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Pr Ntr Kmt World Religious Calendar Pagan Holy Days

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<strong>World</strong> <strong>Religious</strong> <strong>Calendar</strong> 496<br />

antiquity. Robert Graves proposed the Celtic tree calendar described here. While widely used by<br />

Neo-<strong>Pagan</strong>s, many critics dispute the authenticity. The Beth-Luis-Nion calendar (the one used here)<br />

starts with New Year on the Winter Solstice. The Beth-Luis-Faern calendar starts with New Year on<br />

Samhain.<br />

Each Celtic tree month (or moon) is named for a Celtic Ogham letter (first line above) and a tree<br />

(second line above). All of the Celtic months also had additional folk names (folk names for this month<br />

listed below).<br />

Polarity: Feminine<br />

Planet: Moon<br />

Archetype: Morgan le Fay<br />

Symbol: serpent<br />

Folk Names:<br />

The Witch’s Moon<br />

Moon of Balance<br />

Asatru (ancient Norse) information<br />

Month: Ostara<br />

Roman information<br />

a.d. III Kal. Mai.<br />

3 days before the Kalends of May<br />

Month: Aprilis<br />

The a.d. III Kal. designation means ante diem or three “days before” the Kalends (first day or New<br />

Moon) of the next month. When counting days, the Romans included both the start and end day (in<br />

modern Western culture, we skip the start day). When the Romans switched to a solar calendar, they<br />

continued to use the lunar day names.<br />

The Roman month of Aprilis is named for Aphrilis, a corruption of name of the Greek Goddess<br />

Aphrodite. The Greek Goddess Aphrodite was considered to be the same as the Roman Goddess<br />

Venus. Ovid said “I have come to the fourth month, full of honor for you; Venus, you know both the<br />

poet and the month are yours.” April was sacred to Venus, Roman Goddess of love.<br />

The earliest Roman months were lunar. According to Roman mythology, the ten month solar calendar<br />

aligned to the vernal equinox was introduced by Romulus, the founder of Rome, around 753 BCE. In<br />

Romulus’ calendar, April (the second month) had 30 days. Numa Pompilius, the second of the seven<br />

traditional kings of Rome, added two more months, for a 12 month year. In Numa’s calendar, April had<br />

29 days. Gaius Julius Caesar, as Pontifex Maximus (supreme bridge-builder, a religious title),<br />

reorganized the calendar on the first day of 45 BCE. In Caesar’s calendar (the Julian <strong>Calendar</strong>), April<br />

had 30 days. Caesar’s calendar was calculated by Sosigenes, an Egyptian astrologer/astronomer. In 8<br />

BCE, Augustus Caesar fixed errors by pontiffs after Julius’ death and made other minor modifications,<br />

resulting in the modern Western calendar. The modern Gregorian <strong>Calendar</strong>, named for Roman Catholic<br />

Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, was a realignment in 1582.<br />

Today totals 2 in modern Western numerology.<br />

numerology<br />

496 of 1413 7/14/08 9:29 AM

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