[Coda]

11

Actually, the fault does not lie with July and August, but rather January and February. Doesn't it seem strange that the beginning of the year doesn't align neatly with any significant cycle? Wouldn't it just make more sense for the year to start at the beginning of spring, when the new life is appearing, and end in the winter?

That's right: The Romans originally started their calendars in March.

They only HAD ten months, though. They left the rest of the year unmarked. On the bright side, this meant they didn't have to screw with leap years. "Winter" just ran as long as winter needed to run. And since it was winter, that meant there really wasn't anything worth celebrating or honoring, so it didn't really matter. Once spring started, they just started counting months again.

This was kind of awkward, though, and required a priest to watch the moon and declare when the first month of the year started. Not great for coordinating time. So one of the emperors added two more months to fill in the gap -- January (honoring the god of beginnings) at the beginning and February (honoring the gods of the underworld) at the end. So September at this point was now the 8th month instead of the 7th, but they didn't change the name.

Julius Caesar renamed the 5th and 6th months after himself and his predecessor when he reformed the calendar again (and he moved February to come after January instead of at the end of the year) but it wasn't his fault that the names were already out of sync.