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This whole New Year thing....
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:47 pm
by fudgeflaps
How dare the Romans dictate to us when January is January and when to celebrate New Year?
I want TWO Aprils.
And Christmas in June.
Re: This whole New Year thing....
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:12 pm
by Bob Singleton
Some of us celebrate the winter solstice... after all that's mother nature's new year! Far more logical to celebrate the end of long nights and short days and the begining of days getting longer than some arbitrary date.
Re: This whole New Year thing....
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 12:38 pm
by beutelwolf
fudgeflaps wrote:
> How dare the Romans dictate to us when January is January and
> when to celebrate New Year?
They didn't. They started the new year in March - one can tell from the names of the months September to December, because "septem" means 7, "decem" means 10, i.e. September used to be the 7th month of the year in the Roman calendar.
Re: This whole New Year thing....
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:21 pm
by Bob Singleton
beutelwolf wrote:
> fudgeflaps wrote:
>
> > How dare the Romans dictate to us when January is January and
> > when to celebrate New Year?
>
> They didn't. They started the new year in March - one can tell
> from the names of the months September to December, because
> "septem" means 7, "decem" means 10, i.e. September used to be
> the 7th month of the year in the Roman calendar.
It was the introduction of the months of July and August (named after Julius and Augustus) that pushed September through to December back two months!!
Re: This whole New Year thing....
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:58 am
by beutelwolf
Bob Singleton wrote:
> It was the introduction of the months of July and August (named
> after Julius and Augustus) that pushed September through to
> December back two months!!
No, these two were renamings, not insertions.
The Roman calendar had indeed only ten months but that was before January and February were introduced.