Day of Kalends: The Kalends were always the first day of the moon. It was the longest selection, it lasted longer than the Nones and Ides combined. The day of Kalends itself began a new moon. Day of Nones: Nones were usually the fifth but sometimes the seventh day of the month. Nones was originally the day when moon reached its first quarter phase. When the pontifex saw the lunar crescent he noted itd width and calculated the number of days that were expected to elapse between them and the first quarter moon. If it was number six, they day following Kalends would be reffered to a the sixth day before Nones. (3) Use of the word Nones(nine) was intended to express the inclusive number of elapsed days between first quarter and full moons. (4)
Day of Ides: Ides were the 15th but sometimes 13th day of the month. Ides, dedicated to Jupiter, was originally the time of the full moon comes halfway through each lunation, its day was called Idus in Latin from an Etruscan word meanind divide. (5) After Ides the next new moon was expected to appear in from 15 to 17 days. Romans separated their months form the lunar cycle in the fifht century BCE. Month lenghts then became fixed. Later, Romans used letters A to H on the left side of each monthś calendar column to indicate days of their eight-day marketing week. The first day of each new year was represented by the letter A. Much of the knowledge we have about Roman calendars came from Ovis, a Roman born in 43 BC and from a Greek biographer named Plutarch, who wrote between AD 405 and 115. Their historical documents no longer exists. March ( the first moon) – Martius – was named after Mars, The Roman god of war a Ovid and Plutarch write in their work. Six of the other original ten were simply numbered a Quintilis through Decembris ( 5th through 10th ). There are disagreements up to the present time about the origin of the name Aprilis, Maius and Juniius. April – Ovid claimed that April was sacred to Aphrodite, a Greek name for Venus. Others say it came from the name of a god or hero named Aper or Aprus. May- Maius- was named either afther goddes Maia – a daughter of Atlas and Junius- after the goddes Juno or they refer not to these sky gods but to elders and young men. January- Januarius ( at the end of the year), was named after Janus – which could be a sky god or a planet. Early Romans believed that the beginning of each day, month and year were secred to Janus.