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A story of months

Our modern English month names contain some odd references to forgotten gods and rituals.

"January" comes from Janus (a.k.a. Januarius) the god of doorways; a sensible Latin root for the month which is the gateway to the New Year. Janus is considered to be looking forward AND looking backward, or as doorkeeper, he watches the inside and outside. Interesting character.

"February" comes from the Latin purification festival Februa, which fell on Feb. 15 on the old Roman calendar.

"March" is named after Mars, the god of war (Latinized as Martius). Being the first month of spring, some logical connection can be made -- this is the month when warfare started up again after taking the winter off.

"April" is a bit obscure. One guess is that is comes from Latin "aperire" ("to open"), being the month when most flowers bloomed.

"May" is a short word which doesn't give many clues. But it may be named after the fertility goddess Maia, being a month of great abundance.

"June" is named after the Roman goddess Juno, derived from the Greek goddess Hera, wife of Jupiter (Zeus).

"July" was named in honor of Julius Caesar.

"August" was named after Augustus Caesar.

The rest of our month names are simply numbers, as mentioned in the previous post.
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