.C.E., February was moved between January and March. By the 1st century B.C.E., the Roman calendar had become hopelessly confused. The year, based on cycles and phases of the moon, totaled 355 days, about 10¼ days shorter than the solar year. The occasional intercalation of an extra month of 27 or 28 days, called Mercedonius, kept the calendar in step with the seasons. The confusion was compounded by political maneuvers. The Pontifex Maximus and the College of Pontiffs had the authority to alter the calendar, and they sometimes did so to reduce or extend the term of a particular magistrate or other public official. Finally, in 46 B.C.E., Julius Caesar initiated a thorough reform that resulted in the establishment of a new dating system, the Julian calendar. He wanted the year to begin in January since it contained the festival of the god of gates (later the god of all beginnings), but expulsion of the Etruscan dynasty in 510 B.C.E. led to this particular reform’s being dropped.

The Roman republican calendar still contained only 355 days, with February having 28 days; March, May, July, and October 31 days each; January, April, June, August, September, November, and December 29 days. It was basically a lunar calendar and short by 10¼ days of a 365¼ -day tropical year. In order to prevent it from becoming too far out of step with the seasons, an intercalary month, Intercalans, or Mercedonius (from merces, meaning wages, since workers were paid at this time of year), was inserted between February 23 and 24. It consisted of 27 or 28 days, added once every two years, and in historical times at least, the remaining five days of February were omitted. The intercalation was therefore equivalent to an additional 22 or 23 days, so that in a four-year period the total days in the calendar amounted to (4 x 355) + 22 + 23, or 1,465: this gave an average of 366.25 days per year.

Intercalation was the duty of the Pontifices, a board that assisted the chief magistrate in his sacrificial functions. The reasons for their decisions were kept secret, but, because of some negligence and a measure of ignorance and corruption, the intercalations were irregular, and seasonal chaos resulted. In spite of this and the fact that it was over a day too long compared with the tropical year, much of the modified Roman republican calendar was carried over into the Gregorian calendar now in general use. What were the Roman months? Much of the knowledge we now have about early Roman calendars came from Ovid, a Roman born in 43 B.C.E., and from Plutarch, a Greek biographer who wrote between C.E. 105 and 115. Both of them had access to historical documents that are no longer extant. Ovid claimed that his information was "dug up in archaic calendars," so it was already ancient over two thousand years ago. We can assume that the Roman calendar was brought from their birthplace by Rome’s original citizens. Initially, it contained only ten months. It has been suggested that those month lengths reflected growth cycles of crops and cattle.

When compared with the solar year, it had an uncounted winter period of approximately sixty days. Plutarch said that months at the time of Rome’s founding were of varying lengths, some as short as twenty days and others with thirty-five or more in what early Romans believed was a year of three hundred and sixty days. Romulus, the legendary first king, was said to have made extensive changes to those month lengths, assigning twenty-nine days to some and thirty-one to others. → Read excerpt of Plutarch’s essay . March (the first month) Both Ovid and Plutarch said that Martius, originally the first month, was named after Mars, the Roman god of war. Six of the other original ten were simply numbered as Quintilis thru Decembris (fifth thru tenth) but there were already disagreements when Ovid wrote, two thousand years ago, as to the sources of names for what were originally the second thru fourth, Aprilis, Maius and Junius. These disagreements continue to the present time.

April When writing about April, Ovid said "I have come to the fourth month, full of honor for you; Venus, you know both the poet and the month are yours." It was later said that "April was sacred to Venus, and her festival  the Festum Veneris and Fortuna Virilis  occurred on the first day of this month." Apparently Aprilis stems from aphrilis, corrupted from Aphrodite, a Greek name for Venus. Jakob Grimm, a later authority, opposed this stating it may have originated from the name of a god or hero named Aper or Aprus." May Maius was said by some to be named after the goddess Maia, a daughter of Atlas, and Junius "is indirectly named after the goddess Juno, the Roman equivalent of Frigga." But Ovid suggested that names of months we now call May and June possibly refer not to sky-gods but rather to elders and young men. January (at the end of the year) There was also disagreement in Ovid’s day as to the sequence and time at which Januarius and Februarius were added to the original ten months.

Januarius became part of the calendar within half a century after Rome was founded because Plutarch said that Numa, the king who followed Romulus, made it the first month of the year and made February the last. One historian assigns that action an exact date by stating that "January and February were added to an original Roman calendar of only ten months in 713 B.C.E." January was named after Janus, a sky-god who was ancient even at the time of Rome’s founding. Ovid quoted Janus as saying "The ancients called me chaos, for a being from of old am I." After describing the world’s creation, he again quoted Janus: "It was then that I, till that time a mere ball, a shapeless lump, assumed the face and members of a god." A Lydian named Joannes identified Janus as a planet when he wrote: "Our own Philadelphia still preserves a trace of the ancient belief.

On the first day of the month there goes in procession no less a personage than Janus himself, dressed up in a two-faced mask, and people call him Saturnus, identifying him with Kronos." Early Romans believed that the beginning of each day, month and year were sacred to Janus. They thought he opened the gates of heaven at dawn to let out the morning, and that he closed them at dusk. This eventually led to his worship as the god of all doors, gates, and entrances. Some say Februarius got its name from a goatskin thong called a februa ("means of purification.") On the 15th day of this month Romans observed the festival of Lupercalia. During the festival, a februa was wielded by priests who used it to beat women in the belief that it would make a barren woman fertile. However, there’s a Latin verb februare, meaning to "expiate" or "purify." It seems more reasonable to assume the purification people had in mind when naming the month was that of the calendar year’s length, not that of women upon whom the thong was applied.

Februrary (at the end of the year) Apparently Februarius, when adopted, had but 23 days  traditionally the 23rd day of that month was the end of the calendar year. That indicates Februarius was observed in pre-Romulan times when months had as few as twenty days. Also, adding five days at year-end (to extend February’s length to 28) is similar to the change made by many other peoples who, around the time of Rome’s founding, added five days to their own calendar, but considered them to be unlucky and not part of the normal year. Why is our leap day in Februrary, not the end of the year? Romans always reconciled differences between calendar and solar year lengths during the "Month of Purification." Whenever and however Roman calendars were modified to correspond to year length, it was always done after the 23rd day of February, traditionally the last day of the year. Even in our time, leap year is observed with a 29-day February. To purists, "leap day" is February 24, not the 29th.

Plutarch wrote: "Numa...added an intercalary month, to follow February, consisting of twenty-two days, and called by the Romans the month Mercedinus. This amendment, however, itself, in course of time, came to need other amendments." (When observed, that leap month always immediately followed February 23.) According to historian Livy, Numa divided the year into twelve months, corresponding to the moon’s revolutions. But as the moon does not complete thirty days in each month, and so there are fewer days in the lunar year than in that measured by the course of the sun, he interpolated intercalary months and so arranged them that every twentieth year the days should coincide with the same position of the sun as when they started, the whole twenty years being thus complete. He also established a distinction between the days on which legal business could be transacted and those on which it could not, because it would sometimes be advisable that there should be no business transacted with the people. Others claim that it wasn’t until 452 B.C.E. that a month named Intercalaris was added to the Roman calendar in order to add those days required to bring calendar length back into phase with the solar year.

This month also began after the 23rd day of Februarius. It was observed every second year and was said to have had a length of either 22 or 23 days, with the remaining five days of Februarius added after them. Beware the Ides of March! SOOTHSAYER. He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass. [Sennet. Exeunt all but BRUTUS and CASSIUS.] If you’ve heard the warning, "Beware the Ides of March," then it’s probably due to the works of William Shakespeare. The Roman ruler, Julius Caesar, was assassinated on the Ides of March - March 15, 44 B.C.E. In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, (I, ii, 33), a soothsayer tells Caesar who is already on his way to the Senate (and his death), "Beware the Ides of March." Caesar asks him to come closer and repeat what he has just said. He studies the man’s face, listens to the warning again, but decIdes, "He is a dreamer, let us leave him.

Pass." There is irony here, because the audience knows (from history) that Caesar will be killed on the Ides, and that he is exercising poor judgement in dismissing this prophecy. Later, when he meets the Soothsayer again on the way to the Senate, he confidently says to him, "The Ides of March have come." But the Soothsayer reminds him, "Ay, Caesar, but not gone." There will be other warnings to Caesar from different people, which he will ignore, and go off to meet his death. The phrase "Beware the Ides of March" is one of the most remembered lines of Shakespeare’s plays. The unidentified soothsayer from Shakespeare’s play may have been a Roman astrologer by the name of Spurinna. According to to historical writer C.J.S.

Thompson (and confirmed in Plutarch’s account of the story written in 75 C.E.) it was reportedly sometime prior to the fateful day of March 15 that Spurinna had first given Caesar the famous warning to "beware of the Ides of March." The astrologer, Spurinna, had previously warned Caesar that on the Ides of March, he would be in great danger. If, however, Julius Caesar took care on that one day - then all would be well. According to Plutarch, Caesar had previously made the wise decision to stay within the safety of his bedroom chambers on the 15th of March. However, Caesar’s "friend" Decimus (Albinus) Brutus (not Marcus Brutus) managed to convince him that the astrologer’s warnings were nothing more than superstitious foolishness. So Julius Caesar decided to attend the Senate on the 15th of March. On his way to the Senate, Caesar "accidentally" met up with the astrologer, Spurinna.

Caesar then told the astrologer "The Ides of March are come." Spurinna answered, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past." Later that day - on March 15, 44 B.C.E - Caesar’s enemies assassinated him in the Pompey theater, at the foot of Pompey’s statue, where the Roman Senate was meeting that day in the temple of Venus. The Roman calendar The Roman calendar (Please include the word “calendar” in the subject line) The Roman calendar What is the Roman calendar? The Roman calendar provides the historical background for the Christian calendar. To a large extent the structure the calendar we use today is similar to the structure of the ancient Roman calendar. Before 45 BC, the Roman calendar was a mess, and much of our so-called “knowledge” about it seems to be little more than guesswork. Originally, the year started on 1 March and consisted of only 304 days or 10 months (Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December). These 304 days were followed by an unnamed and unnumbered winter period.

The Roman king Numa Pompilius (c. 715-673 BC, although his historicity is disputed) allegedly introduced February and January (in that order) between December and March, increasing the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. In 450 BC, February was moved to its current position between January and March. In order to make up for the lack of days in a year, an extra month, Intercalaris or Mercedonius, (allegedly with 22 or 23 days though some authorities dispute this) was introduced in some years. In an 8 year period the length of the years were: 1: 12 months or 355 days 8: 13 months or 378 days A total of 2930 days corresponding to an average of 366¼ days per year. This year was discovered to be too long, and therefore 7 days were later dropped from the 8th year, yielding 365.375 days per year. This is all theory.

In practice it was the duty of the priesthood to keep track of the calendars, but they failed miserably, partly due to ignorance, partly because they were bribed to make certain years long and other years short. Furthermore, leap years were considered unlucky and were therefore avoided in time of crisis, such as the Second Punic War. In order to clean up this mess, a calendar reform was required. In 45 BC Julius Caesar introduced the so-called Julian calendar , but before the reformed calendar could be used, drastic measures were required to make up for the many omitted leap months. Therefore 46 BC became a year with 15 months and 445 days; that year has been aptly termed “the last year of confusion”. The table below shows an educated guess about the length of the months in the years 47 BC (which was a typical Roman year) and 46 BC (which was anything but typical). 47 BC 355 445 The names of the two extra months between November and December are not known.

It has been suggested that their names were Undecember and Duodecember, but that is doubtful, as this would mean that the names of the last four months were derived from the Latin words for nine, eleven, twelve, ten – in that order. The length of the months from 45 BC onward were the same as the ones we know today. Occasionally one reads the following story: “Julius Caesar made all odd numbered months 31 days long, and all even numbered months 30 days long (with February having 29 days in non-leap years). In 44 BC Quintilis was renamed ‘Julius’ (July) in honour of Julius Caesar, and in 8 BC Sextilis became ‘Augustus’ in honour of emperor Augustus. When Augustus had a month named after him, he wanted his month to be a full 31 days long, so he removed a day from February and shifted the length of the other months so that August would have 31 days.” This story, however, has no basis in actual fact. It is a fabrication, possibly invented by the English-French scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco in the 13th century.

[1] The Romans didn’t number the days sequentially from 1. Instead they had three fixed points in each month: “Kalendae” (or “Calendae”), which was the first day of the month. “Idus”, which was the 13th day of January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December, or the 15th day of March, May, July, or October. “Nonae”, which was the 9th day before Idus (counting Idus itself as the 1st day). The days between Kalendae and Nonae were called “the 5th day before Nonae”, “the 4th day before Nonae”, “the 3rd day before Nonae”, and “the day before Nonae”. (There was no “2nd day before Nonae”.

This was because of the inclusive way of counting used by the Romans: To them, Nonae itself was the first day, and thus “the 2nd day before” and “the day before” would mean the same thing.) Similarly, the days between Nonae and Idus were called “the Xth day before Idus”, and the days after Idus were called “the Xth day before Kalendae (of the next month)”. Julius Caesar decreed that in leap years the “6th day before Kalendae of March” should be doubled. So in contrast to our present system, in which we introduce an extra date (29 February), the Romans had the same date twice in leap years. The doubling of the 6th day before Kalendae of March is the origin of the word bissextile.

If we create a list of equivalences between the Roman days and our current days of February in a leap year, we get the following: Roman date Why the Ninth Month Comes from the Word “Seven” | Dictionary.com Blog Home » Calendar Events » History » Why the Ninth Month Comes from the Word “Seven” Why the Ninth Month Comes from the Word “Seven” September 12, 2016 by: Dictionary.com 596 Comments For many, the month of September signals the end of summer, the beginning of autumn, and the start of a new school year. With respect to the calendar, September marks the beginning of the months that signify nothing other than their numerical position in the year. September comes from the Latin root septem-, meaning “seven,” because in the original Roman republican calendar September was the seventh month of the year rather than the ninth. The Roman calendar was only ten months long and included the following months—Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. The last six months were assigned names according to their ordinal numbers—Quintilis is the fifth month, Sextilis is the sixth month, and so on.

It wasn’t until 45 BC, when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar (named after Caesar, himself), that the year grew to include two more months, January and February. Quintilis and Sextilis were later renamed to July and August in honor of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, but despite repeated attempts to change them, the names for September, October, November, and December not only stuck, but spread to other languages as well. The strangeness of calling the ninth month “Seventh Month” didn’t seem to bother Old English speakers. September came into Old English from Old French, replacing the Old English forms, Hāligmōnað and Hærfestmōnað, which mean “harvest month” in Modern English. If the Roman senate had gotten their way, we might now be calling September Tiberius or Antoninus, after two Roman Emperors. Or we might have ended up calling September Augustus as followers of the Emperor Commodus hoped, or Germanicus, as Emperor Domitian wanted. Would these names have been any better than calling the ninth month September? Why is September the ninth month when it means 7, and likewise for October, November, December...?

| Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk Why is September the ninth month when it means 7, and likewise for October, November, December...? Jessie Churchill, San Francisco, USA Septemeber is the ninth month for us, but the Romans had only ten months in their calendar, so the number-names worked out right for them. Amanda , Norman, OK, USA It's one of the things "the Romans did for us" - slotting in two months - July named after Julius Caesar and August named after Augustus Caesar. This nudged the later months along by two and so September became the ninth instead of the seventh month etc. Alan Daulby, Mold, UK In the Roman calendar there were only ten months - the 7th to 10th being September to December as their names suggest. It was only later when July and August (Julius and Augustus Caesar) were added that they became out of sequence. Chris Woods, Mt Victoria, NSW, Australia The Roman year used to start with spring (1 March) which makes September to December the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months.

Keith Mason, London, UK The answer is obvious - the year used to start in March (close to the vernal equinox) rather than January (approximately the winter solstice). In most of Europe confusion over this extended for quite some time, leading to the appearance in historical texts of "old style" dates (year starts March 25) and "new style" (year starts January 1). Susan Cartwright, Sheffield The Roman calendar had March as the first month of the year, so the count is correct: September is the seventh month. What seems somewhat odd is the fact that only the later months, and not all of them, are "counted". Any explication for this? R. Wittig, Freiberg, Germany Further to my first answer and later contributions, it's true that there were originally only 10 (lunar) months, with a roughly 64 day 'non month' winter period. However the two extra months, Jan and Feb, were added at the end of the year, giving a year of about 354 days, with a short 'non month' at the end, before the time of Julius Caesar.

He reformed the calendar, lengthened the months so they filled up the whole 365 day period, and later the 5th and 6th months (Quintilis and Sextilis) were renamed after him and his successor Augustus. The 'non month' survives in vestigial form as the leap day, February 29. Only later was the new year moved to near the winter solstice. Keith Mason, London, UK Months are named after different things. January - Janus (Roman god) February - forfebrua (Roman word for purification and offerings) March - Mars (Roman god) April - probably from Latin "aperio, aperire" to uncover or open May - prob from Maiesta (Roman goddess) June - Juno (Roman goddess) July - Julius Caesar August - Augustus Caesar September - seventh month October - eighth month November - ninth month December - tenth month Roger Cline, Big Spring, Texas, USA It is the seventh month if you start with March, spring and new growth.

Jack Lewis, Lakeside, USA September is also special in that it's spelt with 7 different letters and 9 total letters -- numbers which correspond elegantly to both its root meaning and its calendar placement. No other month can do this trick. Steve, Kansas City USA September is the ninth month because two months were added to the original ten month calendar, but those months were January and February. Contrary to popular belief the months of July and August were NOT added, they simply were renamed. The month Quintilis (fifth) became July and, years later, Sextilis (sixth) became August. So January and February are the real culprits for the disparity of the names of the months vs. its position on the year. Eduardo Campos, Monterrey MÃ©xico The romans could not count using there x v's all that cerfuddle!!! age 10!:) tabi, norley England Tabi, I realise you are only ten but "there" refers to place as in "over there." You should have written "their" - the posessive pronoun. Also you do not use an apostrophe for plurals (more than one).

I hope you don't mind me correcting you. Martin Davies, Truro, England Martin, good remark. But for British people, punctuation that is not part of the quoted sentence should be placed outside the quotation marks! Hercule Poirot, Brussels, Belgium September is named after the Roman emperor Sebtemberus Severus and has nothing to do with the number of the month. Mike, Houston US What if I said that there is only 10 months, November number 9, March is the first... But I think it was only 6 days a week!!that means only 24 days each month!!so ask yourselves,if those born in jan,and feb,and after the 24th,,have always felt lost???well ask them,,because a lot of them do!!!!strange! nils, oslo norway I thought I should correct Martin's spelling. "Possessive" has two "s" and it should be "I hope you don't mind my correcting you", since "correcting" is a verbal noun and requires a possessive adjective. But I like the comments about the Roman months. 30 days hath September...

Gerry Grundy, Kitchener Canada Iranian nations have the calendar which starts from 21 March. This calendar is very old and is very precise too. In this calendar the year starts from the first day of spring when the nature is going to become green too. and the last month of this calendar is esfand which has 28 or 29 day like Feb. in European calendar (but Feb. is the second month of the year and this is not logical). It is obviously more logical to start the new year by changing the season from winter to spring. But European follow the Gregorian calendar. Because of religious reasons they tried to make the first day closer to Christmas. As you know the Iranian nations, Indian nations and European nations have the same origin and originally they followed the same calendar. September is the seventh month in Iranian calendar (but not in this name). I mean the seven month of Iranian calendar approximately coincides to September. Mostafa, Tehran, Iran

Question: Which month of the year was the ninth month of the Roman calendar?
Answer: November