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Latin: October. From the word octo, eight (it was the 8th month in the old Roman calendar).
Some months are 30 days long, some are 31, and February is 28, or 29 on leap year. October has 31 days but at one time, the number of days was less than 31 but the number still ended with a 1. When?
October.
This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.
• Samuel Clemens
The Mark Twain effect is the phenomenon of stock returns in October being lower than in other months (supposedly caused by this quote).
There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October. • Nathaniel Hawthorne
A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
Blackbirds and the Sun of October Summery
On the hill's shoulder.
• Poem in October - Dylan Thomas
Perhaps the most famous icon of the holiday is the jack-o-lantern.
Various authorities attribute it to either Scottish or Irish origin.
However, it seems clear that it was used as a lantern by people
who traveled the road this night, the scary face to frighten away
spirits or faeries who might otherwise lead one astray. Set on
porches and in windows, they cast the same spell of protection
over the household (the American pumpkin seems to have
forever superseded the European gourd as the jack-o-lantern
of choice). Bobbing for apples may well represent the remnants
of a Pagan 'baptism' rite called a seining, according to some
writers. The water-filled tub is a latter-day Cauldron of Regeneration,
into which the novice's head is immersed. The fact that the
participant in this folk game was usually blindfolded with hands
tied behind the back also puts one in mind of a traditional
Craft initiation ceremony.
• All Hallow's Eve, Mike Nichols
October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter. • Nova Bair
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
• Robert Frost, October
Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause
between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
• Carol Bishop Hipps
The harvest moon hangs round and high
It dodges clouds high in the sky,
The stars wink down their love and mirth
The Autumn season is giving birth.
Oh, it must be October
The leaves of red bright gold and brown,
To Mother Earth come tumbling down,
The breezy nights the ghostly sights,
The eerie spooky far off sounds
Are signs that it's October.
The pumpkins yellow, big and round
Are carried by costumed clumsy clowns
It's Halloween - let's celebrate.
• Pearl N. Sorrels, It Must be October
October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
• George Cooper, October's Party
I see that old hammock out back,
Swaying lightly in the wind
That Autumn oft expels in October,
Waiting for me to come and dream,
But the bulbs that fill my tired Hands,
leaving trails of rusty earth
Must first be laid to rest,
I must tend to their needs first.
• B. R. Jording, Fall Planting
To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it is necessary
that you be breathing the sharp October or November air. What is sour in the
house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labeled,
“To be eaten in the wind.” It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild
fruit. . . The era of the Wild Apple will soon be past. It is a fruit which will
probably become extinct in New England. I fear that he who walks over these
fields a century hence will not know the pleasure of knocking off wild apples.
Ah, poor soul, there are many pleasures which you will not know! . . . the end
of it all will be that we shall be compelled to look for our apples in a barrel.*
• Henry David Thoreau
When clear October suns unfold
mallee tips of red and gold
children on their way to school
discover tadpoles in a pool,
iceplants sheathed in beaded glass
spider orchids and shivery grass,
webs with globes of dew alight
budgerigars on their first flight,
tottery lambs and a stilty foal
a papers slough that a snake shed whole,
and a bronzewing's nest of twigs so few
that both the sky and the eggs show through.
• Flexmore Hudson, Mallee in October
Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush
• Van Morrison, Moondance
... October has 31 days but at one time, the number of days was less than 31 but the number still ended with a 1. When? In 1582, October had only 21 days, ... but not in all countries. Based on the computations of Aloysius Lilius, a physician from Naples, via Calabria (some modifications were made by the commission that studied his work, made mostly by Christopher Clavius), it was determined that the calendar year was off from the solar year. This was a flaw in the Julian calendar. To get back on track, Pope Gregory XIII (after whom the Gregorian Calendar is named) decreed that 10 days had to be jumped over. Therefore, the decree was that Thursday, October 4th would be followed by Friday the 15th. For this one year, October had 21 days, but only in those countries that switched in 1582 (most Catholic countries). Consider that in 1582, the American Colonies did not exist as we think of it today, except for the Spanish in Florida. Spanish outposts did switch near the same time, as they got word from Spain. Eventually, (what became) the American Colonies switched in September 1752 but by then 11 days had to be dropped out. It is not clear exactly when Florida switched, but most likely it was still sometime in 1582. Imagine what it would have been like just before the American Colonies switch in 1752. There were two calendars in effect, with 11 days difference in dates. Thank goodness it was straightened out by 1763 when Florida became part of the United States. Some other countries held out until years later. Some waited so long that by then, they had to jump over even more than 11 days. Since the changes took place in different months for different countries, several months have at one time had a different number of days, just depending on where in the world you consider your point of reference. Learn more: Calendar Adoption
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