July

July is the 7th month in both the Julian and Gregorian calendar. It has 31 days, and is one of the hotter months of the year in the northern hemisphere. We are going to discuss a little about the naming of the month.

In the Roman calendar, there used to be only 10 months, and July was the fifth month. It was original named Quintilis, which is Latin for fifth. When the Roman calendar changed to a 12-month calendar, it retained the name Quintilis. We will see more of this later on when we talk about the final four months of the year.

In 45 BCE, when the Julian calendar was introduced, then Roman dictator Julius Caesar had the calendar created to follow more along the lines of the actual orbit of the Sun. When he was assassinated the following year, they renamed Quintilis Julius after Caesar, and it was anglicized to July.

Leap Second

Everyone knows the leap day. Every four years (except century years not divisible by 100), an extra day is added to the year in February to keep the calendar in synch with the seasons.


However, there is also a leap second. This is used every couple of years to keep the Coordinated Universal Time close to the mean solar time. The reason why it is needed is that the Earth's rotation is slowing down, but not by a lot.


The second is added just before midnight on either June 30th or December 31st. The time would go from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60 to 00:00:00. The last time a leap second was added to the UTC was last June 30th.

June

June is the sixth month in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is believed to be named after Juno, the wife of Jupiter or from the Latin iuniores meaning younger ones.


June is important astronomically as it contains the summer solstice for the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice for the Southern Hemisphere.


Important June events:
John Couch Adams, co-discoverer of Neptune, was born on June 5, 1819.
Johannes Muller, inventor of astronomical tables, was born on June 6, 1436.
Pope Gregory XIII was born on June 7, 1502.
Giovanni Cassini was born on June 8, 1625.
Johann G Galle, co-discoverer of Neptune, was born on June 9, 1812.

April

April is the fourth month of both the Julian and Gregorian calendar. It was once the second month of the old Roman calendar until the Numa calendar was created in 700s BCE. Where does the name April come from?


There are many ideas. One is that is named for the Roman word aperire which means to open, as this it the first full month of spring and flowers begin to open. It could also be related the Greek goddess Aphrodite whose Roman equivalent Venus held the month sacred.


The zodiac constellations (according the pseudo-science astrology) are Aries (the ram) and Taurus (the bull). In actuality, the Sun is in the constellation Aries right now, but was in Pisces (the fish) up until April 19. The Sun won't be in Taurus until mid May. The original astrological signs were based on the Sun's position 2000 years ago and was covered on my post about the precession of the equinoxes. You can also revisit my post about the Zodiac, as well.


Next month, we'll talk about May...and a lot sooner than near the end of the month.

March

March is the third month of the Gregorian calendar. It is named after the Roman god Mars.


Did you know, in the old Roman calendar, it was actually the first month? The original Roman calendar contained ten months, from March through December. It wasn't until Julius Caesar introduced his namesake calendar in 46 BC.


Some interesting notes to know about March: it is the birth month of Albert Einstein (born March 14, 1879), it has the fun mathematical day called Pi (π) Day which is also 3-14, and it has the vernal equinox, which we will talk about later.

Days of the Week

So we now finish up the days of the week, and the one thing I want you to take away from the past week is the Latin names for the days of the week. The moment calendar used today (the Gregorian Calendar) was a revision of the Julian Calendar which was based on the old Roman calendar. What this calendar gave us was the 7-day week. And the ancient Romans also thought that there were 7 celestial bodies orbiting around the Earth: the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which also happen to be what the Romans named the days of the week after.

Sunday

Sunday. Depending on where you live, the first day or the last day of the week. Obviously, you can easily see that Sunday is named after the Sun. Let's look at Sunday in other languages.

French: dimanche
Spanish: domingo
Italian: domenica
German: Sonntag
Latin: dies Solis

German and Latin are also named after the Sun. What about the other romance languages? Those are actually derived from the Latin for Lord, dominicus. When Christianity became the prevalent religion, Sunday was referred to as the Lord's Day, hence the root for the Romance languages.

Saturday

It's Saturday! And you know that this means we'll look at Saturday in other languages.

French: samedi
Italian: Sabato
Spanish: Sabado
German: Samstag
Latin: dies Saturni

English and Latin have the same root, the Roman god Saturn, while the others refer to the day of Sabbath, which has always been Saturday. East Germans sometimes use Sonnabend, which literally means Sunday Eve.

Friday

Friday, the best day of the week, if you ask me.


Let's see what Friday is in other languages.


French: Vendredi
Italian: Venerdi
Spanish: viernes
German: Freitag
Latin: dies Veneris


All the Romance translations are based on the Latin which translates to "day of Venus". What is the Germanic equivalent of Venus? Frigg (or Friya), the wife of Odin, who was also the goddess of love.

Thursday

Thursday, the fourth day of the week or the fifth, depending on whether or not your week starts on Monday or on Sunday.


Let's look at Thursday in other languages:


French: jeudi
Italian: giovedi
Spanish: jueves

German: Donnerstag
Latin: dies Iovis


Looking at the Romance languages, they are all named after Jupiter, the supreme Roman god. He is also the god of thunder which leads to ... Thor in old Norse mythology. Yes, Thor was not the supreme Norse god, that was Oden, but because he was also the god of thunder, that's where we got Thursday. Donnerstag is also named after the Germanic Thor.