The year has usually 365 days. It starts on 1st January and ends on 31st December. But the every fourth year has 366 days and we use to call it a "leap year". We can divide a number of the "leap year" by four. The Olympic Games take place in these years.

The year consists of four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter - and twelve months - January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. Each season lasts about three months and is attractive in some way.

The year is also divided into 52 or 53 weeks. Every week consists of seven days. The names of the days are these: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

In our calendars the week starts with Monday. A first name belongs to each day. When there is our name in the calendar, we celebrate a holiday called "jmeniny, svátek”. In calendars of some English speaking countries the week begins with Sunday.

We distinguish the tropical climate belt, the south and north subtropical climate belts, the south and north mild (moderate) climate belts and the arctic belts. There is very hot and damp in the tropical belt all around the year. The mild belts are warm and rainy. The cold arctic belts have very long and severe winters and there are some regions of everlasting snow and ice there.

Our republic is situated in the northern mild climate belt. There are some differences between summer and winter but they are not so big. The average year temperature changes between 0.2° Centigrade (at the top of Sněžka) and 9.5° Centigrade in Hodonín. The warmest regions are the surrounding of Prague, Polabí and the lowlands of southern Moravia. The coldest month is usually January and the warmest one is July, in the mountains also August.

It rains for about 80 days a year in the lowlands and for about 160 days in the mountains. The land is covered with snow for less than 40 days in the lowlands but for even more than 4 months in the mountains. The rainiest months are June and July.

SPRING

Spring begins on the 21st March. Many people consider spring and summer the most beautiful seasons of the year and that is why or that is just because they usually fall in love in spring and take their holiday in summer.

Nature begins to awake from its long winter sleep and new life begins. Nights get shorter and days get longer. There is more sunshine and it becomes warmer and warmer. The thaw sets in, the snow melts and rivers and streams swell and there may be floods in the regions through which the rivers pass.

Soon in gardens and woods the first flowers appear: white snowdrops and snowflakes, yellow marsh marigolds, dandelions and daffodils, blue forget-me-nots, coloured crocuses and tulips, purple violets, and catkins and chestnuts come into blossom. Birds such as swallows, starlings, cuckoos come back from the south and we can hear their singing again.

The weather in spring, especially in April is really unpredictable and changeable. The temperatures are often below zero at night although days may be quite warm. Sometimes the sun shines, the sky is cloudless and soon after it is overcast and icy winds begin blowing. It looks like rain and after a while it sleets (it’s raining cats and dogs), pours with rain or it may even snow. A few minutes later it is hailing. It lasts only a short while and it clears up again. One cannot go out without a raincoat and a thick sweater, boots, a cap or even gloves. Those who forget their umbrellas at home will get wet through. But when it clears up, the air is fresh and people go for walks and enjoy the good weather.

SUMMER

June 21st is the date when summer begins. It is the warmest season of the year. The days are longer and the nights shorter than in winter.

Schoolchildren love this season best because they have two months' holidays ahead. Everybody starts to be more interested in the weather because people set out on journeys and take holidays. They can go to the seaside to spend their holidays. Some of them like staying in a tent and others are fond of going to their cottages in the country.

 The temperature rises to 25° C or more and we may have many fine days in a row. In the morning there is often dew, the sky is clear and bright, it is sunny and calm, no wind blows and sometimes we suffer from a heat wave which means that the weather is sultry, hot and dry and even the water is too warm to bring refreshment to swimmers. If it stays fine too long, it becomes unbearable and we wish the rain would come. When the drought lasts too long the land becomes arid and both people and nature long for rain.

In summer rain often comes in the form of a storm. All of a sudden the sky clouds over, it gets dark and cools down, a breeze changes into a strong wind and the storm is about to break. Then there is a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning and a heavy downpour. People who happen to be outside seek shelter from the rain but still often they get wet to the skin. It is dangerous to stand under a tree during a storm because the lightning might hit it. Occasionally a windstorm can rise and it starts hailing or there is a cloudburst. The summer rain is usually heavy but short. After the storm dies down a rainbow may appear in the sky and you can see pools of water and puddles everywhere. Summer is also the time for strawberries, bilberries, raspberries, blackberries and cranberries and the harvest of corn.

AUTUMN (FALL)

At the beginning of September when the school year begins, summer in reality is over and on the 23rd September autumn comes. In autumn the sun sets earlier and rises later and days get shorter. The nice weather breaks although we can still enjoy a few fine days of Indian summer. In the gardens it is the time of harvest, we pick up apples, pears and plums as well as gather potatoes and sugar beet. Grass turns yellow and gets dry. Autumn is a season full of colours. We are delighted with the colours of leafy trees in the woods. The leaves of maples, birches, ashes, beeches, oaks and larches become tinted yellow, orange, brown and red and make a lovely contrast with evergreen conifers (firs, pines, spruces). Many people go mushrooming and children enjoy flying the kites.

This colourful period does not last long because soon the trees shed their leaves and by November they will be bare. Birds flock together and set out on the journey to the south. In autumn the weather is unsettled, the sky is often cloudy, mornings are dull and it looks like rain. It usually does not clear up by day. It is often misty all day long. As the temperature continues to drop, it becomes damp, chilly, wet and rainy and it may drizzle. Sometimes it rains on and off for a long time, or it rains steadily. People refer to the weather as awful, wretched or nasty.

The first frosts come and in the morning there may be hoarfrost on the grass and haze or fog, and a cold wind blows from the north. In the highlands the velocity of wind is usually higher and a strong wind or a windstorm may cause devastation. No wonder that in such weather one may get cold easily and catch a cold or flu.

WINTER

According to the calendar, winter comes on December 21st, but in fact it often begins earlier. Typical winter weather brings snowfall, icy wind and hard frosts. We can enjoy skiing in the mountains and hills covered with a thick layer of snow and we admire the winter landscape. Sometimes the wind piles up snowdrifts along the roads and snowploughs must be used to clear the snow and make the blocked roads passable again. Children enjoy their winter pleasures, such as throwing snowballs, building snowmen, sledding, sliding and skating on lakes and streams that are frozen. The temperature sometimes drops to as low as some 20°C below zero and then the frost binds the ground, the snow crunches underfoot, the hands get numb and stiff and fingers tingle with cold. If people go out without caps and mittens or gloves, they can suffer from frostbite. The roads become icy and slippery and it makes driving hazardous because you can skid easily. It often snows but it is pleasant to watch snowflakes from a cosy warm room and icicles that hang from the roof.

In such a severe and long winter gardeners often become worried about their fruit trees and gamekeepers about the game which may freeze to death and that is why they have to feed the animals.

Fortunately winters like that are rare in the temperate zone. As the climate gets warmer, we miss a real winter more and more. But no matter what kind of winter it is, finally the frost lets up and the thaw sets in, the snow melts and paths are full of mud and slush. Spring comes earlier to the lowland while in the highlands snow-capped hills and mountains look beautiful till April.

JANUARY

The ancient civilisations had already used their own ways of measuring and counting the time. In ancient Greece the year had only 304 days which were divided into 10 months.

The Romans had taken over the Greek calendar but soon some changes were made. January and February - the eleventh and twelfth months of the year were added in about 7000 BC. Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, ordered to make some changes in it. In the Julian calendar, January was made the first and February the second month of the year.

Nowadays the first month January is the gateway to the New Year, and takes its name from a two-headed Roman god Janus. It is said that he was guarding doors and gates and that one head of his was looking towards the past and the other one to the future.

FEBRUARY

Until Julius Caesar’s time, February had thirty days. Julius Caesar took one day to add it to July, the month that was named after him. Then Augustus took another one to add to August, the month named after him, leaving February with only twenty-eight days.

February has, however, an extra day every four years - every Leap Year - to keep the calendar exactly in time with the seasons.

The name "February" comes from the Latin Februarius, meaning "to purify". The ancient Romans held a festival of purification to prepare for the coming year, and the name stuck to the month even after in was moved from the twelfth to the second in the calendar.

MARCH

It is probably fitting that March, with its wild winds and sudden squalls of rain, should be named after a god of war. Mars was the Roman god of war, always shown as a fierce, in armour and helmet and carrying a spear and a shield. He was more than a war god: he was also a god of farming, and prayers were said to him when fields were made ready for sowing.

March is the month of Mars because it marks the beginning of the season when war and farming, two of the most important activities in a Roman’s life, could start again.

APRIL

There are some doubts about the precise meaning of "April". The Romans held the month sacred to Venus, goddess of love, and some people think that "April" comes from her Greek name Aphrodite.

It seems more likely that the name comes from the Latin word aperire, which means "to open". The thought of April as the opener of the year is a very apt one, for it is in April - after the wind and rain of March - that the year really starts to open - with the weather turned soft and gentle and all the leaves and early blossom unfolding on the trees.

MAY

It was the goddess Maia who gave her name to the month of May. She was a very famous goddess having a famous father Atlas, who was supposed to carry the world on his shoulders.

In medieval times, May 1st was celebrated in England by crowning a May-Queen and dancing round a Maypole.

JUNE

Some people think that June was named after an old Roman family called Junius, but it is more probable that it has got its name after the goddess Juno who was the wife of Jupiter. She was the queen of heaven, who rode about in a chariot drawn by peacocks. In ancient Rome, a festival was celebrated in her honour at the beginning of the month.

People connect June with the beginning of summer and warm weather.

JULY

Julius Caesar, the great Roman political leader and dictator, gave his name to July. He re-arranged the Roman calendar. This gave him a problem with the name of the seventh month. In the old calendar it had been the fifth month, and this was the meaning of its name Quintilis. Julius realised that it would be silly to have the seventh month with a name like "The Fifth", so he decided to call it after himself.

July is connected with warm weather and the start of the long school holidays.

AUGUST

The Romans used to call August Sextilis, the sixth month. But when Julius Caesar reformed the calendar the name no longer suited it. Finally the Romans changed it to August to honour and flatter their Emperor Augustus, who was the grandnephew of Julius Caesar. Both July and August have 31 days which is especially appreciated by all the school children enjoying their summer holidays.

SEPTEMBER

In the Roman calendar September was the seventh month of the old calendar, and when it became the ninth month the Romans did not bother to rename it. Its name comes from SEPTEM, meaning seven in Latin.

In Britain and in the USA September is the end of the summer and the beginning of autumn, when the days are getting shorter. It is the time when the crops are gathered = harvest time. After the long summer holiday the British and American children start going to school again.

OCTOBER

October, like September, bears its old name that is two month out of date as well. It means "the eighth month", although it is the tenth month. The Anglo-Saxons used to call it the Yellow Month.

NOVEMBER

November, the eleventh month in our calendar, means "ninth month" - it is another name from the old calendar that has not been changed, although its place in the year has been moved.

The Anglo-Saxons called November Blotmonath, or "Blood Month" as it was the time when they killed off the animals they could not feed during the winter.

DECEMBER

December means "tenth month" after the old calendar, although it is the twelfth in fact.