What you see is a marigold from our garden, graphically elaborated like in a kaleidoscope. Marigold is the diminutive of "calendae," which for the Romans was equivalent to the first day of each month and was sacred to Juno, the goddess of the new moon.
The word likely has the same origin as the Latin "calare" (in ancient Greek καλέω), meaning "to call." According to Macrobius, the calends were very important days because the pontiffs would gather at a sacred enclosure on the Capitoline Hill and, after observing the appearance of the new moon, would call the whole population to assembly (the comitia calata).
At that point, a solemn ceremony would begin where the dates of holidays and celebrations were announced, but also—unfortunately—the list of sums that debtors were required to pay, with interest accruing precisely on the first of each month. These accounting records were called calendaria, a true scarecrow for defaulters...
