why is october the tenth month in a calendar year and not the eight?

Answer 1

Julius and Augustus Caesar both had months named in their honors: July and August. Each of their months were also extended by a day, and the days were taken from February. Previously to that, September was the seventh month, October was the eighth month, November was the ninth month, and December was the tenth month; sept, oct, nove, deci.

Answer 2

October is not the eighth month because the ancient Romans inserted two months in the middle of the year to correct the calendar. This is what is now known as the Julian calendar. Because July for Julius Caesar and August for Augustus Caesar were added between June and September. Sept from 7th, Oct from 8th, Nov from 9th and Dec from 10th each got moved forward two places. Take note that out of all calendar corrections, the weekly cycle has never changed, which is why the seventh day of the week from sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday is still regarded as the Bible Sabbath and has been kept by the Jews since ancient times up to today

Answer 3

Before the last great human civilization was destroyed (meteor, earthquake, flood, fire, volcano, greed, take your pick or all of the above), October was the 8th month of the year. This devastation occurred on a Friday, September 13th

always, whenever most of a civilized species has been destroyed, most knowledge was lost. By the end of the 10th month (this ancient civilization had been based on 10s) very little was remembered, since the few human remnants of civilization were mostly preoccupied with fear and survival. What comes after 10? Nobody remembered, so they started the new month of the year naming each after their gods.

An alternate view is that long ago, the earth rotated faster as well as taking only 10 months to complete one orbit around the sun. This also explains why there are stories (even in the Bible) of men living much longer in ancient times.

BTW, October is not derived from Italian or Spanish but from Latin.

Answer 4

*This calls for a complicated answer. See the Link Below for the rest of the information*

October From the word octo, eight, because it was the 8th month in the old Roman calendar.

History of our calendar

Before today's Gegorian calendar was adopted, the older Julian calendar was used. It was admirably close to the actual length of the year, as it turns out, but the Julian calendar was not so perfect that it didn't slowly shift off track over the following centuries. But, hundreds of years later, monks were the only ones with any free time for scholarly pursuits -- and they were discouraged from thinking about the matter of "secular time" for any reason beyond figuring out when to observe Easter. In the Middle Ages, the study of the measure of time was first viewed as prying too deeply into God's own affairs -- and later thought of as a lowly, mechanical study, unworthy of serious contemplation.

As a result, it wasn't until 1582, by which time Caesar's calendar had drifted a full 10 days off course, that Pope Gregory finally reformed the Julian calendar. Ironically, by the time the Catholic church buckled under the weight of the scientific reasoning that pointed out the error, it had lost much of its power to implement the fix. Protestant tract writers responded to Gregory's calendar by calling him the "Roman Antichrist" and claiming that its real purpose was to keep true Christians from worshiping on the correct days. The "new" calendar, as we know it today, was not adopted uniformly across Europe until well into the 18th century.

Answer 5

Well it wasn't named after "Octavius", it was the "Eighth Month" in the Roman 10 month system. Hence, "November" and "December" (Ninth and Tenth months respectively). This system was seen not to work, critical fall/winter holidays being celebrated in the summer, and an interstice period was inserted between December and January (Named after Janus BTW).
Pope Gregory standardized the calendar in twelve months, which more closely correlated with the year. It's not perfect, as we have to reduce the number of days in one month, and add one day every four years.

Answer 6

Apparently because it was the eighth month in the Roman calendar until winter (and some more months) were added in. See this website for more info: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/sep99/936708109.Ot.r.html

Answer 7

from calender-orgins.com
"October - from Latin October, eighth month in the early Roman calendar"

Tricky!

Answer 8

The name of the month "October" comes from a roman emperor's name; Octavius!

Answer 9

R U serious? Probably because there are 9 months before it. I don't know though, I'm not that bright. I could be wrong.

OK, from some of the answers here, I see there is something I don't know. I guess I really am not that bright after all, I was being sarcastic before, if you didn't already know. At least I learned something today. Thanks.

Answer 10

.. and why is November the 11th, not the ninth?

Count in Italian / Spanish and line the numbers up with the months for those who don't get the question...

Otto, Nove, Dieci