Calendars
Funny how the modern world revolves around Latin. The word calendar has its roots in Latin, coming from kalendarium, a moneylender’s account book; interest being due on the calends, the day of the new moon. Our current calendar has undergone a lot of changes since marking time from the new moon but I was surprised to learn that the Gregorian calendar the Western world uses today is only about 500 years old with some countries only adopting it in the 20th century: China, 1912 and Greece, 1923 among them.
The new year is well under way with January almost over so I guess I can stop looking back, except one can’t, can one? If we just don’t dwell in the past we’ll be alright. So that got me thinking about the names of the months and I remembered that January is named for Janus, Roman god of doors or the beginning and ending, hence the looking back and the looking forward. I have never been a great one for New Year’s resolutions. I figure if things are that bad I should have been doing something long before waiting for the new year to change my ways.
One thing I have come to enjoy a lot are new calendars. They hold so much promise and I like the pictures. I remember growing up with a very large calendar (it seemed to me) from the local feed mill where my dad went every week for the mash for his animals. It had no pictures on it.
Anyway, a few random notes about 2012: it’s a leap year, it began on a Sunday which made a Friday the 13th in January (and also 2 other months this year) and it is an election year. Boy, we’d have to be hiding under a rock to have missed the primaries so far, huh?
In keeping with my recycling theme, I have to end with a note about finished calendars. What do you do with them? I use them as background for scrapbooking and greeting cards. Here’s to the last few days of January before we begin a new month.
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Thanks, interesting and valuable stuff!
Did you know if you use the tops and valleys of your knuckles, you can confirm which months have 31 days (just in case you wonder?) Start with January on the left pinkie knuckle, February is the first valley and continue. Skip your thumb and return to your left pinkie in the month rotation and it works. Amazing!
Also, taking the first letter of each month from the rotation spells a name in our house, beginning in July!
Hi, Becky. I thought about the knuckle counting but didn’t include it. Thanks for sharing.