Virtuous Months

English names for months are functional, but not very interesting. The Revolutionary French idea of renaming them (obligatory "pretend everything was invented by someone French" reference) was on the right track, but "Showery, Flowery, Bowery, Wheaty, Heaty, Sweety, Slippy, Nippy, Drippy, Freezy, Wheezy and Sneezy" only works in the Northern latitudes.

One solution is to rename them to something meaningful. The virtues "Hope, Faith, Kindness, Joy, Courage, Fortitude, Wisdom, Genius, Love, Fidelity, Temperance, Justice" would be a good start. We could begin each year with Hope and end each year with Justice. February could really be the month of Love, while the Christmas season might be the month of Kindness. It would be a reminder of what we should live up to, and a constant source of ironic amusement: "You wouldn't think that someone born in Wisdom would make toast in the bathtub" or "He was born in Fidelity, and he lived infidelity."

Note, I chose the 12 virtues from the following list: Authenticity, Awe, Bravery, Charity, Chastity, Citizenship, Cleanliness, Compassion, Consideration, Cooperation, Courage, Courtesy, Creativity, Curiosity, Democracy, Discipline, Enthusiasm, Ethics, Fairness, Faith, Fidelity, Fortitude, Friendship, Genius, Gratitude, Helpfulness, Honesty, Hope, Humanity, Humility, Industry, Initiative, Integrity, Joy, Judgment, Justice, Kindness, Lawfulness, Leadership, Love, Love of learning, Loyalty, Modesty, Motivation, Optimism, Orderliness, Originality, Patriotism, Peace, Perseverance, Personal intelligence, Perspective, Playfulness, Prudence, Respect, Responsibility, Self-Reliance, Self-control, Spirituality, Sportsmanship, Teamwork, Temperance, Tolerance, Transcendence, Valor, Wisdom, Work, Zest. I might have missed some, but we could easily name every week something meaningful. Feel free to add your own virtues.