Pr Ntr Kmt World Religious Calendar Pagan Holy Days

World Religious Calendar 407
Alder Moon
Day 20
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: Ostara
Roman information
a.d. VIII Id. Apr.
8 days before the Ides of April
Month: Aprilis
The a.d. VIII Id. designation means ante diem or eight “days before” the Ides (Full Moon) of the
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 Aprilis is named for Aphrilis, a corruption of name of the Greek Goddess
Aphrodite. The Greek Goddess Aphrodite was considered to be the same as the Roman Goddess
Venus. Ovid said “I have come to the fourth month, full of honor for you; Venus, you know both the
poet and the month are yours.” April was sacred to Venus, Roman Goddess of love.
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, April (the second month) had 30 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, April had
29 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), April
had 30 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,
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