The anatomy of the month
In my never ending thirst for useless knowledge, I recently (less than 15 minutes ago) determined to discover the origin of the name of my birth month, "August," and after finding an interesting bit of information into what I hope my life will someday become, I decided to discover the origin of the names of other months.
And here I divulge some of my findings:
The process began with August, my birth month.
This month was named after Augustus, also called Octavian (or more formally Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus), the first Roman emperor, heir and successor to Julius Caesar. Be it noted that the census that sent Mary and Joseph (parents of Jesus, the Christ) to Bethlehem was issued by this man.
An alternate definition for August is "inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic." Call me egotistical, but I'd love to embody this someday. :-p
My search then went to October, the beginning of fall. I received "the tenth month of the year, containing 31 days." Okay, how wonderful. I knew this already.
I then looked up my favorite month, November, which was in this same style of -mberness
I received "the eleventh month of the year." Genius.
Of course, I then notice the origin: the ninth month of the early Roman calendar. Nove is the word for nine. woah.
I had to look at the definition of December ("the twelfth month of the year, containing 31 days"), to get the conjugation of the gobbledegook of which -ember comes from. I think it means to tell me that it means "month."
So,
September: 7th month,
October: 8th month,
November: 9th month, and
December: 10th month (in the old Roman calendar).
I hate to say it, but I feel sorry for people born these months. So much for supreme dignity or grandeur. =)
Then, May (since my brain doesn't like to think linearly).
I had to read down the page a bit, and I believe this name was chosen in order to indicate the apex of spring, since the word can also mean "the springtime of life; youth" or "the early part of one's life, especially the prime." (You know, April showers bring May flowers?) Pulling out the wikipedia, I also find that the festival for the Roman goddess of fertility was held this month (oh, joy.)
June:
Month of Juno, who is the ancient Roman queen of heaven, a daughter of Saturn and the wife and sister of Jupiter: the protector of women, marriage, childbirth, moon, and ironically enough the state. Maybe they hoped that all the marriages and other "unions" made in May were still existent in May (or that those aformentioned "unions" in May would bring about marriage in this month...).
Then, shifting gears again, I think about January. Now this is a good one.
The -ary typically means "for the purpose of" (among other definitions) in the English language. So what does the Janu- part mean? Well, Slice off the 's' in Janus and you get Janu. As inquiring minds want to know, Janus is the ancient Roman god of doorways, beginnings, and the rising and setting of the sun. He's normally depicted as having one head with two faces, front and back, looking in opposite directions.
So, get your new years resolutions off right or this guy'll be coming for you...
At this point, I am enamored by this subject and begin to write this letter. Where should I go next? How about March.
"March" is the result of some crazy Latin finagling and means, simply, the month of Mars. Before some crazy calendarial adjustments, March used to be the first month of the Roman calendar. It seems as if Roman Consuls used to enter office during this month.
Mars is the Roman god of war, equivalent to the Greek Ares. The fact that this month was first might have something to do with the thought that Romulus, one of the founders of Rome (along with his brother Remus), was a son of Mars. Mars therefore was worshiped more than any other, and his month was considered a good time to go to war. Mars was also believed to be the son of Juno.
April: "the month following March and preceding May." No, really.
(ps this month only has 30 days! eep.)
It seems as if the exact definition of this word has been lost to time, but it also seems as if most believe that it came from a form of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, of whom Venus was the Roman equivalent.
So essentially, April was the month where people suddenly found each other attractive, May was a month of "union" (nudge, nudge) and then came June, when people got married (hmm, I wonder why) and then got protected (or the wife, at least). And this all followed March, the month to go to war. Any Baby boomers in the house?
Onward to July. This name is thanks to our friend Caesar. Julius Ceasar. Interesting that this month comes before August, named for Caesar's successor. He was the guy that basically turned the Roman republic into an empire. Go read some Shakespeare if you're starved for more information, gosh. (ps the bust of him posted on his wikipedia article reminds me of Patrick Stewart. I think it's the nose.)
February. Last stop in my whimsical analysis of the anatomy of the origin of the month. Other than being "the second month of the year, ordinarily containing 28 days, but containing 29 days in leap years," and getting into a philisphical debate over whether or not the first 'r' should be pronounced as written, it's name can be traced back to the Latin word "februum," which means "purification." What?
Oh, yeah, those Romans had a purification ritual called Februa held on the ides of this month on the old Roman calendar.
There was also a Roman goddess of love, marriage, and women named Juno Februata (she happens to also go by Juno Februa). She had a festival on February 15 where eligible, single, young women put their names on slips of paper, but them in a large bowl. Single men would then draw a single slip from this bowl, and the lucky lady whose name written was "his partner for the day's erotic festivities," according to the mightily intelligent wikipedia. It also says right here that these "partnerships" often resulted in marriage.
So, we've gone full circle.
February: man draws out name of woman from bowl
March: man goes to war
April: man finds woman attractive
May: man returns from war and proceeds to "unionize" said woman
June: marriage ensues
July: man becomes commander of great army and crosses river
August: man becomes really suave and cool
September-December: who knows. Maybe they count to ten?
January: man starts over.
(repeat)
Wait. What's this deal about a "purity" festival turning into a crazy orgical arrangement?
Well, it turns out that the pope in 494 decides to do something about this nasty ordeal and changes the whole thing into the "Feast of the Purification" of the Virgin Mary. Huh? Well, in ancient Levitical law, after a woman gave birth, she had to present herself to the temple for purification (come join me as I read through Luke if you have questions =).
Then, to appease those awful pagans, the Church instituted a romantic holiday on February 14th and named it for this guy named St. Valentine.
Now go send love notes, but just avoid those bowls.
And here I divulge some of my findings:
The process began with August, my birth month.
This month was named after Augustus, also called Octavian (or more formally Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus), the first Roman emperor, heir and successor to Julius Caesar. Be it noted that the census that sent Mary and Joseph (parents of Jesus, the Christ) to Bethlehem was issued by this man.
An alternate definition for August is "inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic." Call me egotistical, but I'd love to embody this someday. :-p
My search then went to October, the beginning of fall. I received "the tenth month of the year, containing 31 days." Okay, how wonderful. I knew this already.
I then looked up my favorite month, November, which was in this same style of -mberness
I received "the eleventh month of the year." Genius.
Of course, I then notice the origin: the ninth month of the early Roman calendar. Nove is the word for nine. woah.
I had to look at the definition of December ("the twelfth month of the year, containing 31 days"), to get the conjugation of the gobbledegook of which -ember comes from. I think it means to tell me that it means "month."
So,
September: 7th month,
October: 8th month,
November: 9th month, and
December: 10th month (in the old Roman calendar).
I hate to say it, but I feel sorry for people born these months. So much for supreme dignity or grandeur. =)
Then, May (since my brain doesn't like to think linearly).
I had to read down the page a bit, and I believe this name was chosen in order to indicate the apex of spring, since the word can also mean "the springtime of life; youth" or "the early part of one's life, especially the prime." (You know, April showers bring May flowers?) Pulling out the wikipedia, I also find that the festival for the Roman goddess of fertility was held this month (oh, joy.)
June:
Month of Juno, who is the ancient Roman queen of heaven, a daughter of Saturn and the wife and sister of Jupiter: the protector of women, marriage, childbirth, moon, and ironically enough the state. Maybe they hoped that all the marriages and other "unions" made in May were still existent in May (or that those aformentioned "unions" in May would bring about marriage in this month...).
Then, shifting gears again, I think about January. Now this is a good one.
The -ary typically means "for the purpose of" (among other definitions) in the English language. So what does the Janu- part mean? Well, Slice off the 's' in Janus and you get Janu. As inquiring minds want to know, Janus is the ancient Roman god of doorways, beginnings, and the rising and setting of the sun. He's normally depicted as having one head with two faces, front and back, looking in opposite directions.
So, get your new years resolutions off right or this guy'll be coming for you...
At this point, I am enamored by this subject and begin to write this letter. Where should I go next? How about March.
"March" is the result of some crazy Latin finagling and means, simply, the month of Mars. Before some crazy calendarial adjustments, March used to be the first month of the Roman calendar. It seems as if Roman Consuls used to enter office during this month.
Mars is the Roman god of war, equivalent to the Greek Ares. The fact that this month was first might have something to do with the thought that Romulus, one of the founders of Rome (along with his brother Remus), was a son of Mars. Mars therefore was worshiped more than any other, and his month was considered a good time to go to war. Mars was also believed to be the son of Juno.
April: "the month following March and preceding May." No, really.
(ps this month only has 30 days! eep.)
It seems as if the exact definition of this word has been lost to time, but it also seems as if most believe that it came from a form of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, of whom Venus was the Roman equivalent.
So essentially, April was the month where people suddenly found each other attractive, May was a month of "union" (nudge, nudge) and then came June, when people got married (hmm, I wonder why) and then got protected (or the wife, at least). And this all followed March, the month to go to war. Any Baby boomers in the house?
Onward to July. This name is thanks to our friend Caesar. Julius Ceasar. Interesting that this month comes before August, named for Caesar's successor. He was the guy that basically turned the Roman republic into an empire. Go read some Shakespeare if you're starved for more information, gosh. (ps the bust of him posted on his wikipedia article reminds me of Patrick Stewart. I think it's the nose.)
February. Last stop in my whimsical analysis of the anatomy of the origin of the month. Other than being "the second month of the year, ordinarily containing 28 days, but containing 29 days in leap years," and getting into a philisphical debate over whether or not the first 'r' should be pronounced as written, it's name can be traced back to the Latin word "februum," which means "purification." What?
Oh, yeah, those Romans had a purification ritual called Februa held on the ides of this month on the old Roman calendar.
There was also a Roman goddess of love, marriage, and women named Juno Februata (she happens to also go by Juno Februa). She had a festival on February 15 where eligible, single, young women put their names on slips of paper, but them in a large bowl. Single men would then draw a single slip from this bowl, and the lucky lady whose name written was "his partner for the day's erotic festivities," according to the mightily intelligent wikipedia. It also says right here that these "partnerships" often resulted in marriage.
So, we've gone full circle.
February: man draws out name of woman from bowl
March: man goes to war
April: man finds woman attractive
May: man returns from war and proceeds to "unionize" said woman
June: marriage ensues
July: man becomes commander of great army and crosses river
August: man becomes really suave and cool
September-December: who knows. Maybe they count to ten?
January: man starts over.
(repeat)
Wait. What's this deal about a "purity" festival turning into a crazy orgical arrangement?
Well, it turns out that the pope in 494 decides to do something about this nasty ordeal and changes the whole thing into the "Feast of the Purification" of the Virgin Mary. Huh? Well, in ancient Levitical law, after a woman gave birth, she had to present herself to the temple for purification (come join me as I read through Luke if you have questions =).
Then, to appease those awful pagans, the Church instituted a romantic holiday on February 14th and named it for this guy named St. Valentine.
Now go send love notes, but just avoid those bowls.