The months of the year

The situation was as follows:
In 44 BC, the Senate of the Roman Empire proposed that the name of the fifth month be changed to Julius (July), in honour of Julius Caesar, and in 8 BC the name of the sixth month was similarly changed to Augustus (August).

Oh my god I never noticed that before, sept/Oct etc!!!!

How interesting!

The ancient Roman New Year started with March, so September was the 7th month in their calendar.

Janus was a god with two faces. Hence January, looking either old and new year.

It was not until quite recently (1740's) that this was abandoned in the English-speaking world. George Washington was born, according to the Julian calendar, on February 11, 1731. That was changed to February 22, 1732, after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. The habits die hard, as well. Lady Day, in March, corresponded to the old new years, and originally, American Presidents were inaugurated in March. (It is claimed, falsely, that this was done to give electors time--four months!--to cast their ballots before the Congress assembled. However, the date for national elections is established by Congress, not the constitution, whereas the date of the inauguration was set by the constitution. The constitution was amended, and inauguration day was moved (1933?) to January to speed the transition from the old administration to the new.)

The Russians did not adopt this calendar until well into the twentieth century--so their February revolution took place in March by the new calendar (the difference by then was 12 or 13 days, i disremember which), and the "Krazny Oktyaber," the Red October, Bolshevik revolution, took place on November 7, 1917, by the calendar now in use.

Thanks for all that interesting information.

Funny this topic should come up.

Last night I was wondering......How was it decided which months have 30 days and which have 31?
Not to mention funky 28/29 February.

Was trying to recall how many days August had and instead of doing the "30 days hath September....." thing, I do the knuckle counting.

That's the one where you start on your left hand and feel the top bone below where your fingers start.
January through July alternate, then when you switch to your right hand, August is 31 also.

Maybe silly, but could this have something to do with it?

In the Julian Calendar, originally, the lenths of months were as follow:

1st month 31 days
2nd 29 (30 in a leap year)
3rd 31
4th 30
5th 31
6th 30
7th 31
8th 30
9th 31
10th 30
11th 31
12th 30

with months having 30 or 31 days alternately.

In 44 BC, the seventh month was named July (after Julius Caesar), and in 8 BC the eighth month was designated as August (after Augustus). It is very plausible to think that Augustus felt that his month must have at least as many days as Julius Caesar's, and that February was reduced to 28 days and August increased to 31. To avoid three 31-day months (July, August, and September) appearing in succession, September was reduced to 30 days and one day was added to October, days of November was reduced to 30, with December having 31 days.


1st month 31 days
2nd 28 (29 in a leap year) -1
3rd 31
4th 30
5th 31
6th 30
7th (July) 31
8th (August) 31 +1
9th 30 -1
10th 31 +1
11th 30 -1
12th 31 +1

In leap centuries, February has 30 days.

hmmmm,
why didn't they go with alternating 31 and 30 for the entire year, and every 4 years subtract a day from one of those who had 31?

Heeheehee...she said "bone"...

The Roman republican calendar, which preceded the Julian calendar of 45 BC, contained only 355 days, with February having 28 days; March, May, July, and October 31 days each; January, April, June, August, September, November, and December 29 days.
To allocate 355 days to 12 months, they had at least one month of the even number of days, but they had a superstitious dread of even numbers. And February, which had even number days, was given 28 days and February was the last month of the year.

wow - that does sound nasty when you read it that way

kicky - are you ambidextrous?

With 355 days in the year, they'd eventually be wearing fur coats in July!

That was the point when Caesar invited a scholar from Egypt to introduce the Julian calender.

Wow guys, I've really enjoyed reading over this topic. Love this stuff!

when is the next leap century?

When do you want it to be?

You just start a campaign and if you can persuade enogh of us to go along we can do it.Piece of piss.