Ever wonder about the names of the months? How about this month called August?

[abqtommy]

"August -- Augustus Caesar's month
Latin Augustus "Augustus"
Latin Augustus mensis "month of Augustus"
Latin sextilis mensis "sixth month"

Sextilis had 30 days, until Numa when it had 29 days, until Julius when it became 31 days long.
(This will all become clear if you read the full History Of The Months at the link.)

Augustus Caesar clarified and completed the calendar reform of Julius Caesar. In the process, he also renamed this month after himself."

http://www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/months.html

I found this very handy reference that fits nicely with information about the moon and other interesting stuff that enables us to amaze our friends and confound our enemies and learn something too. It's definitely a win-win-win.

[First Speaker]

1. I guess we're lucky...September could have been "Caligula"...

[wnylib]

3. Poor September is misnamed, though.

The 9th month is called the 7th month. I think this goes back to the time when the year began with March.

I had some fun with a couple of religious fundies that I used to work with by explaining that the names for the days of the week come from Pagan gods. At first they didn't believe me, but when they realized that it's true, they were disturbed by it.

Sun, Moon, Tiu, Woden/Odin, Thor, Frija/Frigg, Saturn

[Ponietz]

2. Better than Thermidor