Happy April Everyone:
In honor of April fools Day I thought it would be fun to talk a little bit about
where April Fools day came from I remembered that I had looked into this once
before several years ago and found out that it was because the Roman Catholic
church had decided for various reasons that I will not go into today to change
the first day of the year from ( in some cultures ) April 1st. to January first.
Here is the crazy part. the change began in the 1582. Some countries made the
change right away and others did not. it took over 400 years for the known world
at that time to make the change. according to the article i read this morning
some countries made the change right way and the rest of the world resisted for
one reason or another. The last country on the list I have to make the change to
the gregorian calendar did so in 1918.
If you take into account that the Roman Catholic church was the group to spearhead
the change I find it significant what the names of the new calendar mean. It
seems to me the Roman Empire is alive and well with the help of the ROMAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH but that is a discussion for another day
JANUARY:
Janus (Roman god of gates, doorways beginnings and endings)
FEBRUARY:
Februus( Etruscan god of death) Februarius(mensis) Latin for”month of
purification(rituals) it is said to be a Sabine word, the last month of ancient
pre-450 Roman calendar
MARCH:
Mars (Roman god of war)
APRIL:
Modern scholars associate the name with an ancient root meaning other ie; the other
month of a year beginning in March
MAY:
Maia Maiestas (Roman goddess of springtime, warmth and increase)
June:
Juno (Roman Goddess Wife of Jupiter)
July:
Julius Caesar (Roman Dictator) month was formally named Quintilis, the fifth month of the year of Romulus
AUGUST
Augustus (First Roman Emperor) month was formerly known as Sextilis, the sixth month of Romulus
SEPTEMBER:
Septem Latin for seven, the seventh month of Romulus
OCTOBER:
Octo latin for eight, the eighth month of Romulus
NOVEMBER:
Novem Latin for nine the ninth month of Romulus
DECEMBER:
Decem Latin for ten, the tenth month of Romulus
Can you imagine the confusion. You are trying to trade with another country and they do not use the same calendar as you. It made me think of what might happen if
this was tried today. can you imagine the debate and drama that would ensue
According to some accounts the people who did not make this change. the people who continued to celebrate April first as the first of the year(primarily because
they didn’t know any better) were made fun of and ridiculed for doing so. and
this over time evolved into our modern April fools day.
I found this information on Wikipedia and thought you guys might get a kick out
of that. hope ya have a great week and I will chat with you on
Friday
MICHAEL