This month was followed by Aprilis , Maius , and Iunius , names derived from deities or aspects of Roman culture. Thereafter, however, the months were simply called the fifth month Quintilis , sixth month Sixtilis and so on, all the way through to the tenth month, December.
The institution of two additional months, Ianuarius and Februarius , at the beginning of the year was attributed to Numa, the second king of Rome. Despite the fact that there were now 12 months in the Roman year, the numerical names of the later months were left unchanged.
Further reading: Explainer: the gods behind the days of the week. While January takes its name from Janus , the Roman god of beginnings and endings, February comes from the word februum purification and februa , the rites or instruments used for purification.
These formed part of preparations for the coming of Spring in the northern hemisphere. The februa included spelt and salt for cleaning houses, leaves worn by priests, and strips of goat skin. These strips were put to good use in the festival of the Lupercalia, held each year on February This ancient nudie run was designed to purify the city and promote fertility. The origins of some months were debated even by the Romans themselves. Named to honor Roman dictator Julius Caesar B.
In 46 B. In the ancient Roman calendar, October was the name of the eighth month of the year. For the truly curious calendar lovers, check out the origin of day names. Skip to main content. Origins and Meanings of the 12 Months. By Catherine Boeckmann. December 30, Source: This article was originally published in and has been updated. Related Articles Calendar History.
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In Caesar's time this calendar is three months out in relation to the seasons. On the advice of Sosigenes, a learned astronomer from Alexandria, Caesar adds ninety days to the year 46 BC and starts a new calendar on 1 January Sosigenes advises Caesar that the length of the solar year is days and six hours.
The natural solution is to add a day every fourth year - introducing the concept of the leap year. The extra day is added to February, the shortest of the Roman months. Spread through the Roman empire, and later throughout Christendom, this calendar proves very effective for many centuries. Only much later does a flaw yet again appear. The reason is that the solar year is not days and 6 hours but days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds.
The difference amounts to only one day in years. But over the span of history even that begins to show. Another adjustment will eventually be necessary.
While Julius Caesar is improving on the solar calendar of days, a similar calendar has been independently arrived at on the other side of the Atlantic. Devised originally by the Olmecs of central America, it is perfected in about the 1st century AD by the Maya. The Maya, establishing that there are days in the year, divide them into 18 months of 20 days.
Like the Egyptians who have 12 months of 30 days , they complete the year by adding 5 extra days at the end - days which are considered to be extremely unlucky for any undertaking. An unusual aspect of the Mayan system is the Calendar Round , a year cycle in which no two days have the same name. Unlike the day, the month or the year, the week is an entirely artificial period of time. It is probably first made necessary by the demands of trade.
Hunter-gatherers and primitive farmers have no need of such a concept, but commerce benefits from regularity. The original weeks are almost certainly the gaps between market days.
Weeks of this kind vary from four days among some African tribes to ten days in the Inca civilization and in China. In ancient China a five-day week sets the working pattern for the Confucian civil service, every fifth day being a 'bath and hair-washing day'. Later this is extended to a ten-day week, with the three periods of each month known as the first, middle and last bath.
There are two possible sources for the seven-day week. One is the biblical creation story. From those times the Israelites have a week of this length, with the seventh day reserved for rest and worship a pattern reflected in the Bible's account of creation. The other and more likely source is Rome, where the equivalent of the modern week is adopted in about the 1st century AD - a time and a place where the Jewish tradition would have little influence.
The number of days in the week derives probably, through astrology, from the seven known planets - which also provide the names of the days see Days of the week. The Jewish calendar combines lunar and solar cycles.
It is given its present form in after a great debate between supporters of two slightly different systems. In origin the calendar goes back to the captivity in Babylon, when the Jews adopt the Babylonians' calendar and their names for the months.
They are lunar months of 30 or 29 days. In every second or third year an extra month of 30 days is added to keep the calendar in approximate step with the solar year.
This constitutes a crucial difference between the Jewish and Muslim systems. The Muslim calendar is the only one in widespre ad use to be based uncompromisingly on lunar months, with no adjustments to bring the years into balance with the solar cycle. The twelve months are alternately 29 and 30 days long the lunar cycle is approximately There are two significant results.
Muslim months bear no relation to the seasons, and Muslim years do not coincide with those of other chronologies. There are about lunar years in a solar century. By the millennium there will have been lunar years but only solar years from the start of Muslim chronology in AH 1 or The year AH will be By the 16th century the seemingly minor error in the Julian calendar estimating the solar year to be 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than it actually is has accumulated to a ten-day discrepancy between the calendar and reality.
It is most noticeable on occasions such as the equinox, now occuring ten days earlier than the correct calendar dates of March 21 and September Calculating that the error amounts to three days in years, Clavius suggests an ingenious adjustment.
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