| December | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | ||||
March: Mars - Roman god of war.
In the Roman calendar, March was the start of the new year, and was named Martius. The calendar was for productive months initially so the non-productive period (or colder months) were not counted. When it was decided to document the non-productive period, it added two months, and naturally were added at the end of the year following December, thus January and February were added before March. In the 18th Century when the new year start was shifted to January 1st, March was no longer considered the start of a new year. Once a glorious start, it is now the third month. The shift also caused the names of the last four months of our year to be misleading, i.e., December (Dec for 10) was no longer the 10th month. Some of the U.S. presidents were born before the switch to starting the new year on January 1st. Therefore, the year of their birth would be minus one if in January, February, or before March 25.
January • February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November • December
January • February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November • December