As might be readily apparent, we are killing time here before flying back home tomorrow. Yesterday we walked in the wine country on the north shore of Lake Geneva near the town of St. Saphorin. This part of Switzerland is low in elevation (about 1,200 feet) and so supports vineyards and wineries.
I noticed that the official growing season begins after September harvest with pruning and removal of older vines, and that it is traditionally on the feast of St. Martin of Tours, which falls on 11/11, or if the much older calendar is used, 9/11. (“Nova” is nine, so that “making a novena” is attendance at nine masses in a row, as all current and fallen-away Catholics know, including those of us who never did one).
The insertion of January and February caused the last ten months to be pushed back two months (so that the last four, Septa, Octa, Nona and Deca, 7, 8, 9 and 10, became 9, 10, 11 and 12 .) Quintilus (fifth month) and Sextillus (sixth month) were renamed July and August, but this did not cause the two-month pushback.
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