Germanic Moon Calendar
Our ancestors reckoned time by the moon. This tool shows you – live in your browser – the moon phase, the running Germanic lunar month, Jól on the full moon after the winter solstice, the Rauhnächte and the festivals of the year wheel. Source-based, without esoteric overlay.
The Moonwatch
Today's moon – a real photograph (NASA), its light computed to the minute, wreathed in the Elder Futhark.
Moon photo: NASA/JPL/USGS (public domain).
Hávamál – Verse of the Day
A saying of the High One for each day – from the Hávamál of the Poetic Edda, in the translation of Henry Adams Bellows (public domain).
Sólarhringr – the eight parts of the day
The sun's course today: the eight Germanic parts of the day (átt), sunrise and sunset location-exact, the running hour marked as the sun.
The hours within the átt. The thin spokes split each átt into its three hours – 24 hours around the circle. Historically, though, people did not count equal clock-hours but temporal hours: the daylight from sunrise to sunset was divided into twelve equal parts, and the night likewise – in summer the day-hours stretch, in winter they shrink. That is why the golden arc above shows the true, location-exact daylight span of your place.
The eight átt are reconstructed here as equal eighths (3 hours each); sunrise and sunset are computed exactly for your location. Names after Old Norse and Old English day-reckoning.
The Twelve Lunar Months
After Bede’s Anglo-Saxon lunar months – the current month is highlighted.
Moon & Rune
A rune from the Elder Futhark for each lunar day – a prompt for reflection, not fortune-telling.
The Year Wheel
Where in the year we stand – with the solstices, equinoxes and the moon-bound feasts.
Festivals of the Year
Solstices and equinoxes are computed astronomically; Jól, Sumarmál and the Winter Nights fall on the first full moon after the respective solar point.
The Germanic calendar was a lunisolar calendar: each month begins with the new moon, and an intercalated 13th month (leap month) binds the moons to the solar year. This tool is a transparent reconstruction – several scholarly models exist and the sources leave room. We deliberately show a clear, source-near variant rather than an esoteric „moon sign“.
More in the toolbox
Rune of the Day & Rune Oracle →
Draw your rune of the day – Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark and Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.
Blót Calendar →
The nine great feasts with fixed dates for 2026 and 2027.
Edda Daily Quote →
A verse from the Hávamál & Edda for the day – public domain, beautifully set.
Tip: click a festival in the wheel or list for details.
Foundations: Bede, De temporum ratione (ch. 15, Anglo-Saxon lunar months) · Tacitus, Germania 11 (assemblies at new and full moon) · Old Norse reckoning (Grágás, Snorri). Moon phases & solar points after the algorithms of Jean Meeus. All calculations run in your browser.