How many public holidays does your calendar feature? Is it eight? Twelve? Or maybe you're among the lucky ones from Nepal, a nation renowned for having the highest number of public holidays in the world — an astonishing thirty-nine days of joy, celebration, and cultural festivities! That sounds good, right? But what if I told you that is still a modest number compared to the festive days that Romans had in the 4th century CE? You’re probably wondering how much better the Romans had it. Well, by 354 CE, there were 175 holidays. I knew we were born at the wrong time! If you, like many others, struggle to transition back to work after the festive season and seek comfort in reminiscing about the glorious Roman times, then this post is for you!
The Need to Measure Time
Archaeologists have recently discovered in Turkey what they believe to be the oldest existing calendar, dating back to 12,000 BCE. This attests to our longstanding need to keep track of time. But why did we need a calendar? Simple, because humans are control freaks! We enjoy organising our lives and keeping things in check, right? Or at least our ancestors did… If we read Hesiod’s Works and Days, we understand that keeping track of time, using stars and seasons as reference points, was essential to agriculture; however, as societies got more sophisticated, new needs arose, such as celebrating religious and secular festivals. Can you imagine keeping track of all those festivals in Rome without a calendar?
The First Roman Calendar
The legend says that the first Roman calendar was created by the founder of Rome himself, the mythical Romulus, in 738 BCE. This had ten months – Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December – January and February did not exist yet. Too bad if you were born in one of these months in the 8th century BCE. Think about it: being born in a calendar’s gap… How do you even answer the question: when were you born? Well, you know, in that blank space between December and March! As the coldest months, January and February, were of no use in agriculture, so Romans did not bother naming this period for some time. Anyway, the year was 304 days short, and months had either 30 or 31 days. Yes, things were somewhat different back then, but hey, if you are still upset about the non-existence of January and February, you’ll be happy to hear that things changed with the second king of Rome!
Numa Pompilius Calendar
Let’s be frank: Romulus’ calendar wasn’t great. I mean, we thank the first king of Rome for founding the Eternal City, but calendars were not his forte… By the end of the 8th century BCE, there were far too many disgruntled people around - tired of not having a birthday month! But that was when Numa Pompilius – second king of Rome – decided to sort things out by gifting the Romans with his quasi-exceptional calendar, featuring a 355-day-long year. This also had 12 months (yes, January and February were finally added), 7 of which were 29 days long, while the rest had 31 days. However, since the intention of this calendar was to align the Roman year with the solar year, this system required some rectification. Therefore, as the year was ten days shorter, an intercalary month was inserted every two years. I know what you’re thinking. What if you were born during this odd month? Well, I guess you’d have to celebrate your birthday every two years…
The Julian Calendar
By the time of Julius Caesar, it became clear that kings were useless with calendars. Therefore, the development of calendars was assigned to pontiffs. As the pontifex maximus in 63 BCE, Caesar decided to take matters into his own hands and sort out the Roman calendar. With the help of the great astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, he stretched the length of the calendar year to 365 ¼ days with an extra day intercalated every four years and added to February. However, the joy of having a functional calendar did not last long… The pontiffs that succeeded him messed things up once again by adding a leap year every three years rather than four! This went on until 9 BCE, when Augustus stepped in to correct things once and for all. Augustus believed in celebrating achievements, and what better way to honour himself than to dedicate a month to his own legacy? Thus, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus. This was perhaps a bit of a family tradition since Caesar had done the same by renaming Quintilis Julius.
A Joyful Life
After sorting the calendar, another issue emerged: holidays… By the time Caesar had reformed the calendar, the days of rest and joyful festivals amounted to 108. However, this number kept growing, reaching 175 holidays by 354 CE, and of these, a good percentage was dedicated to games. Romans loved the games held in the arena, where both wild animals and sweaty men in armour fought to entertain crowds of sun-cooked heads with bloody spectacles. However, since the government subsidised these, a few emperors became weary of their cost and tried to reduce them, but without success. Yet, Christianity did what emperors couldn’t. The Christianisation of Rome marked the end of gladiatorial games, ending officially in 404 CE. With the games gone and the pagan festivals on the verge of decline, the number of holidays diminished. But people were happy. They rejected blood, gore and fun pagan festivals to embrace faith. They went along with whatever could save their soul. So, now you know who to thank for your few days of holiday!
Written by
Gabriella Sentina
07.01.2025
Bibliography:
Edouard S. A. (1972), ‘The Roman Calendar’ in Edouard S. A. Greek and Roman Chronology: Calendars and Years in Classical Antiquity, Department of Classics, University of Toronto, pp. 153 – 167.
Macey S. L. (1990), ‘The Concept of Time in Ancient Rome’ International Social Science Review, vol. 65, no. 2. Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society Sciences, pp. 72 -79.
Comments