In latin 'Octo' means eight. October is therefore the eighth month. As October is the tenth month in our calendar this seems rather strange. The answer lies in the changes made to our calendar since the months were given their names. In fact October was initially the eighth month in the Roman calendar. This was a lunar calendar starting at the Vernal equinox and spanning 304 days divided into ten months of 30 or 31 days in length. 61 winter days were not assigned a month until around 713 BC when January and February were added and the length of the months altered to 29 days. February was assigned only 28 days. Now the year had 355 days. To help the calendar years match up to solar years a leap month was declared and added occasionally, usually every other year. This complex system was only formally superseded with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. This system of 12 months, 365 dyas a year and a regular 366 day leap year to match up solar activity is now used almost worldwide.
