January, February, March – these names are Roman, and late arrivals at that. Only between the 16th and 18th centuries did they finally win out here. Before that, the months bore Germanic, moon-bound names: Yule-month, Hornung, Wonnemond, Harvest-month. They tell not of emperors but of weather, work and feast. A look at the old names – and why “month” is even called after the “moon”.
The link sits in the word itself: in all Germanic languages “month” is a direct derivation of “moon”. That is no accident. Our ancestors reckoned time by the moon, not by the sun alone. A month was what the moon set – from one crescent to the next.
“They do not reckon by the number of days, as we do, but by nights.” after Tacitus, Germania 11 (public-domain translation tradition)
The Roman historian Tacitus already noted this peculiarity: the Germanic peoples measured time in nights, not days. Traces live on today in words like the German “Weihnachten” or the English “fortnight” (fourteen nights).
The transmitted and reconstructed month names are little reports of weather and work. One common German series runs roughly: Hartung or Eismond (January), Hornung (February), Lenzing (March), Ostermond (April), Wonnemond (May), Brachmond (June), Heumond (July), Erntemond or Ährenmond (August), Herbstmond (September), Gilbhart or Weinmond (October), Nebelung or Windmond (November), Julmond or Christmond (December).
“Hornung” meant the February in which some animals shed their first antler (horn); “Brachmond” the time when the field lay fallow; “Gilbhart” the yellowing of the leaves. These are not empty labels but lived observation.
Two sources make the old names tangible. The Anglo-Saxon scholar Bede around 725 described the English month names of his heathen ancestors – among them Giuli (Yule), Solmonath, Hrethmonath, Eosturmonath (after a goddess Eostre), Winterfilleth and Blodmonath, the “blood month” of the slaughter. And Charlemagne, as his biographer Einhard reports, had his own Germanic month names laid down: Wintarmanoth, Hornung, Lenzinmanoth, Ostarmanoth, Winnemanoth, Brachmanoth, Heuvimanoth, Aranmanoth, Witumanoth, Windumemanoth, Herbistmanoth, Heilagmanoth.
Because the months hung on the moon but the year on the sun, a balance was needed – a leap month inserted every few years. Exactly this old reckoning, the bound lunar calendar of the Germanic peoples, you can follow in our Germanic lunar calendar: it computes moon phases, solstices and the old months in the browser – leap month included.
That “month” comes from “moon” and that the Germanic peoples counted time by nights is secured by language and by Tacitus (Germania 11). The Old English month names stand in Bede, De temporum ratione, ch. 15. The Germanic month names of Charlemagne are transmitted by Einhard in the Vita Karoli Magni (ch. 29). It is also attested that the Roman month names only finally displaced the vernacular names in the early modern period.
Not every name list circulating online as “ancient Germanic” is truly old. Some names are early-modern or were popularised in the 18th and 19th centuries during the Romantic movement (such as “Wonnemond”). The assignment, too, varies strongly by region. And the goddess “Eostre” behind Eosturmonath is attested only in Bede – her existence is plausible but thinly evidenced. Whoever uses the old names uses genuine cultural heritage – but should not take every pretty list for Viking-age.
How do heathens celebrate today? · The Germanic feasts · Þorrablót – the winter feast · The solstice festivals · Runes & their meaning.