December by Poppy Flynn December is the twelfth, and final, month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. It gets its name from the Latin word ‘decem’ meaning ten, which dates back to the Calendar of Romulus circa 750 BC where it was originally the tenth month of the year in a calendar which began in March. Interestingly, the winter period which followed December wasn’t actually included as part of any month. There was simply a nameless period which later became January and February, although the Anglo-Saxons did used to refer to December and January as Ġēolamonaþ which in modern English roughly translates to the Yule month. December contains the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere with December 21st (or 22nd) being the day with the fewest daylight hours and the beginning of the astronomical winter. At the same time, the Southern Hemisphere celebrates the summer solstice, the day with the most daylight hours.
There are now 195 countries in the world and over 160 of them celebrate Christmas, which is what December is most associated with. A few countries refer to the holiday as Family Day, including Angola and Uruguay, while others, like Jordan and Pakistan, designate December 25th as an official holiday only for Christians.
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