Latin for 'tenth month' — a name meaning 'ten' that has closed the year as month twelve for two millennia.
The twelfth and final month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian calendars, consisting of 31 days.
From Latin 'December,' derived from 'decem' (ten), because it was the tenth and final month in the original Roman calendar beginning in March. It is the last of the four 'wrong number' months. The emperor Commodus renamed it 'Amazonius,' but as with all his month-renamings, the original name
December's Saturnalia festival (December 17–23) featured gift-giving, candle-lighting, banqueting, and masters serving their slaves — customs so deeply embedded in Roman culture that early Christians adopted many of them when establishing Christmas celebrations, making the modern holiday season partly a continuation of a pagan Roman party.