• This Month derives its Name From the Latin Februo to purify; on account of the expiatory Sa crifices which the Romans used to offer this Month for the purifying the people. This was antiently the ath Month of the Year. + Is lo called from MAR'S the God of War, who was worshipped by the ROMANS ON the first Day of this Month. With THEM it was the first Month in the Year. The reason of its being dedicated to him feems to have been because Romulus founder of the Roman State fupposed himself to be the Son of Mars. ‡ It is supposed to have been fo called from the Latin Word Aperio to ofen: because then the Pores of the Earth begin to open. Forth fly the tepid Airs; and unconfin'd, Put forth their Buds, unfolding by degrees, Unbinding Earth, the moving softness flrays. Till the whole leafy Forest stands display'd The Hawthorn whitens; and the juicy Groves In full Luxureance, THOMSON. + This Month is faid to have derived its name from Maia, the Mother of Mercury, who was styled Bona Dea, or the Beneficient Goddess: and to whom the first Day of this Month was held facred. D The numbers prefix'd in the first Column of the two foregoing Months to the several Days, between the Twenty-frit Day of March, and the Eighteenth Day of April, both inclufive denote the Days upon which those Full Moons do fall, which happen upon or next after the Twenty-first 27 28 Mark 1. 0.9 13 Efther 2 4 -1 :1 Day of March in those Years, of which they are respectively the Golden Numbers; and the Sunday Letter next following any fuch Full Moon points out Easter-Day for that Year. All which holds until the Year of our Lord 1899 inclusive; after which Year, the Places of these Golden Numbers will be to be changed. Some imagine this Month is so called from the Goddess Juno, others, from Junius Brutus, who expelled the Tyrant Tarquin from Rome; and was the first Conful and Affertor of Roman Liberty. |