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Sunday, September 22, 2013

If September means “seven” why is it the ninth month?

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

If you lived under the rule of Julius CaesarSeptember was the seventh month of the old Roman calendar. In this calendar, the year began in March but the Julian calendar reform shifted the start of new year back two months to where it is now: January 1.

(Do you know what month was named after this Roman ruler? Read about it here.)

This change made September in the new calendar the ninth month and one of only four Gregorian months with 30 days.

The name of the month is derived from septem, which is Latin for seven. It has long been regarded as a number of perfection, luck, and wonder. (Think: seven days of creation.)
We commonly refer to being in a state of everyday bliss as being in seventh heaven. The expression has been used figuratively since the early 1800s. It refers to “the dwelling place of God in the highest of the seven concentric spheres that surround the earth.” Both Muslims and Cabbalistic Jews believed in this system.

The number seven shows up repeatedly in other topics relating to the heavens. The Seven Sisters are the number of Atlas’ daughters in the Pleiades. Also, there are only seven stellar objects in the solar system that are visible from Earth with the naked eye.

Only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world is still in existence. Do you know what it is? Also, seven plays prominently into a Hindu practice. What is it?

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