September already? This year is slipping through our fingers...

For as long as i can remember, the things that we take for granted have always fascinated me, why are those the names of the days of the week? Are they the same in every culture-language? Why the year is arranged the way it is and so on.

Starting this month, as it is where the names sort of fall in disorder, we wanted to offer you a crash course on history and language. Hope you enjoy it.

Have you noticed -for example- that we are on the ninth month of the year but its called the Seventh?

September comes from the Latin root septem-, meaning “seven,” because in the original Roman republican calendar September was the seventh month of the year rather than the ninth. The Roman calendar was only ten months long and included the following months—Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. The last six months were assigned names according to their ordinal numbers—Quintilis is the fifth month, Sextilis is the sixth month, and so on.

It was not until 45 BC when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar (named after Caesar, himself) that the year grew to include two more months, January and February. Quintilis and Sextilis were later renamed to July and August in honor of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, man, this guys were really in love with themselves.

How could you not? i mean, look at me...

As it turns out it does not apply only to september. October, the tenth month of the year in the modern day Gregorian calendar and its predecessor, the Julian calendar. The month kept its original name from the Roman calendar in which octo means “eight” in Latin marking it the eighth month of the year. Novem meaning “nine” and “Decem” meaning ten making them the ninth and tenth month respectively.

but despite repeated attempts to change them, the names for September, October, November, and December stuck.Not only stuck, but spread to other languages, as well.

The strangeness of calling the ninth month “Seventh Month” did not seem to bother Old English speakers. September came into Old English from Old French, replacing the Old English forms, Hāligmōnað and Hærfestmōnað, which mean “harvest month” In Modern English. Anglo Saxons named originally October: Winterfylleth - winter full moon. In Old English November was:Blotmanad - Blood month and for december in Old English they called it: Geol-monaþ - month before yule (christmast in pre-christian era).

Anyways, returning to September, I hope this year we forget the Green Day references. Its not funny anymore.

A.R.