In most countries they were, until Pope Gregory the 13th ordered the Christian year begins on January 1st. He's best known for removing the leap-year day introduced by Julius Caesar: Because Caesar included too many. It took a few hundred years for every country to adopt the Gregorian calendar.
It had always been twelve months, throwing the numbering off by two wasn't from renaming July and later August but rather Julius moved the start of the year from March to January at the same time.
Always good for a laugh - There’s a Steven Saylor novel where a guy tries to murder Caesar specifically because he changed the calendar and the author actually did a good job selling that as a motive
Part of my wife's and my personal language is that we talk about all days like that. "You see the dentist on Thor's Day." "THIS Thor's day? It's already Woden's Day."
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(Yeah, _I, Claudius_ mark here, for both the Robert Graves novel and the fabulous BBC miniseries)
It's called collaborative art, you should try it.
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus
Thank you for that laugh!
😊💙
(And a public holiday in Wales, please.)