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.-- mrouse, Nov 24 2002 Discordian Calendar http://www.erisx.co...disco/calendar.htmlChaos, Discord, Confusion, Bureaucracy, Aftermath... yeah, we could rename everything with wacky names until forever. Blah. [egnor, Oct 04 2004] How the months got their names http://www.timekeep...rg/calendar.htm#TWOWhat have the Romans ever done for us? [my face your, Oct 04 2004] A month of croisants-- skinflaps, Nov 24 2002 How about doing somethign to correct the positions of the number-named months to correspond with the current convention of starting the year in the month starting after the (northern) Winter Solstice (instead of the month containing the (northern) Vernal Equinox? There's nothing wrong with having months named "September", "October", "November", and "December", except that those names mean "Seventh Month", "Eighth Month", "Ninth Month", and "Tenth Month". Too bad the current calendar has them as months 9-12.-- supercat, Nov 24 2002 >There's nothing wrong with having months named "September", "October", "November", and "December", except that those names mean "Seventh Month", "Eighth Month", "Ninth Month", and "Tenth Month".
It's kind of like naming your children "First Son" or "Second Daughter." It's definitely functional, but to me it's kind of bland. Compare "Second Son, born in Fifthmonth" to "Michael, born in Courage."
Plus you'd get all of those interesting country-western song lyrics -- "She was born in Justice, but she stole away my heart / I grew up in Genius, but I guess I'm not that smart." (I probably should stick to songs involving bar fights and hound dogs, I know.)-- mrouse, Nov 24 2002 // It's kind of like naming your children "First Son" or "Second Daughter."//
Especially naming your ninth son "Seventh Son", etc. Reminds me of a co-worker's suggestion for improving a painting at the Tate Modern Gallery in London. The painting is entitled "Gray". It is a gray canvas, which I was suggesting to my co-worker might more usefully be entitled "18% gray oversized photographic light metering card". He suggested, however, a more intriguing title: "Yellow".-- supercat, Nov 24 2002 Hmmm... With my pessimistic, cynical attitudes, I don't think I could take 30 days of hope, love, or justice. Plus, I just wouldn't feel right getting drunk on my birthday, 19 Temperance.-- MrSheep, Nov 24 2002 Hah! Or Spatula 16th, as the case may be. I agree with [egnor] that the whole renaming of stuff is a bit blah.-- bristolz, Nov 24 2002 //Hmmm... With my pessimistic, cynical attitudes, I don't think I could take 30 days of hope, love, or justice.//
Since there are plenty of virtues, we could name each week. Your birthday could fall in the middle of Chastity, followed by Discipline and Work.-- mrouse, Nov 24 2002 a family calender with months named after your relatives. birthday is 15th of po.-- po, Nov 25 2002 //While we're at it, why do we still name the days after gods we do not even worship any more?//
Because they're also the names of the nearby celestial bodies, though different languages do munge them a bit. I just know the names in English and French, though other Romance languages are probably similar:
SUNday MONday (the MOON) or LUNdi (la LUNE) tuesday or MARdi (Mars) wednesday or MERCREdi (Mercury) thursday or JEUdi (Jupiter) friday or VENDREdi (Venus) SATURday (Saturn)-- supercat, Nov 25 2002 Well, the English names are mainly from Norse gods (Tyr, Odin, Thor, Freya) rather than the Roman ones.-- bookworm, Nov 25 2002 random, halfbakery