The first month was not January

By Herbert Vego

THERE was a time when I asked a History teacher, Ireneo Angeles, for any idea why the months of September and October occupy the 9th and 10th places in the calendar, respectively.

It’s because the month of September stems from the Latin word “septem,” meaning seven while October is from “octo” or eight.

Ireneo answered, “March used to be the first month of the year. Therefore, September was the seventh, and October, the eighth.

At the end of the conversation, he referred me to the history of the calendar.

One of the first truly scientific calendars was the Egyptian calendar, where each comprised 12 months, and each month had exactly 30 days. The months were further divided into three weeks, with each week lasting 10 days.

Then came the Babylonian “lunisolar” calendar with 12 lunar months, each beginning with the appearance of a new crescent moon.

The first Roman calendar — conceptualized by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C. — had 10 months in a year, with each month lasting 30 or 31 days. March was the first month of the year.

In 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar, after consulting with astronomers and mathematicians of his time, introduced the 12-month Julian calendar, which closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that the world uses today. Thus, the original seventh and eighth months slid to ninth and tenth.

Caesar named the first month January in honor of Janus, the Roman god with two faces that enabled him to look back to the past and forward to the future.

The Romans celebrated the first month by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties.

Pope Gregory XIII reestablished January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582. By then, however, the Julian calendar implemented by Julius Caesar had fallen out of sync with the seasons.

This disconcerted Gregory because it meant that Easter, traditionally observed within March, fell further away from the spring equinox – that day in March when the day and the night are of equal length across the celestial equator.

Some European countries did not immediately adopt the Gregorian calendar because of the anti-Pope Protestant Reformation that was taking place at that time

Although even China officially adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1911, the Chinese around the world do not celebrate New Year on January 1. The first day of the Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between January 21 and February 20.

The 2026 Chinese New Year falls on February 17, a Tuesday.  The day also marks the beginning of the Spring Festival that is celebrated for 15 straight days in China.

-oOo-

AN AEROSPACE SCIENTIST IN THE MAKING 

HE was only four years old when I met Ajin at Marina Beach in Miag-ao, Iloilo.  At that age, while in kindergarten, he could already read and write in English. At age 5, he was in grade one.

Leopoldo “Ajin” Moragas II, now 24, is the only son of retired banker Leopoldo “Doods” Moragas and educator Haydee Gequinto of Miag-ao. The three now live in Seattle, Washington, USA.

So, what’s new on Ajin?

Having studied Aerospace Engineering in Seattle, Ajin has passed an exam and assessment test at Boeing, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners, defense systems, rockets and satellites. He has been spotted for an important role. No joke, no joke.

No doubt, there’s room at the top for Ajin at Boeing in Seattle, Washington.

I wish to see him there within the year.