Calendar
The Kalends ( Latin Kalendae ) were the first day of a month in the Roman calendar .
etymology
Etymologically , “Kalendae” is derived from the proclamation ritual (“kalo”) in connection with the goddess Iuno Covella . Grammatically, they only occur in the plural (are a plural tantum ) and are one of the very few Latin words that were traditionally spelled with a K. From them the German word " calendar " is derived (from Latin calendarium "directory of calendae").
In most daughter languages of Latin, the term is Kalendae disappeared in its original meaning, in contrast, has received in isolated regions (eg. As in some Italian dialects and in Romansh customs name Chalandamarz ).
meaning
The first day of the month in the Roman calendar also meant payday. Based on this, the Kaland Brotherhoods were founded in the Middle Ages . The calendar was one of the four fixed holidays that every month of the Roman calendar had , along with the nuns , ides and terminalies . These four holidays originally referred to the lunar quarters (calendars: new moon , ides: full moon , nones and terminalies: waxing or waning crescent ).
Instructions for use
Romans called the first day of each month the "calendars", which heralded the beginning of a new phase of the moon . On that day the pontifices in Calabra Curia announced the number of days until the next month; in addition, debtors had to pay their debts that day. These debts were entered in the kalendaria , a kind of account book.
Modern calendars count the number of days after the first day of each month; In contrast, the Roman calendar measured the number of days until certain future dates (for example the calendars, the nones or the ides).
To calculate the day to the next month's calendars, it is necessary to find the remaining days in the current month and add two to them. For example, April 22nd is the 10th day on the May calendars because there are 8 days left in April.
Use in idioms
"On the Greek calendars" is synonymous with "on the never-sinking day " and is a literal translation of the Latin saying " ad Kalendas graecas ". The Greek calendar had no calendae , which means "never". This expression is hardly known in German today, while the Italian equivalent “alle calende greche” is still in use in Italy.
literature
- Jörg Rüpke : Time and Feast: A Cultural History of the Calendar . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54218-2 , p. 19.
- Jörg Rüpke: Calendar and Public: The History of Representation and Religious Qualification of Time in Rome . de Gruyter, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-11-014514-6 , pp. 200 and 211.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ For example in Ticino ; see Vocabolario dei dialetti della Svizzera italiana , Volume III, pp. 232 ff., Lemma Calend .
- ↑ Calends , Chambers' Cyclopaedia (1728), Vol. 1, p. 143
- ^ For example Suetonius : Augustus 87.
- ↑ calende - English translation in German - Langenscheidt dictionary Italian-German. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .