Oh What A Time... - #25 Calendars (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

AND WE ARE BACK! And this week/month/year we're looking at: Calendars. How we ended up with the names for our months and days, how the Mayan calendar caused such a kerfuffle, the failed French attempt to decimalise time and our bonus part this week: why the UK government stole 11 days New Year, same incredible features: THE ONE DAY TIME MACHINE, HOW WOULD YOU IMPRESS SOMEONE IN 500AD and of course DO YOU HAVE A RELATIVE OF NOTE? Want to contribute to any of our INCREDIBLE format points? Do let us know at: [e-mail] This is Part One (Part Two will be out tomorrow), but if you want both parts now, why not become an Oh What A Time: FULL TIMER? In exchange for your £4.99 to support the show, you'll get: - the 4th part of every episode and ad-free listening - episodes a week ahead of everyone else - a bonus episode every month - And first dibs on any live show tickets Subscriptions are available via AnotherSlice, Apple and Spotify. For all the links head to: ohwhatatime.com You can follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepod And Instagram at @ohwhatatimepod Aaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice? Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk). And thank you for listening! We’ll see tomorrow for Part Two, BYE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Savings may vary. Eligibility and member terms apply. Looking for a collaborator for your career? A strong ally to support your next level success? You will find it at York University School of Continuing Studies, where we offer career programs purpose-built for you. Visit continue.yorku.ca. Hello and welcome to Oh, What a Time. It's 2024. A whole new year of Oh What A Time is upon us and there's a bit of a change. This podcast is still free for you but what you're about to get

now is part one of this episode on calendars and tomorrow we'll follow part two on calendars and if you want to get everything right now uninterrupted in one complete bit with no ads you can become an oh what a time full timer simply by going to oh what a time.com does that make sense have i explained it well guys it's it doesn't make sense you know what though i don't mind part one and part two because do you want it reminds me of milk tray the twinned tier chocolate experience yes you're like yeah like chocolates, so I'll finish them. Oh, it's fine. There's another tier of chocolates underneath.

That's fine. That's great. But what's this? I could spend a little bit extra month to get milk tray in all one big convenient box. Oh, well, maybe I will do that, actually. What, and I get extra milk tray? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do that.

I'll become a full-time. That does suggest that our part one and part two are exactly the same. If we're taking the milk tray, you'll get through part one, you'll then load up part two tomorrow and go, oh, no, it's the same as yesterday. But it was interesting, so let's go in again. Sorry, bad analogy. It's a milk tray with different chocolates that are just as good.

And there's more chocolates in the second tray if you want to become an all-time full-time but by then it's all in one big tray yeah yeah yeah yeah was there a point in the um design process of the milk tray box where the box was initially unworkably huge and then for maybe like three years and it would take up a third of a shelf in Tesco people could barely get it through the front door and then someone raised their hand in a meeting at is it Cadbury's and go I've got it guys double layer do you think the guy who raised his hand was the milk tray man who couldn't fit the tray of it through a window the first advert which no one remembers the milk

tray man he's broken into this beautiful lady's house he's going to leave a box of milk tray man, he's broken into this beautiful lady's house. He's going to leave a box of milk tray on her bed, but he can't get the milk tray in through the Velux window because the box is too big. So it became a kind of Mr. Bean sort of blunder guy. And then they were like, no one's buying these chocolates. Let's make it a more workable box, a more workable podcast. Yeah. If we're going to follow on with this analogy and then everyone is happy

they threw a very brief period to do a very thin, very tall 8 level box, remember that? really high, like a speaker for a stereo system look, the cylindrical milk tray box we need to start this episode anyway, this is part 1

part 2 will be out tomorrow but you can get the whole thing right now by becoming an Oh What A Time full-timer with a fourth part at OhWhatATime.com.

Would you mind also quickly mentioning the other things people get if they become a full-timer? Very, very buzz through them. Extended episodes, ad-free, an extra episode

every month, pre-sale access, Tony, live show tickets. I mean, it's loads of good stuff. And 150 chocolates sent to your house on the first of every month.

Personally by Tom. And that's in perpetuity. That's forever. Tom will break in your house and deliver chocolates. All right, let's begin the episode. Hello and welcome to Oh What A Time, the history pod where we try to work out if the past was as terrible as it seems. I'm Tom Crane. And I'm Ellis James. I'm Chris Scull. Each week we're dealing with a new historical subject and this week we're talking about calendars.

Coming up on this show, how calendars have evolved over time. The Mayan calendar. Calendar changes following the French Revolution. And our subscribers, the Oh What Time full-timers. You get the fourth part, which is why the UK government stole 11 days from the calendar in 1750. If you want to know the answer to that, become an Oh What Time full-timer. Do not Google it. Do not

take the shortcut in life. You do have that option, but we would prefer you to subscribe. And also, they cover it more comprehensively than we do, which is really annoying. We don't need that. Try to avoid Google for crying out loud. Come on, guys. It's so obvious, Google. How are you

guys? You well? Yeah good Shall we explain What the subscriber option Is very briefly for people It's £4.99 a month You get An extra episode a month You get

Extended episode Each time With an extra bit of history At the end of it You get The episode a week early You also get First dibs

On live tickets When we do live shows And anything else? I think that might be everything. Ah, there we are. I don't know. Our undying love and respect. Oh, there you go.

It's a very good deal for £4.99. A mere £4.99. For the price of a coffee and a half. For one and a half coffees. In my local sort of greasy spoon. Weird way of putting it. Does that help? I can think of a place where coffee is more expensive than that yeah how much

there is a place uh near the bbc not endorsed by the bbc i should add um where the most expensive cup of coffee is eight quid wow so for the price of half a coffee at that place a bit more than half a coffee at that very, very misleadingly expensive, unrepresentatively expensive place. You get all of that stuff for free. Do you remember growing up, there was always, I can't remember who, like Terry Wogan would make jokes about how bad the BBC canteen was in TGC. And then I worked there, and I remember the first time I went into the BBC canteen,

and they were serving burgers. Remember like steamed burgers you would get in school? Yeah. With two halves of a dry bun. That was all that was there. And just to build this scene out even further, the kooks were the only people and me in the canteen. What do you mean?

Do you mean the chefs? Or the band. The band. Okay. And they all went for just the steamed burger, no buns. The canteen in 1984, Winston Church, George Orwell based that on the BBC canteen. You are joking. Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. A few hundred yards away from MBH, you can spend eight quid on a coffee, should you wish. There are cheaper options as well. There's like a four pound coffee. What's the most you've ever8 on a coffee, should you wish. There are cheaper options as well. There's like a £4 coffee. What about you that have spent on a coffee? I once read a review of a coffee. It was in The Guardian.

It was a Grace Dent review of a coffee at a coffee shop in King's Cross, which is about an hour from where I live, on the bike. And the coffee was £16 and it got got its own review and the review was glowing what and I had nothing to do I cycled to Kings Cross I thought I've got I've got to try this was it like one of those sort of fish bowls people drink in Ibiza where you get three straws and you share with a friend how was it 16 quid? Because it was some extremely rare bean. Okay, right. That had been prepared in a very, very rare way.

I got on the bike. I cycled up to King's Cross. I parked the bike. I found the place. I walked in. I said, I'll have a cup of the 60 pound coffee, please. And they said, we've sold out. So I cycled home.

Oh, life. Oh God, I'm desperate to know what this coffee's like. Is it any good? If you Google

Grace Dent Guardian 16 pound coffee, the review will come up. It's probably, it's years ago now.

It was probably five or six years ago. It's probably more than that now. But I remember the shop isn't there and the cafe isn't there anymore.

I can see why. You're just off the street. Because it's not a sustainable business model. They went bust. Yeah. So today's episode, we're talking about calendars. One thing we need to do before we get into that, though, is look at correspondence. Should we do that?

Yes. Let's see what's been sent to us this week by you, our wonderful listeners. Hello, chaps, says Ben. I'm not sure if this counts as a correction for Tom. This email, by the way, is such a slam. There's so many slams in it. I'm not sure if this counts as a correction for Tom,

but his obsession with kissing people in the past. Let's get into that. It's not an obsession. Why are you so obsessed? There seems to be this idea that I'm desperate for a time machine to actually be invented so I can go back and snog the head of medieval Britain. I'm going to get off with Joan of Arc, Elizabeth

the First. All my modern techniques. Turn up with Joan of Arc with a spin the bottle. So what he does is he'll spin it and if it lands on you and me, I'll have a kiss. Introduce French kissing to France. That's what I'm going to do. You're going to love this, guys. This is your thing. So my concern

was that if you went back that far, people weren't brushing their teeth and you're dealing with a lot of wonky rotting. Furry mouths. And furry mouths and old bits of sort of stew stuck between i just my i just worry it's gonna be a bit unpleasant anyway he said tom's obsession with obsession with kissing people in the past and potentially even ellis's cats may have an underlying mistaken belief of dental hygiene okay there are many examples of people in the past

taking good care of their dental hygiene with toothbrushes, pastes and mouthwashes. But more importantly, the scarcity of sugar and even its initial high cost meant that many skulls now show significantly less dental decay than people since the 20th century. Unlike now his second slam, unlike Chris, I did take the time to fact check my own memories. Ben really going for us here. An absolute kicking. Everyone's getting it in the nads. I like that. I like the fact he's decided to hammer us.

Why not? Unlike Chris, I did take the time to fact check my own memories from a school trip and ended up looking at loads of ancient skulls and skeleton pictures. If you haven't got it planned, I would love to hear your take on some of the mad stuff they used to do with skeletons and bones used for decorations and the why. I had planned to send the whole email in Latin or even Old English, but then decided I would save us all the bother. Regards. So there you go. So people in the past... Not much sugar.

They didn't practice the sugar. So their teeth were actually much better. Although they were never cleaning them, I guess. Well, no, actually... You're obsessed! What does this mean for my snogging? What does it mean? I like to kiss!

I'm a very sexual being, regardless of the century. I'd go back with cling film, a roll of cling film, so that if I did ever need to kiss someone in the Middle Evil Britain, I could put a little barrier between us, so we could still enjoy the pressure, but none of the flavour. Oh God, that is the most disgusting thing that's ever been said on this podcast. All the pressure but none of the flavour.

Oh, please. Kissing cling film. That's my advert. Kissing cling film. The Tom Crane kissing tape me. Yeah. You're into it for the pressure, not the taste. That's a product.

There's a product we can sell on this show. Kissing cling film. I've got a question for the audience. Is there anyone from history you'd like to go back and try and snog? Interesting. Who would yours be? Cleopatra is the obvious one, isn't it? Famous beauty.

Marilyn Monroe. Yeah, Marilyn Monroe. I'd say my wife on our wedding day. Oh, pathetic. So there you go. Hope you guys are happy. Well, if you want to try and snog someone from history, maybe even including Tom's wife.

It's a great question. If you go back and snog anyone, one day snog machine, who are you doing? One day snog machine. How are you going to do it? I tell you one thing, I will never forget on Tom's wedding day the way he kissed Claire through that cling film.

In front of everyone. It was horrible. I said, keep the veil down. That's what I said. Keep the veil down. We'll kiss through the veil. You can enjoy all of the pressure, but none of the...

You could take toothpaste back with you and a toothbrush, by the way, in the one-day time machine. You have in your pocket, should that sort of moment occur. Would you mind quickly just having a go on this? Yeah, I mean, you've done your bit, but you're introducing... Although, how's a medieval person going to react to the taste of Colgate?

They're going to blow their mind, isn't it? What the hell is this? The maddest thing you could go back in time with is the mint tea tree oil thing. Oh, yeah, yeah. That would just be like, you're burning. With kids, I don't remember this from when I was young, but my children have gone through the various stages of toothpaste. You know, 0 to 2, 3 to 5, and then big kids,

which is like sort of 6 to 8. My daughter's recently progressed from big kids to sort of normal Colgate. The first she made for the first week. Oh, God! Oh, it's so strong. Oh, God. Is it spicy? It burns. So, yeah, if you were given a medieval person a bit of aqua fresh

before you introduced them to snogging. I would very much be going back with a uniformed colour toothpaste. I would not be bringing aqua fresh. Yeah. I have to sing a song when I clean my kids' teeth. They still make me do it. Keep your teeth clean. It's a Mrs. Tumble one. Make them shine and gleam. You gotta brush them twice

every day. So, it's that. I sing the whole thing. It's two minutes. Please make it rhyme, Mr. Tumble. Come on. Yeah, you know, he's living in a big house. To try and introduce a bit of levity, I have in the past said why don't we enter the clean teeth zone? Oh, nice.

But usually, especially on the school run, I'm quite grumpy. Do it! Do it now! Do it now! Enough's enough! There you go. So who would you snog in the past? You can email us.

Also, get in contact about, you know, any one-day time machine plans, any famous relatives you have in the past, any other things we want people to send in? What would Cleopatra say if you get it off with her? How are you getting off with Cleopatra? What do you do then? I'm a podcaster from Essex. Fancy a bit.

All right, you horrible lot. Here's how you can stay in touch with the show. You can email us at hello at oh, what a time.com. And you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at. Oh, what a time. Now clear off.

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Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca. So on today's show, we are discussing the evolution of the calendar. I will be chatting about calendar changes in revolutionary France. I'm going to be talking about the incredibly complicated Mayan calendar and why people freaked out in 2012. I'll be talking about the evolution of calendars, how we've ended up with 12 months, all the days, the days of the week, all that good stuff. And in a fourth part for subscribers,

I'll be telling you about why the UK government stole 11 days in 1750. If you want to get that extra part, plus an extra part every week, episodes a week early, extended, ad-free, a bonus episode every month, become an Oh What a time full timer you can sign up at oh what a time.com and don't forget you can go on another slice.com you can go on the

apple podcast app and you can sign up via spotify but once again all the links are at oh what a time.com right let's talk about the evolution of our calendars do you ever worry do you ever think about this there has been an evolution in my calendar. Do you have a joint calendar with Izzy? Because we know with Izzy we have a joint calendar, an electronic calendar. And it's very common, I think, to criticise technological advances and say, actually, when you think about it, we were a happier people when we all had blah, blah, blah, and you name the old thing. The electronic calendar is so much better and it has changed my life. Yes.

Because you can't lose it. No. The number one argument I have with my wife is, well, it's not in the joint calendar. Yes. That's where I go wrong as a husband, forgetting to put things in. I often don't check.

I've got... Or not checking. Yeah. I find it easier to look at my Apple calendar than the Google calendar. A bit of Z stuff is only in the Google calendar. So easier to look at my Apple calendar than the Google calendar. A bit of Z stuff is only in the Google calendar. So occasionally I look at mine, see what I'm doing, and I think, well, I'm free. And then realize that actually there was a big thing that I'd forgotten about.

There was, not to name names, but there was a comedian about 10 years ago who used to update his website using his iCal for his gigs, not realising it was also showing everything that he was doing in his week was appearing on his website. And it had all his fees. Before he got paid for everything, when he was having a haircut,

if he was meeting his mum for breakfast, it would all be on there. Like tour dates. And I went on that website every day. I never told him. The other went on that website every day. And never told him. The other thing is I got mugged. It's fine. It's got a happy end to this story.

But it had my, in 2009 when I still had an old paper diary with all my stuff in. So I got mugged in the June, which was probably Edinburgh Festival. So it had everything I'd earned up to that point and obviously every commitment in my life going up to the end of the year and they they took my bag and my calendar was in there and then they dumped the back and i got it back but until i got the diary back because it was um it was just dumped down an alleyway i thought i can't work out what i've earned yep i can't prove to anyone what I've earned. And I don't know what I'm doing for the rest of my life.

With a paper calendar. Yeah, it was an absolute nightmare with a paper diary. Because you were never realistically going to back up a paper diary. Writing everything in twice. Absolutely, yeah. It was just never going to happen. There was a comedy agency agency lovely people actually it doesn't matter i'll mention their name it's fine off the curb who uh yeah look after lots of uh really great the best acts in britain absolutely

and they're very very nice people very good friends now um when i first started doing paid gigs as a stand-up they liked my stuff which was nice and i rang them up it was really nerve-wracking when you're starting out as a stand-up ringing up promoters people who put on lots of gigs it'd be such a stressful thing oh god i was very bad can i put a few gigs in whatever they're very nice and they and um after edinburgh i rung them up and they went yeah let's put some gigs gigs in and they gave me like 30 gigs in one go it was incredible the golden phone call yeah the golden phone call i wrote down all of the gigs bristol bradford london whatever just all these gigs yeah uh i was so excited about it i put the phone down at the end i'd had this phone call i've been scared about for a week

i looked at the diary and i hadn't written down any of the dates. I'd just written down the names of the venues. So I had to... It took me about an hour to get the confidence to ring back and go, Kai, yeah, you know that I do need... I need all of the dates again. Fortify. I now realise how lovely they are, but I was just so nervous about it.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Still have flashbacks to that. It's a problem. But, oh, no. Or couldn't you just ask for the firstbacks to that. It's a problem. But oh no. Or couldn't you just ask for the first... You idiot.

Could you ask for the first date and work out the rest from that? That is terrible. Yeah. Painful. Well, I mean, this just goes to show we need calendars in our lives.

And for humans, for centuries, thousands of years, we've been trying to figure out a way to mark the passage of time. The earliest calendars were based on the observations

of the sun and the moon. And this is interesting because in the most basic form of a calendar the solar cycle um is about a solar year is about 365 days long obviously we can figure that out the lunar cycle is about 28 or a 30 day cycle uh so can i tell you something very briefly about that, which is so lame, which I realized sat on the sofa with Claire this week about the lunar cycle. OK, I she's like, how am I married to you? I didn't realize. I thought when you saw certain amounts of the moon, it was just like because there was like cloud cover. So it didn't relate to any time of the month or anything. It was just like, oh, you can just see that bit of the moon now.

All right. I didn't know what was going on. Incredibly, I'm going to trump that. And this is Izzy, and she probably doesn't want me to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Yeah. Our daughter, when she was about two, pointed up at the moon. It was about two in the afternoon and said,

oh, the moon. And Izzy went, it's not the moon because it's the day. What? What did she think it was? Exactly. It's a meteor and it's heading for Earth. We've got about a minute left to say we love each other. I said, it is the moon.

And she said, it can't be, it's the day. I said said believe me that is the moon and then her friend went I've got to I've got to back Alice up on this that is the moon and she went

and she went yeah she went but I can see the sun as well and I'm like that will work. Not mutually exclusive. And that friend was Tim Peake as well, wasn't it?

That's the absolute brass tacks of your wife. That does happen. So what was her explanation? What had she thought it was? She thought the moon came out at night. Got out of bed. So what did she think the moon was then? I don't know.

That's the fascinating question for me. Is that she, on a regular basis, has seen this massive thing of the sky. She does think it's the moon. She's never stopped to ask what it is in that case. I don't know. She would have been in her late 30s. So she's happily going, I just won't know what that is then in that case. She just goes about her day.

I don't know. It was probably the most chilling half an hour of my life. That is slightly... I think that's worse than my cloud cover. Yeah, it is. And yours is bad. Yeah, mine is bad. But at least you know it's the moon.

Now. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah, I've always known it's the moon. So if you try and figure out the... My dad was a scientist. He was a really clever bloke. Really, probably one of the most clever people I've ever met in my life.

My daughter asked me a question the other day, probably about a year ago, like, why can you sometimes see the moon in the day and then other times you can't? And I'm like, I don't know, beer. Yeah. Like, I should know the answer to that just particularly clear day day yeah i don't actually well when you get the explanation if

you could let us you know that'd be great yeah if you do know the answer that do email us on hello at what a time because i would genuinely like to know so you can try and figure out the kind of the months by looking at the lunar cycle which is 28 to 30 days if you do 12 lunar months you'll end up with 336 days right if you do 13 months, you'll end up with 336 days. Right. If you do 13 lunar months, you'll end up with 364 days. Obviously, a solar year is 365 days long. So calendar designers basically try to follow the months by the moon,

and then it needs to add up ultimately to the solar year. That means they're all calendar designers through history who have been adding leap days, weeks, months, depending on how far apart their calculations were when trying to marry a lunar month to a solar month. Got you. And it got me thinking, like, I often say, oh, this time last year, you know?

Like, I was doing this this time last year or this time two years ago. But when you realise we're just adding bits of time on, that actually it's kind of meaningless, isn't it? This little kind of anecdote I've just told you there about how they come up, the calendar designers figured out what a year was and how to do lunar months. It just shows you that time is an arbitrary thing, isn't it?

There is no such thing as last year. Right, yes. It really paints... Sorry, I'm getting flashbacks of being a student and people smoking weed. Are you saying time doesn't exist? At the risk of turning this into the end of a party 5am about 10 years ago.

I'm in the kitchen. I'm in the kitchen. I'm going to call a cab. I'm going to call a cab, actually. What a great night. Are you saying time doesn't exist? It's just arbitrary, isn't it? I like the idea of this time of year

And this time last year And maybe this time next year But it's all a bit meaningless isn't it? Calendar designers had to think about this stuff And add in extra bits of time There is no last year It is obviously invented isn't it? Also a big job

Sorting out the calendars Once you've done it what do you do then? Because you've done this huge thing you probably can't retire off it unless you're getting money off calendar sales which is very, very doubtful so you're like then fine, I'll go into sales

Well who do you think invented the modern calendar? Who is most credited with having developed the calendar that we all now live by? Jesus Theregorian calendar the romans the romans the romans a lot of the ideas around calendars that we now hold are from uh the romans i'm going to give you what i think is the best fact we've ever had on this podcast to this point okay when i read this it blew my mind you can see the moon and the sun at the same time on a clear day right subscribe to oh what a time the moon is not made of cheese repeat not i've always wondered what the name you know the months of the year they don't really make sense Like December Dec is 10

Like October Although it's the 10th month That Oct is 8 isn't it I never really understood that July in Welsh is Which means end of summer July? Yeah

In August it's just Wales You trying to undercut his fat You trying to get in there early July? Yeah. So I don't know. In August it's just wheels, isn't it? You're trying to undercut his fact with your own fact. You're trying to get in there early. That's actually better than my facts. You're about to hear the second best fact. So at one point the Romans used a ten month calendar. The year would begin, the ten month calendar would begin in March And it would end in December That's a good fact

In January and February They're not documenting this time It doesn't appear on their calendars It's regarded as a kind of unmeasured winter period Right So you just get it Your year begins in March It ends in December

And then you enter this wilderness That time That's incredible for two months right i'd find that really hard to get my head around i think if that calendar was submitted i'd say you need to go away and think a bit harder because it doesn't it feels like you've done you can't quite work it out so you that's not good you can't just go unknown time so you'd end i'd also i think i dread that time every year i'd be like we're now entering when does it end?

We kind of have that wilderness now Between Christmas Day and New Year's I don't know what day of the week it is I've lost the track What day is it? You're so right It should just be this sort of unmarked time From Boxing Day through to about January the 7th

The dead zone The dead zone That was just along the dead zone. The dead zone. It's just a question mark in the calendar. That was just a longer dead zone, wasn't it? January and February was just like that period between Christmas and New Year now. You're just like, I don't know what this is. That's really interesting. That's incredible.

Yeah. That's amazing. It is a very good fact. So now it makes even more sense, okay? Yeah. So in the first decade AD, the calendar of various flaccus, and our historian Daryl's made a bit of a joke here, perhaps a relative of biggest dickus.

One for the dads. In those calendars in the first decade AD, they have the months as we now know them, and they've figured out how to divide that winter period. They've called it January and February. So it's the first decade AD. So when was that? The first decade AD they've worked out yeah the calendar of various flaccus okay they've

gone this this unlabeled period let's slap a couple of months in there yeah and then we've got a nice tight calendar so january the new months of january and february january was named after the month of janice the god of doorways and entrances the beginning nice like that february that's nice oh that, that's interesting. The beginning, opening up. Okay. February is the month of purification. Dry February. Yeah. March, I never really

understand. March, the month of Mars, the god of war. I don't really understand why they've gone for that. April is most likely the month of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Yeah. Kissing month. May, the month of May, the goddess of growth.ite, the goddess of love. Yeah. Kissing month. May, the month of Maya, the goddess of growth. Spring, I guess.

Oh, yeah. In the northern hemisphere. June, the month of Juno, the goddess of marriage. A lot of marriages happen in June. July, the month of Julius. Do you know this? July is named after Julius Caesar. It was originally Quintilis, the fifth month.

Okay. I did not know that. July, Julius. I'll tell you more about that in a second. August, the month of Augustus. That was originally Sextilis, the fifth month. Okay. I did not know that. July, Julius. I'll tell you more about that in a second. August, the month of Augustus. That was originally sextilis, the sixth month. Ah. And now September after septum, that was the seventh month.

Yeah, Daniel Westbrook. Yeah. October after octum, the eighth month. November, novem, the ninth month. December after decem, the tenth month. Very good. September, October, November. Seven, eight, nine, ten.

Nice. And it's because the Romans didn't bother with January, February. How good a fact is that? Will that change your life forever, that fact? That is really interesting. So Dec being the final month in that calendar before the unknown period. Just, it's that I can't get past the dead zone. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A two-month undocumented, unlabeled bit of time when it's, listen, right, it's going to rain a lot, okay? Yeah. So just get on with it. Yeah, two-month purgatory. Cultivate your crops, do whatever it is you need to do, and then I'll see you in March. So someone comes to your house,

and you've got a sign for a package, and they say, what date is it? And you go, I don't know. I can't tell you for two months. You have to come back in two months, and then I can give you a date. Do you still need the photo? So I mentioned there a couple of month renamings.

July was renamed In honour of Julius Caesar by Mark Antony Following Julius Caesar's assassination In 44 BC So July was renamed July used to be Quintilis Renamed it July August

Renamed after the first Emperor Augustus Following a referendum held in Rome in 8 BC. August was formerly called Sextilis, but they renamed the month after a referendum. What a legacy to have. Huge referendum, Matt. That you have a month named after you. That's as big as it gets, isn't it?

The people, you say referendum, people have chosen you and for the rest of time, imagine if it was like january february march april ellis june july skull monday tuesday wednesday tom friday saturday skull yeah and that's massive yeah it's huge absolutely so that calendar cycle lasted for a long time, basically until the fall of the empire.

The next biggest change came under Constantine, the first Christian emperor, who formally installed Sundays as a holiday. And thus, in 321 AD, created a seven-day week akin to our own. Wow. So prior to that, you hadn't had an official holiday.

No, you just had months, like numbers in the month but then we said oh let's break them into sevens yep monday tuesday wednesday and sunday was the day of rest i think that's quite for me i think i'd struggle to live in a world where my calendar didn't have that regular promise of a weekend of a break the idea of that yeah that being such a simple thing to put in like like, obviously, depends what your life situation is, whether you're able to stop working, but the hope of a weekend.

It's quite an important thing for people, isn't it? Yes, of course. Generally, you know, it's the release. And I've had jobs where I have worked at the weekend and I've had a couple of days off in the week. Yeah. And it's not the same. No, absolutely not. No one else is off. So it means that you're on your own for two off in the week yeah and it's not the same no because absolutely

not no one else is off so it means that you're on your own for two days of the week yeah and then you're at work whenever else is enjoying themselves yeah and it's i'm imagining you doing lots of two-person recreations on your own so tennis you're hitting the ball over and it doesn't come back and then you look sad just Just against the fence. Yeah, exactly. Sharing meal for two, which you can't finish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly 50% did it. Leaning in for a kiss under the middle. Yeah.

So you're probably wondering how did the days of the week get their name in the UK. Yes, I was. Consequently, in the rest of the Western world, the English-speaking Western world. So during the Viking Age, from the late 8th to the 11th century, Norse culture had a massive impact in parts of Europe, especially in regions like Scandinavia, the British Isles, and parts of now what is Germany. And Norse gods became integrated into the belief systems and languages within these regions. And when Christianity spread through the areas,

the names of the days of the week, which were derived from Norse mythology, persisted and were adopted into the Christian calendar. Oh, interesting. So the days of the week are massively influenced by Norse culture and language. So Sunday, named after the day of the sun. Yep.

In many cultures, Sunday is associated with the sun, such as English is Sunday, German Sonntag, Spanish Domingo. Monday is after the moon, one for Izzy. Tuesday, after the Norse god Tire or Two. In Old English, the day was Tuesdag, named after the Norse god Tyr, associated with war and the sky. Wednesday, the Norse god Odin Or Woden

Thursday, Norse god Thor Friday, Norse goddess Frigg And Saturday, named after Saturn There you go So that's how we get the calendars The days of the week Thor Very interesting

It doesn't really suit thursday is it yeah thursday the angriest day of the week it's monday no no yeah tuesday oh yeah maybe it is anger is it so maybe monday yeah monday that's what you want absolutely that's fascinating and that uh dead zone is a great fact. That's really, really interesting. And I'm glad we don't have that anymore because I find that deeply unsettling. I generally would.

Yes, me too. I mean, it's still unsettling me. What if your birthday's in the dead zone? And you're able to say, they haven't got no specific dates then. Right, you're just going. Do you not get a birthday party? You're growing up every year,

you'll miss because you're born in the dead zone similar sort of vibe to being born on the 29th of February yeah absolutely having to wait your birthday's around here somewhere yeah alright that's the end of part one of Calendars.

Part two will be out tomorrow, but if you want the whole episode right now extended and ad-free, you can come and know what a time full-timer. For details, head to owhattatime.com, but we'll see you tomorrow for part two.