Perspective - Kanniks

To celebrate or not to celebrate?

Happy Vishu! i.e. Happy Malayala new year!!

It was Yugadi - the Indian new year per the lunar calendar last week.

The Bengali and the Punjabi new year are also around this time of the year.

I am excluding Tamil New year from this list because, it has been officially moved to January - i.e. the day of  Pongal or Makara Sankranti - by the current government in Tamilnadu.

This movement is a historic event.

It parallels what was done by the Romans many years ago.

Have you ever wondered about the prefixes of the month names from September until December?

Septa, Octa, Nava and Dece?

Dont they sound familiar?

Yes, they mean seven, eight, nine and ten.

But they represent the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th months of the year.

Why?

Let us look at the history of human calendars.

Human beings have always attempted to organzie time based on the seasons.

The commencement of spring is the most logical point in time to commence a new year. Once can see this reflected in almost all of the New Year celebrations in various parts of India. When I say spring, I am referring to the spring equinox - i.e. around March 22 when the day and the night are of equal length.

The Romans were no exception either.

When the Roman Empire grew, they attempted to establish their stamp on the regions that they ruled over and they imposed their calendar - for political reasons. The Romans moved the new year from March to January in the year 153 BCE. Julius Ceasar is associated with major calendar reforms in the year 45 BCE.

With the first two months of the year now being January and February, December was forced to become the 12th month of the year. Later on two of the months got named after the powerful monarchs Julius Ceasar and Augustus Ceasar.

In the case of Tamilnadu, Margazhi now becomes the 12th month of the year. Will our months get renamed? Only time will tell.