August

August for some is a rather bland month. Why? Because summer is fading? Because school is about to begin? Because leaves will begin to fall? August is a man's name. It means grand, noble, revered, venerable, honorable. It is also included in the Gregorian calendar.
Let's go to good ol' Webster: My 1,216 word Dictionary doesn't define Gregorian. It goes from gregarious to gremlin but does include Gregorian Calendar - the calendar reformed by Pope Gregory XIII (1582); adopted in England and in the American Colonies in 1752 in place of the Julian Calendar. Interestingly, the calender has quite a history and now we settle the challenge with a leap year every four years.

Even so, the year doesn't lend itself to 12 equal months of 30 days and so months range from 28 to 31 days and most of us are pretty well used to it. Trying to get along with the ancient Lunar calendar was not easy when days were added a random to keep the lunar system alive.

You know, I have never really studied the complicated history of the calendar, the vernal equinox year, the Gregorian year of 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds, the scheduling of special days by the position of the sun, moon and stars nor the mathematical challenge of aligning equal days, weeks and months so they would be identical every year.

Would it be fair to August who may have been your long lost great, great Uncle or Cousin not to dig a little bit deeper? So off we go to my Roget's International Thesaurus, Fourth Edition, revised by Robert L. Chapman in 1977 (original edition was completed in 1852 by Peter Mark Roget). Guess what? August got three references, 905.12: dignified, eminent, venerable. Looking at only one of them, dignified, it included 23 terms including stately, magisterial, aristocratic, majestic, regal, statuesque, sedate and solemn.

Now, when you think of August, you just might think of more than a person, a fading summer month, a reminder that colder weather is ahead, or that it is one of those 31-day months. Why not probe into some of the other months, or days (like Sunday or Friday) or a time when something significant happened. Calendars with accuracy are indispensable just as personal names are not incidental. Incidentally, ever thought of renaming all 12 months?