Learn a brief history of the Gregorian calendar and how the months and days were named!
The Gregorian calendar is the time table that we use today. This calendar is also known as the Solar Calenfar. A Solar Year is 365.2 days in length. Our present-day calendar has changed several times from the original calendar that it started out to be.
With Romulus as the leader of Rome, the days and the months of the Roman calendar were set by the cycles of the sun and the moon. At that time, a year was considered to be ten months in length. The new year began in the Spring on March 1 and ended in December.
Numa then succeeded Romulus as the new leader and introduced a new calendar which consisted of twelve months. This calendar ended in February. Years later the new year was changed from March first to January first which is when the civil year began. The days of the year numbered three hundred and sixty-five days.
Then, Julius Caesar, the famous Roman Emperor, entered the picture and he introduced the Julian calendar. This calendar began on January 1 in the year 45 B.C.
Finally, Pope Gregory XIII brought into being his own version of the Gregorian calendar in the year 1582, and that evolved into the calendar that we use today.
The days of the week were named as follows: Sunday was originally named afted the Sun; Monday was originallt named after the Moon and was called Moonday, which evolved into Monday over time. The next day was originally named Mars Day after the Roman warrior god, but was later changed to Tiu's Day for the Teutonic warrior god. It later evolved into Tuesday as we know it today. Wotan's Day was named for the Roman god of peace, but it was later changed to Woden's Day after a Teutonic god. This day later evolved into our present day called Wednesday. Notice how the "e" and the "n" somehow got transposed over the years. Thursday was originally called Jupiter's Day, named after the Roman god of thunder and lightning. It later got changed to Thor's Day, named after the ancient god of thunder. Finally, it evolved into its present-day name. Venus' Day was the fifth day of the week, named after the Roman goddess who symbolized Spring. This name was changed to Frigg's Day after the Scandinavian Love goddess. The name finally evolved into Friday. Saturday has hardly been changed as it began as Saturn's Day, named after the Roman god of the harvest. Of course, it evolved over the years into our modern day Saturday.
The names of the months of the Gregorian calendar were derived from the names of the Julian calendar, and are as follows: January originally came from Janus, the god of beginnings. February came from a feast which was called Februa. The name March was named after Mars, the god of war. April came from the name of the Greek goddess named Aphrodite. May's name originated from the name of another goddess known as Maia. June got its name from the anicent goddess named Juno. July and August, of course, were named after Julius Caesar and his successor to the throne, Augustus. And, the final four months of the year got their names from their numerical placement in the year. As you can see, the names of the months evolved over time into their present-day names.
