The October story

CEBU, Philippines - One day, Brad - the world’s smartest rat - decided to teach the kittens known as Blackfoot, Whitefang and Stripe the old Latin names of numbers as their lesson for the day.

Since Latin is one of the world's oldest languages, he felt that talking about it during class would be a great lesson for his three students.

After his discussion, Stripe, the smartest of the three kittens, raised his paw to ask a question.

"Brad, if "octo" is the old Latin name for the number eight, why is October the tenth month of the year? Shouldn't October be the eighth month instead?" asked Stripe.

"Yeah," agreed Blackfoot. "I have a similar question as well, Brad. If "decem" is Latin for ten, why is December the twelfth month of the year and not the tenth?" Blackfoot continued to ask.

"You raise interesting questions little kittens," said Brad.

"There's actually a story behind October's and December's naming, one that involves the old Roman Calendar and the Julian and Gregorian Calendars - the two calendars that replaced it."

"You see… a long time ago, the Roman Calendar was the standard calendar used by civilized society, and it only had ten months, not twelve," Brad began to explain.

"Back then, the months of the Roman Calendar year were Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December."

"If you count the months, October is actually the eighth month in the Roman Calendar, just as December is the tenth month of a Roman Calendar year."

"Back then, Martius was the first month of the year, not January, while Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis and so on followed."

"In time, the Roman Calendar was replaced by the Julian and Gregorian Calendar, adding two months - January and February."

"With the two additional months, January and February became the first and second months of the year, which was followed by Martius, which was eventually changed to March. Aprilis was eventually changed to Apirl, while Maius was changed to May."

"All in all, the reason why October is not the eighth month of the year and why December is not the tenth month of the year - even if their Latin names meant eight and ten - is because two new months were added to the year when the old Roman Calendar was replaced." (FREEMAN)