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ENGLISH ...........................LATIN
January ................................Ianuarius
February ..............................Februarius
March ..................................Martius
April ......................................Aprilis
May ......................................Maius
June ....................................Iunonius
July ......................................Iuleus
August ................................Augustus
September .........................Septembri, Septembris
October ...............................Octobris, Octobre
November ...........................Novembris, Novembre
December ...........................Decembris, Decembre
The whole business of Latin months is complicated, because it depends on which
time period you're discussing. Different early tribes had different calendars,
based on their religious celebrations. Religion tended to vary from place to
place in Italy, though there were many common elements. The Romans, and many
other Italian peoples, used a ten month calendar which started in the Spring
and ended in the early Winter. Presumably, the Winter months were originally
unnamed.
(English: Latin)
January: Ianuarius - the month of the door, that is, the beginning month, probably
named for Ianuar, the god of gates.
February: Februarius - the month of the purifying or expiation rite (februa)
which was celebrated on February 15th.
March: Martius - the month of the chief Italian god, Mars, who had several festivals
during the month, mostly for the beginning of the season for military campaigns.
April: Aprilis - probably from the Latin verb "aperire", to open, meaning the
month when the earth opens to produce vegetation.
May: Maius - probably named for the Roman goddess Maia, "Mother", who was sacrificed
to on May 1st.
June: Iunonius (or Iunius) - the month in which there are feast days for the
goddess Juno.
July: Iuleus - named for that popular dictator, Julius Caesar.
August: Augustus - named for the second, and greatest, emperor.
September: Septembri, Septembris - the seventh month (remember, there only used
to be ten, starting with March).
October: October, Octobris, Octobre - the eighth month.
November: November, Novembris, Novembre - the ninth month.
December: December, Decembris, Decembre - you guessed it!
Many of these were not just Roman inventions, but were Italian in origin,
Rome being but one of many Italian towns. After all, it wasn't built in a day,
and much that is Roman is really Italian.
Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, (c. 715-673 B.C) and who was probably
a Sabine, supposedly changed the earlier Roman calendar from ten months to twelve.
He also set the dates of the festivals and organized the colleges of priests
(still a popular pastime in Rome, even today). The months added were Ianuarius
and Februarius. At this point, the new year still began with Mars, and the fifth
and sixth months were Quinctilis and Sextilis, Latin adjectives meaning fifth
and sixth, with the word "mensis" (month) being understood.
In 153 B.C., Rome adopted the Republican calendar, introduced by an Etruscan,
Tarquinius Priscus. Now the Roman consuls began serving their terms on January
1st instead of March 1st. (Scholars continue to argue about whether this means
that the Roman year now started in January or March.) People just kept the old
names for the other number-named months. Maybe they ran out of creative names,
but, more likely, you can picture a lot of these very conservative Romans insisting
on keeping the time-honored names. They probably didn't care for the change
in the first place. So their descendants probably resented it when Julius Caesar
reformed the calendar again in 46 B.C. to reconcile the actual solar year with
the lunar year, based on months corresponding to the lunar cycle.
The names for the two emperors were later substituted for the older Roman fifth
and sixth months. So Quinctilis became Iuleus, for Julius Caesar, and Sextilis
became Augustus, after the pair were deified. But the older number-names persisted,
and were still used by some well into the middle ages.
Spring continued to begin the year in Western Europe. The Christians, not liking
to follow the pagan tradition of starting the year with Mars' feast day of March
1st, switched the first day of the year to March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation
(known in England as Lady Day) - 9 months before Christmas.
Things continued this way under the Julian calendar until another Italian, Pope
Gregory XIII really straightened them out in 1582 by once again altering the
calendar, setting the new year at January 1st.
The English didn't adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. So, as late as the
early 1750's, Englishmen, and their American cousins, still celebrated the new
year in March. |
