For some reason, even though it’s been many years since I finished school, I still associate September with fresh starts. There’s something about the evenings falling slightly earlier each day and the tiniest chill to the summer air that makes me want to knuckle down and achieve my goals before the end of the year. Those of you who speak French, may have noticed that ‘sept’ is the French word for ‘seven’ – a little strange perhaps given that September is the ninth month of the year. This is because until around 700 BC, when the second King of Rome Numa Pompilius added January and February, the Roman calendar was made up of ten ‘officia...
Have you ever wondered where the months got their names from? In the Western world, the most widely used calendar is the Gregorian calendar, but some of the names of the months come from the calendars used by the ancient Romans. The calendar of Romulus had ten months, beginning with the spring equinox in March and ending in December. After many calendar reforms since Romulus’s calendar, the following mnemonic rhyme sums up the features of the calendar we use today: “Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February alone, And that has twenty-eight days clear, And twenty-nine in each leap year.” We love a go...
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