Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: my friend Diane and I picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases to submit to each other to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. Both posts will be unique as we each have our own set of words we're working with.
At the end of this post, you'll find the link to Diane's post, be sure to check it out, see what words I sent her and how she used them.
I'm using: outline ~ omniprescent ~ orange ~ open ~ oops
It's the middle of October, and I have to say, I think the Romans got it wrong. Because, although maybe the Romans never saw Halloween coming, there is now no doubt that is actually the month of orange. Omniprescent, ubiquitous orange.
But looking a little deeper into the meaning behind the naming of the months, it seems those Romans got it wrong for more reasons than just pumpkins and costumes. I mean, October is the 10th month, but its name comes from octo, the Roman word for the number 8.
Ummm . . . oops?
Actually, it seems October was originally the 8th month.
Huh?
The calendar year was 10 months long, only 3o4 days, and started with Martius (March). The other 61 days, basically winter, they chose to ignore. And honestly, if you live anywhere but the south, you totally get that. Well, in the hoping that ignoring it will make it go away aspect.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have worked.
So, curious, I decided to take a look at all of the months, and how they were named.
First, once, I guess, they realized they couldn't wish winter away, the late editions:
January, after Janus, the god of beginnings, transitions, and endings.
February, after Februa, the festival of purification.
the original ten:
March, after Mars, the god of war.
April, from the word aprilis a reference to spring and the opening of flowers.
May, after Maiesta, the goddess of honor.
June, after Juno, the goddess of marriage, unions, birth, childcare . . . and finance, cows, and peacocks, although I don't really get the relationship . . .
July, after Julius Caesar.
August, after the emperor Augustus.
and here's where they lost their inspiration, or maybe just got lazy:
September, from septem, the number seven.
October, from octo, the number eight.
November, from novem, the number nine.
December, from decem, the number ten.
As long as I'm advocating a name change for October, may as well admit, there are a few other months that could use a new identity. My outline for the calendar refresh:
January, I can live with the month of a new year being named after the god of beginnings, transitions, and endings.
Freezing, because it's too cold for a festival of purification.
Magical, instead of honoring the god of war, I say we honor leprechauns.
April, I'm totally on board with celebrating when flowers open.
May, can't argue with honoring honor.
June, nor can I argue with honoring a goddess of marriage, unions, child birth and child care.
Jubilee, forget Caesar, it's America's birthday.
Aurous, forget Augustus too, I say we name this month after the golden days of summer.
Sepia, instead of naming the 9th month after the number 7, let's go with celebrating the fall leaves.
Orange, instead of naming the 10th month after the number 8, it's orange everything for the win.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars
Nourish, instead of naming the 11th month after the number 9, I choose nourish in this month of family time and Thanksgiving.
Deplete, instead of naming the 12th month after the number 10, let's just acknowledge the year end state of our wallets.
Oh, and while we're talking about months, let me just remind you about the day. Don't cross paths with a black cat, or walk under any ladders, it's Friday the 13th.
Hmmm, Friday . . . the names of the days of the week, wonder if they need a little updating too . . .
Here's the link to Diane's Use Your Words posts:
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars
Ingredients:
1/4 cup cream cheese baking chips1/4 cup Speculoos cookie butter
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
3/4 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice blend
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan.
*Crush the baking chips in a food processor or a clean coffee grinder. Set aside.
*In a large bowl, warm the Speculoos in the microwave for about 10 seconds, just until it is loose enough to whisk. Whisk in the pumpkin puree, crushed baking chips, 1 cup of the sugar and brown sugar. Once incorporated, whisk in 3 eggs.
*Mix in the flour, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Pour evenly into the prepared baking pan.
*Beat the softened cream cheese, the remaining egg, the remaining sugar and the cinnamon until fluffy. Pour onto the pumpkin batter.
*Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until cooked through. Cool completely before slicing.
These sound wonderful. What would be the subs for the Speculoos and the cream cheese baking chips for the US? Also, love the info on all the names of the months!
ReplyDeleteLOL, I'm in the US. Hershey's makes the cream cheese baking chips, and although Biscoff makes the original cookie butter, many grocery stores have their own version.
DeleteHahahaha! Perfect! Where were you in the original naming? Oh...right...
ReplyDeleteYeah, although I sometimes feel that old, in reality, I'm not . . .
DeleteJust for your entertainment,you may want to look up the French Republican calendar. It's a different reimaging of the calendar which France used for about 18 years. What I didn't remember is that the French also tried implementing a decimal day- dividing each day into 10 hours, each hour having 100 decimal minutes and each second having 100 decimal seconds. I do like calling the 11th month Nourish but where I live, September has such blue skies that maybe we should have a name based on that.
ReplyDeleteSounds really complicated, I'll check that out.
DeleteThey didn’t lose inspiration, they lost count. Your version is better, except for orange. These days orange is not my favorite color, maybe Harvest Gold or Cotton pickin white. Donna
ReplyDeletei understand your aversion, although I can think of a whole lot of people I'd like to soon see wearing the color.
DeleteNow there is a cheerful thought!
DeleteInteresting ideas, but I doubt you'll change officialdom.
ReplyDeleteI doubt you;re wrong.
DeleteOrange is the colour of my top, I like the colour when I was younger not so much,
ReplyDeletePumpkin is veggie I like baked, I do not like it mashed, or in a soup just NO not for me
I also liked this post
You're missing a lot, there are so many delicious ways to use pumpkin.
DeleteI did know the origin stories of the names of months and days, and you are right, they could stand some updating. Now how do we go about finding a committee to do that, and how do we get everyone to agree?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll just pass after all.
Delete