And why should September be the 9^th month if September means 7?

It all dates back to the Julian calendar. In 45 B.C. Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, introduced the Julian calendar. With just a few changes, it is the calendar we still use today.

The first month of the calendar began in March. This explains why September which means “seven” (think septuplets) in Latin is the 9^th month and not the seventh month.

It explains why October, which means “eight” (think octuplets) is the 10^th month, and not the eighth month.

And why November, which means “nine” is the 11^th month, and December, which means 10 is the 12^th month. At that time, January and February were last two months of the year.

Further, it was Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, who noticed that the Julian calendar was ten days ahead of the solar time of the year. To improve the Julian calendar he removed the leap years from the century years, such as 1700, unless they could be divided by 400, as in the year 2000.

When the Pope ordered the 10 extra days to be removed, the people felt cheated. In England, the extra days were not removed until 1751, and it is said that at that time riots broke out.

If you do crossword puzzles you may come across a clue that reads ’March middle’ - that solution would be “ides” as in the ides of March - which simply means the 15^th of the month. There is a familiar saying that goes with the ides of March - a warning to Julius Caesar which warns him to “Beware the Ides of March.” For whatever reason Caesar had to worry, it seems again that it was no more than the 15^th of the month. In fact the months of May, July, and October also had ides that fell on the 15^th, while for the other months, ides fell on the 13^th. Ides was a reference point.

There was also Kalends,which was always the 1^st day of the month. It is believed that the word calendar comes from this word.

Then there was Nones which was the 7^th day in March, May, July, and October; and the 5^th in the other months.

For more interesting information about the history of time and a time line about time please see the links below: