Moonths

Time for Earth to orbit the Sun: 365.25 days

Time for Moon to orbit Earth: 27.3 days

365.2/27.3 = 13.38

And therein lies the problem. There is no neat way to make lunar –based time (“moonths”) mesh with solar-based time (“years”).

I have blogged about various aspects of time ( days of the week, lunar vs. solar calendars, origin of 60 seconds and 60 minutes as units of time), but Irene brought my attention to another arbitrary unit: that of 12 months. Since the Romans decided to go with a solar calendar, I always wondered why they didn’t go with a nice, round ten months. Well, they did:

1.Martius (March)

Mars - god of War

2. Aprilis (April)

Aphrodite- goddess of love & beauty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Maius (May)

Maia - goddess of spring

4.  Junius (June)

Juno - goddess of marriage

 

5.  Quintilis (July)

Fifth Month, renamed by Julius Caesar

6.  Sextilis (August)

Sixth Month - renamed by Augustus Caesar

  

7. September  - the seventh month

8.  October - the eighth month

9.  November  - the ninth month

10.  December - the tenth month

A nameless winter stretch of days followed to round out the solar year until Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome circa 700 BC, added the two winter months at the end of the year:

Januarius "January" (Janus is the Roman god of gates and doorways, depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions) and

Februarius "February" (Februa is the Roman festival of purification).

The nameless stretch of days needed to keep the seasons lined up was kept at the end of the year (after February). This “filler” period was not used every year and was sometimes called Intercalaris "intercalendar" or Mercedinus (“payment for work” was the time when property lessees paid rents due to their landlords). This is the reason leap days come at the end of February even in modern times.

After the introduction of January, Romans began to transition the beginning of the year to Jan 1, but the process took 100's of years to become standard and official.

In modern times we still have to work hard to keep our lunar cycles and solar cycles lined up.  We have our complicated leap year rules and our leap seconds