Did you know that by 46 BCE, the Roman calendar was out of sync with the seasons by several months? To fix this, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, with the help of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer. The Julian calendar was a solar calendar that consisted of 365 days, with a leap year of 366 days every four years to account for the extra quarter day each year.
In the Julian calendar, most months alternated between 30 and 31 days, except for February, which had 29 days and 30 days in a leap year. The new calendar aligned more closely with the Earth’s orbit around the sun, fixing the seasonal drift that had accumulated.
The Addition of July and August
After Julius Caesar’s assassination in 44 BCE, the Roman Senate honoured him by renaming the month Quintilis to Julius (July), as it was the month of his birth. Julius Caesar had already set Quintilis (now July) to have 31 days during his reform.
In 8 BCE, Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor, was similarly honoured. The Roman Senate renamed the month Sextilis to Augustus (August) to recognise Augustus Caesar’s achievements. Initially, August had 30 days, but to make it equal to July and to honour Augustus further, a day was borrowed from February, making August 31 days long as well.
This decision also ended the alternating pattern of months with 30 and 31 days, as now July and August both had 31 days consecutively.
1. Names Derived from Numbers: The original names of July and August, Quintilis and Sextilis, derived from the Latin words for “fifth” and “sixth,” respectively, as they were the fifth and sixth months in the old Roman calendar before January and February were added.
2. Leap Year Adjustment: The Julian calendar added a leap day every four years without exception, but this caused a slight overcompensation. To correct this, the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, skipped three leap years every 400 years (years that are divisible by 100 but not by 400), which is the system we use today.
3. Calendar Reforms: The transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar corrected the slight error by omitting 10 days. For example, in 1582, the day after October 4 was October 15 in the Catholic countries that adopted the reform immediately.
4. Days of the Month Mnemonic: A popular mnemonic to remember the days in each month goes, “Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; all the rest have thirty-one, excepting February alone, which hath but twenty-eight days clear, and twenty-nine in each leap year.”
5. August’s Popularity: With both July and August having 31 days, these summer months are popular for holidays and vacations in the Northern Hemisphere, as they typically offer warm weather and long daylight hours.
6. Roman Calendar Legacy: Despite many changes over the centuries, the names of the months July and August remain as lasting tributes to the first two Roman Emperors, Julius and Augustus Caesar.
Importance of July and August
July and August are not only historically significant due to their namesakes but are also vital months in the calendar year for various reasons:
Seasonal Impact: In the Northern Hemisphere, July and August are typically summer months, representing peak agricultural activity and vacation time.
Festivals and Holidays: These months host various cultural festivals, holidays, and significant events worldwide, including Independence Day in the United States (July 4) and numerous local summer festivals.
Historical Events: Many notable historical events occurred in July and August, such as the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.