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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> 881<br />

The Celtic calendar started out as a moon calendar, but was aligned with the solar year during<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: Mercury<br />

Archetype: Ogma<br />

Symbol: rainbow fish<br />

Folk Names:<br />

Moon of the Wise<br />

Crone Moon<br />

Asatru (ancient Norse) information<br />

Month: Harvest<br />

Roman information<br />

a.d. VII Id. Avg. or a.d. VII Id. Sex.<br />

7 days before the Ides of August<br />

Month: Sextilis or Avgvstvs or Augustus<br />

The a.d. VII Id. designation means ante diem or seven “days before” the Ides (Full Moon) of the<br />

month. When counting days, the Romans included both the start and end day (in modern Western<br />

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

lunar day names.<br />

The Roman month of Sextilis is named for sex or sext, because it was originally the sixth month of<br />

the Roman solar year. In 8 BCE, the Roman Senate renamed the month Augustus (August), for then<br />

Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar. August was sacred to Ceres, Roman Goddess of grain.<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, Sextilis (the sixth 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, Sextilis<br />

had 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>), Sextilis<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 />

(including expanding August to 31 days), resulting in the modern Western calendar. The Roman Senate<br />

changed the name of the month Sextilis to Augustus (August) in honor of the Roman Emperor<br />

Augustus Caesar. The modern Gregorian <strong>Calendar</strong>, named for Roman Catholic Pope Gregory the<br />

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

numerology<br />

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

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