May comes from the Latin Maius , probably referring to the goddess Maia. She embodied the concept of growth, both in nature and in business. In May, the ancient Romans celebrated Floralia , a festival for fertility. Floralia lasted from April 27 to May 3 and included theater plays, dancing, and banquets. The Romans sacrificed a pregnant sow to the earth goddess Terra for a fruitful harvest. Since ancient times, the beginning of May has been celebrated as the coming of summer—from the Roman Floralia to the Walpurgisnacht Night of St Walpurga , a Germanic celebration with bonfires on April 30 still celebrated today.
Many countries in Europe and North America celebrate May Day on May 1 with dances around a maypole , a high wooden pole adorned with colors and flowers. Do you know anyone who has a birthday on February 30? How about September 31? Maybe October 32 or November 31? Well, there's a good reason for that and you've probably already guessed it: those aren't even real days!
If you check your calendar , you'll notice that February only has 28 days unless it's a leap year , September only has 30 days, October only has 31 days, and November only has 30 days. What's the deal with that? To solve this mystery, we must dig deep into the history of our modern calendar , which is known as the Gregorian calendar.
The Gregorian calendar was a modification of the Julian calendar , which itself was a modification of the ancient Roman calendar. The ancient Romans, like ancient civilizations before them, based their concept of the month on the Moon. Unfortunately, the lunar cycle is approximately As a result, the earliest ancient Roman calendars had months that were either 29 or 30 days. To make things even more confusing, the ancient Romans borrowed from the ancient Greeks to develop the idea of a month calendar that left approximately 60 days unaccounted for.
For example, the ancient Romans started using a month calendar in B. The names Quintilis through December derived from the Latin words for five through ten.
To account for the remaining 60 or so days, Januarius was added to the beginning of the year and Februarius to the end of the year during Numa's reign around B. The calendar stayed in that order until B. Julius Caesar modified the Roman calendar in 46 B. Quintilis was later renamed Julius in his honor.
Likewise, Sextilis later became Augustus to honor Augustus Caesar. Augustus was also given an extra day taken away from Februarius , so that Augustus and Julius would have an equal number of days. So the next time you're curious about why a particular month has the number of days that it does, you can thank the Moon and the ancient Romans! In tomorrow's Wonder of the Day, we say goodbye to a year gone by and welcome the promises of a new year ahead!
Are you already counting down the days until next month? Be sure to check out the following activities with a friend or family member:. I learned months are as long as it takes for the full moon to go around back to a full moon and it does this 12 times a year which is why there are 12 months but since Sure thing! My system is simple, really. It's based loosely on how the Romans originally had it. Starting the year with March, and ending it with February, each other month has either 31 days or 30 days.
The exception is of course February, which only has March is 31, April is 30, May is 31, etc. Yet, as simple as this method is, I fear it's just as likely to change as the electoral college is Because if it matches the lunar cycle perfectly, Spring would keep moving. As would all other seasons. Hi, Wonder Friend! Sometimes there isn't a clear cut answer to our questions, which can be frustrating. But we hope that you'll continue researching to find out more information!
Probably because in acient history they got tired of being in the same month instead of being in the same month for 29 days. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, makiya! We hope this Wonder helped you learn more about how the months got their number of days! Hi, Sydney! In the Wonder text above, we briefly touched on why February has fewer days than the rest of the months.
How old is Earth? How fast can you think? How long is a light year and how short is a femtosecond? What does Greenwich Mean Time mean? Can you tell the time with flowers?
When did time begin? This light-hearted, illustrated miscellany from Royal Observatory Greenwich goes a long way to answering some of these questions and also presents a whole range of other amazing facts and figures which show the influence of time on our daily lives Amisha patel Thank you for helping Relisha Johnson Yay I finally can get this right! This website needs a 5 star review!
Rishyra Johnson This is a question my daughter gets wrong everyday, at school than on you for putting this where you could Hannah my birthday august 5th Lisa I'm home schooling in lockdown with my 8-year old granddaughter and I'm finding it quite difficult to know if I'm teaching her the right way or not.
Anliza Thanks for helping me C CP Hansen I learned this little thing years ago I think I was in the third grade at to help me remember how many days in the month okay here we go if you don't mind I'll tell you 30 days has September April June and November all the rest have 31 except for February which was 28 except for leap year has 29 that didn't rhyme but that's how I remember it hope you didn't mind it let me know
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