The politics of the English New Year

The politics of the English New Year

Some of you may have a habit of taking a resolution every New Year. When such people meet me they ask me what promise you have made in this New Year.

I took a pledge every New Year in January and made it a habit to leave in February so I pledged to know the politics behind the New Year this year. Based on that, I came across many interesting news about the English New Year. So many quality incidents were found while compiling those interesting news. Now let us see those quality incidents for your intentions. Look at how the human mind has created the New Year and the calendar.

You may notice that a few New Years are set in April. The first day of the Tamil New Year falls in the month of April. Let's see the Telugu and Kannada New Year called Yugadi coming in the month of April. There is an opinion that at one time the English New Year was in the month of April.

There is also a story or history that a fifteenth-century pope changed the English New Year from April to January. This change has been accepted by a party. Another party refused to accept. April Fools' Day was also called a day of ridicule for teasing another person who did not agree.

The month of April is derived from the Latin word 'Aprilis'. The word ‘Aprilis’ means to open. So the opening of the year, i.e. the beginning of the new year, coincides with the month of April. Similarly every English month does have a background.

Made in January by the name of the Roman god ‘Janus’.

Created to commemorate the Roman festival ‘Februarias’ in February.

Made in the name of the Roman god ‘Mars’ in March.

We have already seen about the month of April.

Made in May by the name of the Greek god ‘Mayus’.

In June a Roman woman named ‘Juno’ was created in the name of the god.

The month of July was created by Julius Caesar to establish his name.

The same is true in August. Augustus Caesar was created to perpetuate his name.

The last four months of September, October, November, and December are taken from the Latin numbers seven, eight, nine, and ten. That is, the seventh month of September is from January excluding July and August. This month is derived from the Latin word ‘septum’ which means seven.

Similarly October is the eighth month so it is derived from the Latin word ‘octo’ which means eight.

The month of November is derived from the Latin word ‘navam’ which means the ninth month in the same category. The month of December is derived from the Latin word ‘Decem’, which means the tenth month.

The reason for this change of order was the months of July and August, which were introduced by the two Caesar kings in between. Thus the seventh month, September, became the ninth month, the eighth month, October, the tenth month, the ninth month, November, the eleventh month, and the tenth month, December, the twelfth month.

There is also a great deal of politics hidden in determining the days of the English months. In the early days, all the months from January to December alternated between 31 days and 30 days.

According to this, Julius Caesar did not accept the 30 days of July. Desiring to have 31 days for the month of July named after him, he snatched one day from February and made the month of July in his name 31 days. Augustus Caesar did the same for the month of August in his name. The effect was 28 days, losing 2 days in February which was 30 days.

This calendar system is called the 'Gregorian' calendar. Isn’t it amazing when you consider that there are so many impressions in the formation of the English calendar!

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