January :

   The word was originated from the name Janus, the god of doors and gates, of the beginning and the ending in the Roman mythology. He has two faces which symbolizes the change and transition such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one era to a new one. Is this also the reason why his name was used to call the first month of a new year?

February :

    According to the Roman mythology, there was a god of the death and purification named Februus. In his honor, the Februalia festivity was held, which was a time when sacrifices are made to atone for sins. February is said to be named after this festivity.

March :

    In the Roman time, March is the first out of ten months of a year. It was named after the god of war, Mars. March is named like this because of its hot and rough weather, yeah, just like war !

April :

    The word April comes from “aperire”- a Latin word which means “to open”. It seems like the Roman people find out that April is the time when all the buds open their eyes to enjoy the warmest sunshine from the sun. However, somebody believe that April was originated from Aphrilis, which in turns come from Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty in Greece, whose name is Venus in Roman mythology. Since Venus loves Mars, is it reasonable for a girl to come right after her lover?

May :

   This month was named after Maia, the goddess of growth of plants. Does the name say it all?

June :

    Named from “junius” – the Latin word for the goddess Juno. Juno is the wife of Jupiter and also the Goddess of Marriage. The month was named like that because the Roman people believe that June was the luckiest time for loving couples to get married.

July :

    Firstly, July was called Quintilis, which means the fifth month ( cuz in Roman Time, March is the first month of a year). After that, in the year 44 B.C, July took its name after the founder of the Roman Empire- Julius Caesar, whose birthday was on the twelfth of that month. I have no idea whether it was named after his death or it was Julius Caesar who wanted to become immortal that changed the name of the month himself.

August :

    Another month that was named after a king! This time is Augustus Caesar in the 8 B.C. Augustus Caesar was the child that Julius Caesar adopted as he didn’t have any children. Although his name is not as famous as Julius Caesar, he reigned a very glorious era in the history, when Rome has its greatest poets and writers. It was call the “Augustan Age”. Besides, August was also called “sextilis” ( Latin for the sixth month)

September :

     The ancient English name for the month was “Gerstmonath” which means “barley month”, due to the fact that at that time the barley crop was usually harvested. The name we use now was from the Latin word “septem” which means “seven”, as it was the seventh month of the ancient year.

October :

     The name came from the word “octo” which means “eight” in Latin. The eighth month of a year had once been called “winterfyleth” (winter full month) as winter was supposed to begin at the October full moon. There are also some information that the month was named after a god in The Norse Mythology.

November :

     As the matter of fact that in November, people usually killed a large amount of cattle to get through the cold winter, the Angles And Saxons called this month “Windmonath” (wind month) and “Blodmonath” (blood month). The Roman used the Latin word “novem” which means “nine” to name November as the ninth name of the year.

December :

      Here comes the last station of the journey! Named after “decem” (ten) in Latin, December- the month of Christmas was once called “Wintermonath” and “Heligmonath” which means Holy Month.  In this month in the Roman time, there were many festivals held to show people’s respect to all the gods who brought new life and hope to this world.

       As the festivals ended, Janus would open his gate again to begin another cycle of time, and so on…