The Roman Calendar

Have you ever wondered why September from “septem” in Latin means seven but is actually the ninth month? They actually come from the ancient Roman calendar, which initially started from March and had only 10 months. It had 304 days with 61 days unaccounted for.


Calendar of Romulus:

1. Martius - 31 Days: Month of Mars, the god of war
2. Aprilis - 30 Days: Month of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
3. Maius - 31 Days: Month of Maia. Maia is one of the Pleiades. They are the companions of Artemis in Greek mythology.
4. Iunius - 30 Days: Month of Juno an ancient Roman goddess who is the protector of the state.
5. Quintilis - 31 Days
6. Sextilis - 30 Days
7. September - 30 Days
8. October - 31 Days
9. November - 30 Days
10. December - 30 Days
We may wonder, what is going on between December and March that is like 50 days.  Those days are the unnamed stretch of time “Winter”.

The Romans numbered the days of the month by putting place markers around the Calends (the beginning of the month), the Nones (the 5th or 7th day), and the Ides (the 15th day of March, May, July, and October and the 13th day of other months). Ides of March is the day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated.  Each day was referred to how many days it fell before the Calends, the Nones, or the Ides. For example, May 11 would be referred as “5 Ides” because it is 4 days before May 15, the Ides of May.


But this calendar had a problem- it did not align with the seasons.  King Pompilius added January (Month of Janus the god of gates) and February (Month of Februa, the feast of purification).  They had the intercalary month which is the extra month added to make up for the days or months needed to keep the calendar aligned with the seasons.



(January was named after Janus, the god of doors, because he was also the god of beginnings, and January is the beginning of the year.)

The intercalary month was removed by Julius Caesar when he became the pontifex maximum (the head priest) who has the authority to change the calendar.


After Caesar’s assassination, Mark Antony renamed Quintilis as July after Caesar.










Augustus renamed Sextilis as August after him.  The emperors who followed Augustus tried to rename the months after them but it did not succeed.

This is the fragment of an ancient Roman calendar. Calends are marked as C, Nones are marked as NON and Ides are marked as EID in the Roman calendar.










“Ides of March” Ancient Roman coin








Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar

4x5 challenge in 93 secs- record again

Improved time on 4x7 challenge

 My new best is 292 secs.

 

Personal best on 4x7

My personal best on 4x7 puzzle in 377 secs. 

Walking down the memory lane---

When I was going over some old google docs in our computer, I found poems I wrote when I was 6 the year I started homeschooling.  Time flew. 

Animals are singing (Jan 2012)

Lewis & Clark saw many animals on their adventure.  Here is what they heard.

The animals are singing all around.

The bison are singing while eating grass.

They lynx are singing while they are hunting.

The mink and the pronghorn are singing.

The beavers are singing while making a dam.

The badger is singing while digging at lightning speed.

The salmon are singing with a splish splash in the water.

The otter is singing while in the sea.

Everywhere the animals sing, they see them everywhere.

Day and night, night and day, animals are singing everywhere.

By Diya, 6

Fall (on Oct 25, 2011)

In Fall I play with the leaves

I sometimes do a heave!

I pretend that I make a big lake

with my rake!

And then I jumped in the pile

It felt like I was in the Nile!

4x6 challenge! Beat the record!

This time in 4x6 challenge grid puzzle! I beat the record by a whole minute.  My time is 182 secs and the previous record was 249 secs.  I first started solving grid puzzles when I was 4.  The Mind Benders from The Critical Thinking Co were  my favorite.  I started solving the Baron's logic puzzle available at Amazon during my trip to India last summer to keep myself occupied.   What started off as merely time pass is now my passion.

I did it! - Record time!

I can't believe!  This morning I solved a 4x5 challenge grid puzzle in record time of 186 secs beating the previous fastest by 15 secs.   The previous record was 201 secs.