december

[scattman57]

i was asked recently by my daughter if the decimal in december mean`t that once it was the tenth month. i remember at school that july was added by julius caesar but i cant remember the second does anyone have any idea

[loobylou]

The Roman year began in the month of March (named after Mars), when the earth begins to spring to life again after winter. This made September the seventh month of the year. In Latin, Septembris, Octobris, Novembris and Decembris (September, October, November, and December) mean the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th month respectively. When Julius Ceasar changed the Roman calendar, he made January the first month, he did not change the names of the months or their relative order. And the month of September became the ninth month of the year.

[bernardo]

July and August were not "added" as new months; they just had their names changed.  I think they were originally called Quintilis and Sextilis (or similar).  The names for September, October, November and December no longer fit their numbered names because of the shift from March to January, not because of the addition of July and August.

[Kingaroo]

Bernardo, did January (named after a fairly minor Roman god) and February start out as the end of the year, following Decembris, or Did Julius rename them? How come Mars got a month, instead of the first month being named Primus (or whatever the latin for First is)?

[bernardo]

Bernardo, did January (named after a fairly minor Roman god) and February start out as the end of the year, following Decembris,

 

yes

 

 or Did Julius rename them?

 

Not sure

 

 How come Mars got a month, instead of the first month being named Primus (or whatever the latin for First is)?

 

Er... don't know

[Octavius]

The Roman Calendar is believed to have been devised originally by Romulus (circa 750 BC), the founder of Rome. It was basically a lunar calendar and had ten months, six of 30 days and four of 31 days making a total of 304 days. The year started with the month of March and ended with the month of December. This was then followed by a gap before the next year started. The next year would start on a new moon to bring the calendar back into step with the lunar cycle. Many of the month names were based on the month number.

 

In the reign of Numa Pompilius (circa 715 - circa 673 BC) two extra months were added. January (Iannarils) at the beginning of the year and February (Februarias) at the end. The total number of days in the year was now 354. One day was deducted from each month of 30 days (six) and added to the extra fifty to give two months of 28 days. As the year now had an even number of days, as did the two new months, an extra day was added to January to make the year length 355. This was done because even numbers were considered unlucky.

The Julian Calendar (Julius Caesar) then replaced the Roman Calendar, and subsequently in the 1500's this was also superceded by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 with the Gregorian Calendar which changed the first day of the year from 25 March to 1st Jan - although some historians say that Julius Caesar decreed this anyway.

 

The Gregorian year length gives an error of one day in approximately 3,225 years.

[Kingaroo]

Gratius, Octavius... (or however one says Thank you) for that thorough answer.

I love the idea of a few odd days taken out of "real" time at the end of the year to even things up. Don' t you wish you could do that all the time?

[Octavius]

I wouldn't mind adding a few days and call them holi days!