Pr Ntr Kmt World Religious Calendar Pagan Holy Days

World Religious Calendar 362
Day 8
The Celtic calendar started out as a moon calendar, but was aligned with the solar year during
antiquity. Robert Graves proposed the Celtic tree calendar described here. While widely used by
Neo-Pagans, many critics dispute the authenticity. The Beth-Luis-Nion calendar (the one used here)
starts with New Year on the Winter Solstice. The Beth-Luis-Faern calendar starts with New Year on
Samhain.
Each Celtic tree month (or moon) is named for a Celtic Ogham letter (first line above) and a tree
(second line above). All of the Celtic months also had additional folk names (folk names for this month
listed below).
Polarity: Masculine
Planet: Mars
Archetype: Bran or Arthur
Symbol: pentacle
Folk Names:
Moon of Utility
Moon of Efficacy
Moon of Self-Guidance
Asatru (ancient Norse) information
Month: Lenting
Roman information
a.d. VIII Kal. Apr.
8 days before the Kalends of April
Month: Martius
The a.d. VIII Kal. designation means ante diem or eight “days before” the Kalends (first day or
New Moon) of the next month. When counting days, the Romans included both the start and end day
(in modern Western culture, we skip the start day). When the Romans switched to a solar calendar, they
continued to use the lunar day names.
The Roman month of Martius is named for Mars. March was sacred to Mars, Roman God of war.
The earliest Roman months were lunar. According to Roman mythology, the ten month solar calendar
aligned to the vernal equinox was introduced by Romulus, the founder of Rome, around 753 BCE. In
Romulus’ calendar, Mars (the first month) had 31 days. Numa Pompilius, the second of the seven
traditional kings of Rome, added two more months, for a 12 month year. In Numa’s calendar, Mars had
31 days. Gaius Julius Caesar, as Pontifex Maximus (supreme bridge-builder, a religious title),
reorganized the calendar on the first day of 45 BCE. In Caesar’s calendar (the Julian Calendar), Mars
had 31 days. Caesar’s calendar was calculated by Sosigenes, an Egyptian astrologer/astronomer. In 8
BCE, Augustus Caesar fixed errors by pontiffs after Julius’ death and made other minor modifications,
resulting in the modern Western calendar. The modern Gregorian Calendar, named for Roman Catholic
Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, was a realignment in 1582.
numerology
362 of 1413 7/14/08 9:29 AM