April Fools!

April Fools!

Everyone knows what today is, but do you know how and why? The Julian calendar had been the predominant way of marking time since the Roman Empire. It was a simple Lunar calendar, that split the year up into 13 months of 28 days each. The Julian year also started in the Spring. On the Julian calendar, today is January 1^st.

Happy New Year!

The start of the year was a busy time for the Roman Empire. This was when the Legions would march from Rome, working their way North through the passes in the Alps, that were now clear of snow. Or at least they were passable. The snow at that altitude doesn’t completely melt until Summer.

This month, named for Janus, the Roman God of doorways and new beginnings, was the start of the New Year. One of the problems with the Julian calendar, is that if you multiply 28 by 13, you find that it is equal to 360. That works great for a circle, but there are five days that are missing from the standard solar year.

These five days were originally celebrated as Saturnalia. They were outside the calendar, and therefore outside time. Things that happened during Saturnalia, didn’t exist in the normal year. This was a time of partying, and ritual. Roman slaves and masters were known to reverse roles during Saturnalia. The Emperor would go out among the people, as an equal. What happened at Saturnalia, stayed at Saturnalia.

Of course, when Julius Caesar came to power, he decided that he would make a few changes to the calendar. First, he renamed the month of his birth, after himself. It became July. Next, since it was such an important month, it needed to be longer than the rest, so he took three days from Saturnalia, and put them into July.

Calendar Changes

His Nephew, Augustus, did the same, giving us the month of August. His month couldn’t be any shorter than his uncle’s, so Augustus took days from the following month, so that his month also had 31 days. This left the year with 13 months of 28 days each, except for July, August, and one month that had only 27 days, which was probably February. Saturnalia was now absorbed into the calendar properly. There was no more week outside the calendar. This didn’t stop the partying, it just meant that the end of each year was now followed immediately the next day, by the first of the next year.

Roman Emperors did things like this, simply because they could. The months of September, October, November and December were all named for the Roman numerals of seven, eight, nine and ten. These were the point in the year where each month fell, which was Fall and Winter. September was the seventh month, October the eighth, and so on.

Things remained this way long after the Fall of Rome, in 476. The Julian calendar was used all the way through the Dark Ages, and into the Renaissance. Once Rome fell, there was no Emperor to make sweeping changes anymore, all that remained from the Roman Empire, was the Holy Roman Church.

Over time, even that fell in prominence. The Protestant Reformation began, and a large part of the Old Roman Empire was no longer under the influence of the Roman Church. By the late 1500’s, Italy, Poland, Spain and Portugal, were the only countries the Pope still had direct influence over.

Time For Change

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII realized that the patchwork calendar that everyone was using, would no longer work. It had holes in it, there were Traditions and Holidays that no longer made sense. It needed to be overhauled.

Luigi Lilio was an Italian doctor, astronomer and philosopher, who was more popularly known as Aloysius Lilius. It had been popular since the 15^th century, for men of knowledge to Latinize, or Romanize their names.

Luigi had devised a calendar that took advantage of the Solar 365 day year, and made adjustments for the fact that the year wasn’t exactly 365 days in length, by adding one day every four years. It was an elegant solution, and Pope Gregory adopted it as the standard year, by Papal Bull in 1582.

This new calendar changed the start of the year to just after the Winter Solstice. It had 12 months instead of 13, and all months had either 30 or 31 days, except for one, which still had the traditional 28. This was the month that would gain the extra day every four years. It was our standard calendar that we all use today.

The new calendar solved most of the problems from the old one, but things were jumbled around a bit. The names of the months were kept, even though half were named for Greek or Roman Gods. Janus – January, Februa – February, Mars – March (Also the month the Roman Legions moved north from Rome. This is why when an army moves, it is called marching) Aphrodite – April, Maia – May and Juno – June.

The Papal Shuffle

September through December stayed in their seasonal places, but were no longer the seventh through tenth months, they were now months nine through twelve. One month was dropped entirely. I have been searching to find the name of the lost month, but I have not been successful.

Gregory also took the opportunity to move several Holy Days to match dates that were celebrated by Pagans. Christmas was moved from the Spring, to the Winter Solstice. The first day of celebration started on the Solstice, and lead up to the climatic Mass of Christ on the 25^th. As the most important Holy Day of the Christian Calendar, it was placed on the most important Holy Day of the Pagan calendar. The Re(birth) of the Sun (Son).

Easter, was also moved. There was no fixed date for Easter, so Gregory placed it as the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. That’s the most Pagan way of deciding when a Holy Day should be, that I can think of.

The entire new calendar was to take effect in October, 1582. Ten days were dropped from that month, in order to sync the year to our orbit around the sun. People went to bed one night, and woke up the next morning, ten days later.

While those in the cities were all up to date, and informed, those who lived out in the country, took it less formally. Their calendar revolved around the seasons, not the day of the month. So by Spring of 1583, the people in the towns and cities, anywhere there was a church, had all adapted to the new calendar.

April Fools!

At this time, traditional Spring Markets were set up in these towns and cities. The country folk came to town to buy and sell as usual, and greeted everyone with “Happy New Year!”. Of course, the town folk knew better, and thought these people backward and foolish, for not keeping up with the times (literally). Anyone who wished others a Happy New Year on the first of April, came to be called an April Fool. Thus began the tradition of trying to lure others into believing a falsehood, then shouting “April Fools!”.

The other thing to remember, is that the Pagani, or country folk, tended to still follow the Old Ways. Any group of people big enough to be called a town, had a church. These farmers, lived outside town, and didn’t tend to go to town except a few times a year, to buy or sell. During the Growing Season, they had to tend their farms, so they couldn’t spend all day in church, while their fields lay untended. This is the origin of the word Pagan.

Just One More Thing

When Pope Gregory changed the calendar, the Protestant countries of the world didn't accept it. They thought it was some ploy, to allow the Pope to gain control over them. It was another 200 years before the Gregorian calendar was accepted in places like England, and her colonies. Ben Franklin has a famous quote about waking up 14 days after going to bed.

Orthodox Christians still use the Julian Calendar, as do other cultures. Many office calendars print the Julian day in the corner of each day. Beltane starts on Julian day 120 (or 121 in a Leap Year).

When I tell my students that they are going to get really good at research, they think I’m joking. Then I start giving them assignments. It’s not enough to know when this Holiday or that, falls during the year, you must know why. It is the why, that informs us about the holiday, what it is, why and how it is celebrated.

April Fools is a minor holiday, noted on the Gregorian Calendar. It is blindly celebrated by hundreds of millions of people, 99% of whom, have no idea why. There are other holidays, both religious and secular, that people celebrate every year, without understanding why. Saint Patrick’s Day is another. When you look at it historically, you realize that mid-March, is about the same time that Saturnalia originally occupied.

The holiday loses all meaning, if the people celebrating it, have no understanding of why they are celebrating it. Every year, you hear people complain about the commercialization of Christmas, and other holidays. That’s because most people either have no understanding of the holiday, or just the bare minimum knowledge. That is why it is important to research the holidays you celebrate.

So here is your homework assignment: Find out how the days of the week got their names, and why.

Extra credit: What culture does our 24 hour day come from, and why 24?

April Fools?