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The Roman Calendar
The old Roman calendar was based on the cycle of the moon. Each month was marked by three special days. The Kalends was the first day after the dark moon. The Nones was nine days before the day of the full moon, and the Ides was the day of the full moon. Every day of the month was referred to by the number of days before one of these special days, and the name of the month. But the Romans included the day itself in their count. Thus, 5 Ides September occured 4 days before the day of the full moon in September. I don't know why they did it that way.
When Julius Ceasar converted the calendar to a solar one, the special days of the Kalends, Nones, and Ides were fixed upon dates such as August 13. These solar days do not follow the cycle of the moon. The full moon no longer occured on the Ides of each month. Holidays such as Nemi, which relied on the light of the full moon, sometimes had to be celedrated in darkness.
The Roman year began in the month of March (named after Mars), when the earth begins to spring to life again after winter. This made September the seventh month of the year. In Latin, Septembris, Octobris, Novembris and Decembris (September, October, November, and December) mean the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th month respectively. When Julius Ceasar changed the Roman calendar, he made January the first month, he did not change the names of the months or their relative order. And the month of September became the ninth month of the year.
April is named after Aphrodite. May is named for the Goddess Maiao and June, for Juno. The fifth month, Quintilis, was named Julius (July) to honor Julius Caesar. And the sixth month, Sextilis, was renamed Augustus in honor of the second Caesar.
The oldest Roman calendars only contained the ten months already mentioned, but later, Januarius (named for Janus, the Roman God of doors) and Februarius were added to the calendar. Februarius came from a Latin word meaning, "to purify" and this month of purification was shortened or lengthened in order to fit the solar year.
