April is the fourth
month of
the year in the
Julian and
Gregorian calendars, and one of four months with a length of 30
days.
April (
i/ˈeɪprəl/
AY-prəl)
is commonly associated with the season of
spring in the
Northern hemisphere and
autumn
in the
Southern hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to
October
in the
Northern hemisphere and vice versa.
April starts on the same day of the week as July in all years, and
January in leap years. April ends on the same day of the week as
December every year.
Name and origin
The derivation of the
Latin
name
Aprilis is uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb
aperire, "to open," in allusion to its being the season when
trees and flowers begin to "open," which is supported by comparison with
the modern Greek use of ἁνοιξις (anoixis) (opening) for spring. Since
some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April
was sacred to the goddess
Venus, her
Veneralia being held on the first day, it has been suggested that
Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent
Greek goddess name
Aphrodite (Aphros), or from the
Etruscan name Apru.
Jacob Grimm suggests the name of a hypothetical god or hero, Aper
or Aprus.[1]
April was the second month of the earliest
Roman calendar, before
Ianuarius and
Februarius were added by King
Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. It became the fourth month of the
calendar year (the year when twelve months are displayed in order)
during the time of the
decemvirs about 450 BC, when it also was given 29 days. The 30th day
was added during the reform of the calendar undertaken by
Julius Caesar in the mid-40s BC, which produced the Julian calendar.
The
Anglo-Saxons called April Oster-monath or Eostur-monath.
The
Venerable Bede says in
The Reckoning of Time that this month Eostur is the root
of the word
Easter. He further states that the month was named after a goddess
Eostre whose feast was in that month.
St George's day is the twenty-third of the month; and
St Mark's Eve, with its superstition that the ghosts of those who
are doomed to die within the year will be seen to pass into the church,
falls on the twenty-fourth. In
China the symbolic ploughing of the earth by the emperor and princes
of the blood took place in their third month, which frequently
corresponds to April[citation
needed]. The Finns called (and still call) this
month huhtikuu, or 'Burnwood Month', when the wood for beat and
burn clearing of farmland was felled.
In
Slovene, the most established traditional name is mali traven,
meaning the month when plants start growing. It was first written in
1466 in the
Škofja Loka manuscript.[3]
The
Turkish word Mart is given after the name of
Mars
the god.
Symbols of the
month
The
birthstone of April is the
diamond, and the
birth flower is typically listed as either the
Daisy (Bellis perennis) or the
Sweet Pea.[4][5]
Zodiac signs for the month are
Aries (until April 19) and
Taurus (April 21 onwards).
Holidays and
events
The "Days of April" (journées d'avril) is a name appropriated
in French history to a
series of insurrections at Lyons, Paris and elsewhere, against the
government of
Louis Philippe in 1834, which led to violent repressive measures,
and to a famous trial known as the procès d'avril.
See also