The words “September, October, November, and December” contain the latin roots for the numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10. So why do those months hold different positions in the calendar?

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The words “September, October, November, and December” contain the latin roots for the numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10. So why do those months hold different positions in the calendar?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The calendar year from ancient times was based on the movement of the sun and moon – and had 12 months of thirty days each for a total of 360 days. The year began in the month of Nissan, which was approximately March/April. The other months had proper names as well which were eventually numbered by the Greeks.

The Romans began renaming the months based on the gods and eventually Julius Caesar wanted his own month with an extra day from all of the others. Hence July was the first to have 31 days. The day was subtracted from the end of the year which was February. Julius’ son also wanted his own month with an extra day so August was also provided a 31st day and a second day was removed from the ‘end of the year’ – February.

Eventually the solar calendar was synchronized with the recorded yearly calendar, so the year was extended from 360 days to 365.25 days. The first month and every other month was given one extra day and the end of the year was given an additional day every fourth year. Unfortunately, February was never given the day back.

The Julian calendar was shifted so that the year began mid season (instead of first harvest) and the split was chosen to be between December & January. The names were not changed to reflect the move, so Sept, Oct, Nov, & Dec were not changed from proper corresponding names: 7,8,9,10 respectively.

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