Politics Behind Naming Of The Months
By Quamrul Haider
As our planet is about to complete one more revolution around the Sun on December 31 and start a new one on January 1, it is time to ponder: Where do the names of the months come from? The answer is: A few names were derived from Roman deities. The others came from Latin numbers and in two cases, in honour of Roman emperors.
Various ancient cultures established a number of calendars based either on the length of the solar year the time it takes the Earth to return to the same place in its orbit around the Sun, or the lunar month the time between two occurrences of the same phase of the Moon. As the calendars did not contain the right number of months and days to match the astronomical phenomena, it caused the months to drift wildly across the seasons.
In the times before Julius Caesar, the Roman calendar was in use. The original Roman calendar is attributed to Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. It consisted of 10 months, with 6 months of 30 days and 4 months of 31 days. So the calendar year had only 304 days. March (Martius) was the first month of the year followed by Aprilis, Maia, Juno, Quintilis (July), Sextilis (August), September, October, November and December.
Around 700 BC, Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, added the two months Januarius (January) and Februarius (February) to the calendar. He also moved the beginning of the year from March to January.
The chaotic calendar was used as a weapon by the corrupt politicians and priests to reward their friends and punish the foes. For example, the high priest in charge of the calendar would sometimes add days and even months to keep certain officials in office longer than their tenure or take days off to shorten an enemys tenure.
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar wanted to reform the calendar so that it would fit astronomical events better and have less wiggle room for the priests and politicians to tinker with it. The new calendar was known as the Julian calendar. With the exception of February, the 12 months of the calendar alternated between 31 and 30 days in length and the names of some of the months have been changed too.
The first month of the year January was named after Janus, the Roman God of beginnings and endings. The second month February was named after the Roman festival of purification - Februa. March was named after Mars, the Roman god of war, April after the Greek goddess Aphrodite, May after Maia, the Roman goddess of earth and June after Juno, the queen of the Roman Pantheon. The names of the last four months, often referred to as the boring bunch, were named after the Latin numbers septum (seven), octo (eight), novo (nine) and decem (ten).
What about the seventh month July and the eighth month August? To honour Julius Caesar, the name of the fifth month of the Roman calendar was changed from Quintilis to Julio. It is now our seventh month July containing 31 days.
After Julius Caesars grandnephew Augustus Caesar became the emperor of Rome, the Senate decided that a month should be named after him too. The Roman sixth month Sextilis (30 days) thus became August, our eighth month. However, because it would have been impolitic to have Augustus month a day shorter than Julius, an extra day was added to August, and all the following months had the number of their days changed accordingly to maintain alternation. Unfortunately, this led to a 366-day year. So in order to keep the year 365 days long, poor February, already a day short, became the sacrificial lamb. A second day was pared from the month, leaving it with only 28 days.
July and August were not the only months named after Roman statesmen. Later, May was changed to Claudius and the infamous fiddler Nero honored himself by changing April to Neronius. But unlike the two-millennia-worth staying power of July and August, Claudius and Neronius were ephemeral. n
The writer is a Professor of Physics at Fordham University, New York.
Photos: Google Image
