Talk:December

I know he's a vandal, but isn't this actually where the name came from? The Romans screwed up the calendar and then added two extra months in (February and March?), throwing off the Sept-, Oct-, Nov-, Dec- thing. GodlessLiberal 21:25, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

July and August - named after Julius and Augustus. --Mtur 21:28, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

January is named after the god Janus. Feb through June... no idea. GodlessLiberal 21:30, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

February is from februare which is Latin for to purify. March is named after Mars - the time when the snow melted enough to get ready to go back to war. April was Aprilis which is possibly a form of aperire - to open, as in flowers opening. May was Maia, mother of Mercury (and Jupiter) depending on the story. Others had her as the daughter of Faunus, and wife of Vulcan. June was Juno - Roman equivalent of Hera. It appears I was incorrect above about the insertion of months. The roman year started with March 1 - and thus October would be the 8th month of that calandar. http://www.factmonster.com/spot/newyearhistory.html --Mtur 21:52, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

So it was January and February that were added in when Julius reformed the calendar in (I think) 45 BC? All your name info agrees with the respective articles here, except April. I had gone through all the other months and posted on Talk:April that I didn't think it was named for Aphrodite. Feel free to go change it. GodlessLiberal 21:56, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

It appears to be more of a shift of the date of the new year, rather than an addition of the months. It was Numa Pontilius in 700 BC that added January and February who reorganized the calendar.[1] The move to January 1 was in 153 BC at which point the calendar year matched the civic year. Then, in 46 BC, Julius Ceaser reformed the calendar again to make it a solar calendar (based on days in the month rather than lunar cycles in a year). In 567 AD, the Council of Tours declared that January 1 was not the new year - some people then celebrated the new year as December 25, others at March 1, others as March 25, and others on Easter. With the Gregorian calendar, the new year was once again on January 1, however that was accepted everyone at once. It wasn't until 1752 that Britain (and its colonies) celebrated the new year on January 1 - instead, they used March 1. --Mtur 22:08, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

Yes, it is. I just reverted all his contributions en masse to save time. DanH 21:28, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

Feel free to revert it back. DanH 21:29, 1 May 2007 (EDT)