Question: Why is October called October when it is the tenth month and "oct" means eight? Answer : What an excellent question! You're obviously a pretty smart bean, Kevin. Fortunately, I found a site in our Roman Calendar category called Early Roman Calendar that held the answer. The original Roman calendar, on which we base our modern calendar, had only ten months. It was arranged according to the agricultural cycle; the year began during the spring harvest in March, and ended during the autumn planting in December. January and February were simply left out, because there was no field work done then. So October was the original eighth month! You'll also find Roman numeral names hidden in September, November, and December. Can you figure out what they are?
