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September?

Okay, what could possibly be strange about the word "September?" Well, "sept" is the Latin root for "seven", but it's the ninth month of our modern year. It hints at the tumultuous history behind our modern calendar. The Julian calendar was a bit longer than an actual year, and I think by the time it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar (in 1582) it was a full two months behind.

There's a weirder note here: we only have 8 named months, and the rest -- September (7), October (8), November (9) and December (10) -- are just numbers. Our lives are run by clocks and calendars, and you'd think we'd have proper names for the months by now.

Note that July was named Quintillus (5) before being renamed to celebrate Julius Caesar, and August was Sextilis (6) before being renamed after Augustus Caesar.

At an early stage, the Romans considered winter to be without months. The number shift may also have happened when January and February were inserted at the start of the yearly cycle. We don't think about whole calendars being invented these days, but there is a long and wacky history behind the names and numbers we take for granted.

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