Does it bother anyone else that the name of the tenth month in our calendar literally means eighth month? I’m not sure when I first noticed, sometime after learning all my shapes, but eventually it occurred to me that septim-, octav-, nona-, decim- are generally used as prefixes for things that are seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth in line. So how did our last four month names come to be off by two?
Our current calendar is rumored to have its origins in the founding of Rome. Romulus, one of the founders and first king of Rome, is said to have created a 12-month, lunar-based calendar. This calendar year started in the spring with Martius (March), named for Mars, the god of war. Martius was followed by Aprilis, for the opening of plants in spring. Next was Maius for the goddess Maia, then Junius for the goddess Juno. The next six months were named for their order in the calendar, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December. The last two months, both in the dead of winter, were left unnamed. At some point later they were given the names Januarius, for Janus the two faced god, and Februarius, possibly for an ancient festival.
Centuries later when Julius Caesar came into power, he made major reforms to the calendar, including changing to a solar-based tracking of time and moving January and February from the end of the year to the beginning. This shift left Quintilis through December two months off from were they logically should be.
After Julius Caesar’s death, Quintilis was renamed July in his honor. Various emperors also tried to rename the numbered months after themselves, such as Domitian trying to rename October to Domitianus or Commudus trying to rebrand the same month as Herculeus. The only one that has lasted is the renaming of Sextilis to August in honor of Caesar Augustus. I would like to propose the more appropriate names for the last four months, Football, Pumpkin Spice, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Crytal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy or to stump your in-laws.
