Calendar Crisis

[bon3yard]

Somewhat amazingly it only occured to me yesterday that the last 4 months of the year(9th, 10th, 11th & 12th)are actually prefixed with Latin numericals indicating that they are in fact the 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th months of the year(Sept-ember, Octo-ber, Nov-ember and Dec-ember. Hasnt anyone noticed? What kind of crazed calendar have we been using all this time...or is there as I suspect a perfectly rational explanation? Someone enlighten me as I am now on the brink of emotional and physical collpase as a result of this quandry and I pity the fool who has to clean up that particular mess :-S

[OutOfFocus]

March was originally the 1st month of the year.

July was originally called Quintilis until Julius Caesar renamed it.

[Michael Palaeologus]

Bloody Romans ...

[Annasfield]

Panic over?

[Marmora Man]

Didn't Caesar then introduce August as well?

[bon3yard]

Thanks. I think most of the calendar is Roman, Janus-January(2 faced oddball), February?, Mars-March(God of War), April?, Maia-May(Goddes of Growth appropriately enough), Juno-June(Queen of the Gods), July(Et tu Brute), August(Augustus). I find it odd that the pious God Fearing country that we became should continue to adopt the Julian calendar given its reliance on heathen Gods and power mad emperors. Still, I can sleep safe now in the knowledge that I havent been celebrating my birthday months early for the last 30 years...its a load off let me tell you. :))

[Michael Palaeologus]

DECember = 10th month of the year. Madness.

[bon3yard]

Tell me about it Mr Palelaloalaldkjanakjjsdjkfh...Apparently Thurdays named after the comic book character Thor! Where will all this madness end?

[????]

What have they ever done for us?

[candj]

Bon3yard, surely Thursday is named after the Norse God, Thor, no? You know, the redheaded hammer thrower, God of Thunder? It isn't so much as madness just people running out of ideas to name things - like the Dutch streets of Dulwich, for example.

[Brendan]

I think the story goes something along the line of, Julius had a month named after him so then Caesar Augustus felt left out so he got August named after him.

The days of the week we inherited from our pagan past rather than the Romans. The Romans referred to the specific day in relation to its position in the month. As in, ?Beware the Ides* of March...?

*Spelling????

[Azul]

???? Wrote:

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> What have they ever done for us?

besides the sanitation ?

or the roads ?

Medicine... Education... Health...

Irrigation...

And the wine...

Peace ?

[Brendan]

Friday I think is the exception as it is named after the traditional practice of preparing fried fish and chips for your tea on this specific day.

[Michael Palaeologus]

Did you know that "Bank Holidays" are named after a now long extinct set of organisations that lent lots of money to poor people who could never pay it back?

[EDOldie]

I'm all for Deci time myself 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour etc etc Roman months They might have been cruel the old Romans but they were onto something you know?

[bon3yard]

The Norse God Thor eh? I'm a sillybilly arent I...next you'll be telling me that April isnt in fact named after the Bumper Apricot harvest that was said to abound around this time time of year.

[Michael Palaeologus]

OK, you are not getting this one.

Christmas IS named after the well known Canadien photographer, Chris Thomas.

See Its Chrimbo

[SteveT]

What have they ever done for us?

Candles

slippers

noses

esque arches

[Bellenden Belle]

Michael Palaeologus Wrote:

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> OK, you are not getting this one.

>

> Christmas IS named after the well known Canadien

> photographer, Chris Thomas.

>

> See Its Chrimbo

No - surely you mean Chris Thomas, the man who brought us Roxy Music and Pulp and (heavens forbid) The Lion King Soundtrack.

[bon3yard]

I dont think the Romans had that many original ideas, they nicked most of them from The Greeks...even their Gods were rehashed versions of The Helenic Deities. Although of course they did invent Roman Catholocism...

[David Mc]

and blinds and that Polanski bloke.

[Brendan]

I thought it was the Venetians who did the blinds.

[Michael Palaeologus]

Didnt the Venetians invent underwater cities?

[bon3yard]

Tsk! that was The Atlantans...see, the Greeks got there first again.

[Brendan]

Or maybe it was sliceable ice cream that the Venetians did. Not sure how though, it's fucking hot on Venus.