Comment by Jessica Harryman on March 8, 2011 at 2:45pm

haha

 

Comment by Kris Feenstra on October 30, 2011 at 2:10pm

January - Roman god Janus

March - Roman god Mars

May - Roman goddess Maia

June - Roman goddess Juno

 

April is also connected to Venus, I think, but I can't remember the etymological link

 

Comment by Boatman on October 31, 2011 at 9:00am

"Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, the Festum Veneris et Fortunae Virilis being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent Greek goddess name Aphrodite (Aphros), or from the Etruscan name Apru."

 

From a Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April

Comment by Kris Feenstra on October 31, 2011 at 1:39pm

@ Gordon: Thanks for looking that up.  I was feeling too lazy yesterday to do my homework.

Comment by Rocky Oliver (LotusGeek) on October 31, 2011 at 2:12pm

RAmen!

Comment by Rocky Oliver (LotusGeek) on October 31, 2011 at 2:15pm

re: months - and September - December are numeric:

SEPTember == SEPT == 7

OCTober == OCT == 8

NOVember == NOV == 9

DECember == DEC == 10

 

From what I understand July and August were named after Caesars -

 

July == Julius Caesar

August == Augustus Caesar

 

This is what shifted the numeric months down 2 notches from 7-10th months to 9-12th months, as they are now.

Comment by Terence Vermont on May 20, 2012 at 7:45pm

HAHAHA

Comment by SteveInCO on May 21, 2012 at 9:26pm

Not quite, Rocky.  August was called Sextilis (from 6) and I don't recall July's former name.  It wasn't inserting two months that messed it up, because there was no insertion; the months were just renamed.  The numbers are off because the year used to start around the beginning of spring, March 25.  (This remained true in England until 1752!) 

Yes, the day after March 24, 1700 was March 25, 1701 under that system, and yes, that is just... fucked up by our standards.

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