Our Calender: Numerically Displaced Months and Tyrannical Honor

I find myself developing a love for learning, which is great because there are so many things out there that I never really thought about because of superficial distractions.


I was watching TV in my mother's room one day when she walked in and told me some interesting stuff. She told me that there were originally ten (I have just read that it was actually 11 *shrug*) months in a year. That was some 2,000 years ago and before the Gregorian calender which we go by today. I didn't know that. Also, to prove this, which is something that I and, I'm sure, a lot of people never thought about, is the months September to December which all have numerical Latin prefixes. Sept in Latin for "seven" since September was the Seventh month of the year. Oct means "eight" since since October was the eighth month of the year. Nov means ninth since November was the ninth month of the year, and Deca means ten since December, which has the prefix dec, was the tenth month of the year. The funny thing is that, even though the numerical order of he months have changed, the names that indicated their original position haven't. I mean, wouldn't it make more since now that, instead of November, which is the tenth month of our calender, it would be be December since the Latin root of that month means ten? And October would replace August since August - which is my birthday month - is considered the 8th month in our calender? And September would replace July because July is the seventh month in our calender.


Oh, and speaking of July and August, I have learned some interesting background info on these months. Well, the month of July was named after the Roman dictator Julius Caesar (Juli = July) for reconstructing their calender. Before the month was renamed after Julius Caesar, it was called Quintilis with it's Latin root quint which means five. The month was renamed a year before Caesar died, so he only got to bask in the month named after him once.


Then there is the month of August. Of course August wasn't always called "August." It was named after Julian Caesar's grandnephew Augustus Caesar who defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. The weird thing is that Julius Caesar adopted him as his grand nephew AFTER Julius died. He had it in his will.  After his victory he was declared the new emperor of Rome. The Roman Senate felt that he should have a month named after him in his honor. Yep, and that's when Sextilis, the original name of the month which has the prefix "sex" meaning six because it was the sixth month of the year at the time, was renamed August.


With the exception of maybe only China, we go by the Gregorian calender now which was instituted by Pope Gregory in 1582.


So there it is. I love learning new and interesting facts. :^) I feel historically enlightened.