Happy January (a month that used to be called Lanauius)
What I learned about the history of the calendar
Happy new year!
Gosh, I can’t believe that January is already here. Speaking of January, did you ever wonder how it became the first month of the year? Was it always this way? Even more puzzling is the month of October, our tenth month of the year. But doesn’t the prefix ‘octo’ mean eight, as in octopus and octagon? To answer these questions and more, I thought it would be fun to learn a little about the history of the calendar.
The Early Calendar: In the years leading up to the Roman Empire, their calendar had only 10 months with the new year starting on March 1st. Why March? Well, this is because March was named after the Roman god of war, Mars, and it was in his month, as the weather was warming, that the ancient Romans would “march” off to war. If you think about it, with March being month 1, the months September through December matched exactly with their placement in the calendar (Sept = month 7, Oct = month 8, Nov = month 9 and Dec = month 10). The 60 winter days between December 31st and March 1st did not belong to any month.
The Julian Calendar: During the days of the Roman Republic, around 753 BCE, King Numa Pompilius added 2 more months to their 10-month calendar: Lanauius and Februarius. Do one of these names look familiar? These months, however, were put at the end since March was still the beginning of the year. Then, around 45 BCE, Emperor Julius Caesar replaced Lanauius with the name January (for the Roman god of beginnings, Janus) and moved it and Februarius to the first and second months of the year. He called this the Julian calendar, after himself. Today, most of the world uses the Gregorian Calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII in 1582) which is basically the same as the Julian calendar except for how they calculate leap years.
A better calendar: Our current Julian based calendar seems wonky to me. For starters, the days in a month are not at all standardized. Some months have 30 days, some have 31 days (and don’t get me started on our second month of the year!). This causes our the first of the month to fall randomly on any given day of the week. Wouldn’t it make sense for every month to have the same number of days and for the first of each month to always start on a Sunday?
Our modern scholars have gotten smarter, yet we still have the same basic calendar from ancient times. Why? My guess is that it has to do with a kind of cultural stubbornness, similar to our inability to give up using feet, pounds and gallons for measurement. Simply put, everyone’s just so used to it so few people dare try to change it.
There is, however, one new calendar format called the International Fixed Calendar created by Moses B. Cotsworth in 1902. His wonderfully simple format equally divides all of the weeks in a month so that there aren’t any inconsistencies. There would be 13 months in a year with each month having exactly 28 days. Each month would have exactly 4 weeks and every month starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. Thanks Mr. Cotsworth, maybe someday we’ll use it!
Isn’t it amazing how much our calendar has changed from the days of ancient Rome on one hand, and on the other, it hasn’t changed much at all since the days of Pope Gregory XIII six centuries ago?
The most interesting facts that I learned from writing this essay are:
- How January and February are late additions
- March through June are named after Roman gods
- July and August are named after Roman Emperors
- September through December are just numbers.
Best of all, now I know that our 10th month of the year used to be the 8th month long ago and that that’s the reason it’s called October. Isn’t that the coolest fun fact ever?
Mizuki Wong is a 10th grader at Mountainside High School. In their free time, they enjoy drawing, animating on YouTube, listening to music and learning about science.
