Variety

Thirty days hath September...

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November,

All the rest have thirty one

Except February alone

That has twenty eight days clear,

And twenty nine in

each leap year.

This is a rhyme I learned at school, when I was, I think, in standard two.

In our days the primary classes were called standards not grades as is done today. As the medium of instruction was English in our day, we learned many rhymes such as this, which added to our general knowledge. It is a very useful rhyme to know, so memorise it. Repeat it ten or twelve times and it will stay in your memory.

It is an Old English rhyme. That is why the Old English ‘hath’ is used instead of ‘has’. The rhyme names the months with 30 days, and says, “All the rest have 31 except February alone”.

Can you name the months with 31 days in order without fumbling?

I do not know how the months were divided into days, some into 30 days and others into 31 days. However, there is a pattern in this division of months into days. Every other month has 31 days. January, March, May, July, August, October, December all have 31 days. Only July is followed by a month with 31 days. In the beginning August had only 30 days. This is how August got 31 days.

July is named after Julius Caesar and August after Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor. The story goes that Augustus Caesar was annoyed and jealous of Julius Caesar who had a month of 31 days named after him while his month had only 30 days. He made a big fuss over this. So the Government decided to take one day off September and add it to August. So, the Emperor was happy that his month and Julius Caesar’s month had an equal number of days.

September is the ninth month of the year, but the name means seventh. Septem is seven in Latin which was the language of the Roman empire. Why is the ninth month called the seventh?

In the Old Roman calendar, March was the first month of the year. So September was the seventh. At some later date, January was made the first month of the year followed by February, and March became the third month. In the new calendar, September is the ninth month, but the old name continues to be used.

In the calendar now used worldwide, November is the eleventh month but the old name Novein meaning nine is used to this day.

Octo is eight in Latin and decem is ten, but the months named October and December are the 10th and 12th month of the year.

It is wellknown why February has 29 days every fourth year. The Earth takes 365 and a quarter (1/4) days to make one full revolution round the Sun. Four quarter days make up one day. This extra day is added to February every fourth year, and the year with the extra day is called a ‘leap year’. The last leap year was 2008 and the next is 2012.

The Olympic games are held every leap year. September is an important month the world over. There are two days in the year when the Sun is directly over the equator. September 22 is one such day and the other is March 21. Equinox is the name given to these two days. September 22 is the autumnal equinox, which marks the beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere. March 21st is the vernal equinox marking the beginning of spring.

On these two days, night and day are of equal length in the tropics - that is on land and sea between 23.5 degrees north and south of the equator.

The sun moves between the two tropics. Before the Sun reaches the equator on Sep 22, it passes over Sri Lanka every year on September 5 or 6. From now on you will notice that with each passing day the nights are getting longer. Darkness sets in early as each day the Sun is moving further and further south.

The autumnal equinox (Sept 23) marks the beginning of the New Year in the calendar of the Jews, just as March 21 (vernal equinox) is New Year’s Day in Iran.

In many countries in Europe and in America and Canada, the new school year has just begun or will begin soon. Over there, school re-open in September after the long summer vocation which commenced at the end of June or beginning of July.

Schools re-open and the new school year begins in the first, second or third week of September depending on how far north or south the country, province or state is. In Germany schools in the provinces in the south will re-open sooner than those in the northern provinces.

International schools in Sri Lanka also have just started or will soon start the new school year this month.

- Sumana Saparamadu