Why were the twelve months named what they are?

Answer 1

ANSWER:

There are many twelve month calenders in use today. There is the Hebrew calender, a lunisolar calender consisting of either twelve or thirteen months depending on the year, (some years twelve, some years twelvish.), and serves as the official calender of Israel and the liturgical calender of the Jewish faith. There is the Ethiopian calender, based on older Alexandrian (coptic) calenders. There is the Islamic calender which is strictly lunar and there is the Indian calender, another lunisolar cycle, and the Chinese calender, also a lunisolar cycle based calender. For the purposes of this answer, the twelve months in question will be answered with Gregorian calender months.

The Gregorian calender was created in 1582 in response to a decree by Pope Gregory the XII, that ordered an advancement of ten days of the year to correct the inherent error of the Julian calender. The Julian calender, named after Julius Caesar who devised it, is actually a reformation of the ancient Roman calender that consisted of ten months. The year began with the month of Martis or Martis mensis meaning "the month of Mars", named after Mars the God of War as Martis was the traditional time to resume warfare. Martis is followed by Aprilis, named after Aphrodite, then came Maius, named after the goddess Maia, followed by Junius named after the goddess Juno then came Sextilis, named for the sixth month, Septembre, named for the seventh month, Octobre, named for the eighth month, Novembre for the ninth and finally Decembre for the tenth month. At around 700 BC, Numa Pompilus, the second king of Rome added the months Janurius and Februarius to the calender, moving Martis to the third month of the year making Janurius the first month of the year and Febraurius the second month. There was also the month of Inter-caleriis meaning inter-calender that would periodically follow Februarius and is the origin of "leap year", and was used by the Romans until Julius Caesar abolished the month and devised what has become known as the Julian calender. The calender invented by Julius Caesar was actually fairly accurate and only lagged behind the solar cycle by 11 1/2 days each year. Not bad for a Roman but by the Sixteenth century that error in mathematics meant a ten day discrepancy with the solar cycle. Thus Pope Gregory introduced a corrective devise that brought the discrepancy down to 26 seconds per year, moved the the Julian calender up ten days and the Gregorian calender was in effect.

Despite the correctness of the Gregorian calender, many Protestant countries ignored the Papal Bull and continued to use the Julian calender. In 1698 Germany and the Netherlands finally agreed to adopt the Gregorian calender, The British didn't correct the problems of the Julian calender until 1751, Russia waited until 1918 following the revolution and Greece didn't capitulate until 1923. Indeed, many orthodox churches still follow the Julian calender which currently lags 13 days behind the solar cycle. The twelve Gregorian months are:

I. January

Named after the god Janus whose festival month was celebrated at this time.

II. February

Named for the Roman festival of purification, Februa, which was celebrated on the 15th of this month.

III. March

Named after Mars the god of war because prior to the Gregorian and Julian calenders this month was used as the first month of the year at a time of year when warriors would resume their warfare.

IV. April

Most likely named after the goddess Aphrodite. In ancient antiquity this month had 30 days. Then Numa changed it to 29 days, until Julius Caesar changed it back to 30 days.

V, May

Maia's month. Named after Maia the spring goddess.

VI. June

Named after Juno a central goddess in Roman mythology, June is what used to be Sextilis in ancient antiquity.

VII. July

Named in honor of Julius Caesar who invented the Julian calender.

VIII. August

Named after Augustus Caesar.

IX. September

Septembre is the Latin name for the seventh month now the ninth month.

X. October

Originally the eighth month, now the tenth.

XI. November

Was the ninth month now its the eleventh

XII. December

Decca meaning ten Decembre was originally the tenth month but now it is the twelfth.