April Holidays
The legend says that Romulus divided initially the year into ten months. The calendar used to start on spring with the month of March and the names of the ten months were:
- Martius (March, from Mars, the god of war and vegetation, it was due to the dedication of this month to the planning of the battles for the rest of the year)
- Aprilis (April, from aperire)
- Maius (May, from Maia, goddess of flowering which was also one of the most ancient goddesses. Another version says that May comes from maiores (major).
- Iunius (June, named after Juno, which was one of the most powerful figures of the Olympus, wife of Jupiter and goddess of marriage. Another version says that June comes from iuniores (young people).
- Quintilis (because it was the fifth month).
- Sextilis (because it was the sixth month).
- September (form septem which means seven because it used to be the seventh month).
- October (from Octo which means eight for the eighth month).
- November (from novem which means nine for the ninth month) - November.
- December (from Decem which means ten in Latin for the tenth month) - December.
In the period of winter which is the part of the year comprised by the months of January and February these days, wasn’t taken into account since there were no celebrations for the Romans during that part of the year. However some people of Rome used to add two months more at the end of the year. Some people attribute this calendar to Numa which was the Roman king who occupied the throne after Romulus.
Nevertheless some other investigations seem to point out that the addition was made official by the Etruscan influence during the time of the monarchy (VI century before Christ). The couple of months included were the following:
- January (Jano: god of the doors).
- February (Februa: festival of purification).
But in the century II before Christ, given the needs of the government and the new political charges that had to be substituted each year, they had to start their functions earlier: the 1th of January instead of the 1th of March, it provoked the relocation of the beginning of the year at the beginning of January giving us the calendar as we know it these days. However the duration of each month wasn’t the correct (each month used to have twenty eight days) therefore a new reformation on the calendar was required. Julius Caesar found out that with the original duration of each month it was impossible to find a coincidence with the actual cycle of the sun, thus Julius Caesar requested the assistance of Sosigenes which was an astronomer of Alexandria and therefore who knew very well the solar year since it have been perfectly measured by the Egyptians. With the help of Sosigenes, Julius Caesar was finally able to establish a correct duration for each month of the year, establishing too that every four years, February was going to have an additional day to adjust to the calendar of the sun.
This calendar was adopted as official on the year 46 before Christ, since then with only a few modifications that is the official calendar which keeps measuring our time. Among the slight modifications, the month that was known as “Quintilis” was renamed next to Julius Caesar (who was born in that month) as July.
After the murdering of Julius Caesar, his son Augustus took the power, and the Roman senate changed the name of the month known as “Sextilis” to August in honor to the name of Augustus. In the Julian calendar, Quintilis (July) used to have thirty one days and Sextilis (August) used to have thirty days. When Augustus found out about it he ordered to remove one day from February to add it to August.
Origin and festivities for the month of April
As it has been explained before, the name for the fourth month of the year has its origins on the term “aperire” it means “to open up”. This name was given to the fourth month because it was the beginning of the season on which the plants begin to flourish (placing us on the geographical situation of Italy). There is also a big number of experts that support the theory that claims the Greeks were who gave the name to this month after the goddess Aphrodite.
The Romans used to place this month under the protection of Venus, and they used to make a lot of celebrations as a tribute for Cybele and Ceres to honor the fecundity of earth. The anniversary of the foundation of Rome was also an important motive for celebration and each month of April their founder Romulus was remembered.
In the Aztec calendar which was divided on eighteen months the period of April had its correspondence on the sixteenth month of the Aztec calendar and the name for it was “Tlacaxiphualiztle”, during this month happy celebrations used to take place in tribute to “Xipe-Totec” which was one of the divine figures associated to agriculture, especially to the cultivation of maize and it was also related to the spring.
Basically April is a month associated to the earth, nature, flowers and agriculture, this association was made by a variety of cultures in the past, these days there are also celebrations that encourage the care for nature that take place on April, among them we have the “Arbor Day” which is celebrated every fifth of April, and the “World Health Day” which is celebrated every seventh of April.
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