The Months

[Celestia]

I'm not sure how many people bother to name the months when they make settings, but I sure am. Though, I am having problems coming up with them. I thought I'd give them agriculture based names, but so far I've only got three out of ten: the first month is Seed, the ninth is Harvest, and the tenth is Frost. I can't think of any others.

Anyways, do any of you name your months? If so, what sort of theme do you go with? Gods, famous historical/mythical people, religious holidays, something else?

[Jay R]

This link (http://www.fabandpp.org/cotm/moons.htm) might help.

[Corneel]

I made a calendar with an Anglosaxon flavour should you be interested. Starting at the winter solstice (Yule) it went:
Yule (winter solstice - not part of any month)
Afteryule
Horning
Stirring
Eostrun (spring equinox - not part of any month)
Chithing
Thrimilch
Forelithe
Lithe (summer solstice - not part of any month)
Afterlithe
Hayweed
Harvesting
Gathering (fall equinox - not part of any month)
Fading
Blooding
Foreyule

[Scalenex]

My setting has nine deities. They split the year into nine forty day months, each month is named after one of the gods. Holy days to specific gods usually fall in their deity's month.

The last five days of the year have no month. They represent the anniversary of the five day battle where the Nine deities battled and overthrew their creator, Turoch. In a sense the last five days are called the month of Turoch.

The last five days are considered unlucky days, and most intelligent creatures stay inside and do as little as possible.

I also have a nine year zodiac cycle that follows the same pattern as the months. Children born during the month and/or year of one of the gods are said to take on the traits of that god slightly.

[Celestia]

This link (http://www.fabandpp.org/cotm/moons.htm) might help.
It did, actually. I got three more names. Seed (1st), Rain (2nd), Flower (3rd), Harvest (8th), Hunt (9th), and Frost (10th). Now all I need are the four months of summer in between. I'm thinking Grain could work, but I'm not sure which month it would fit in best.


I made a calendar with an Anglosaxon flavour should you be interested. Starting at the winter solstice (Yule) it went:
Yule (winter solstice - not part of any month)
Afteryule
Horning
Stirring
Eostrun (spring equinox - not part of any month)
Chithing
Thrimilch
Forelithe
Lithe (summer solstice - not part of any month)
Afterlithe
Hayweed
Harvesting
Gathering (fall equinox - not part of any month)
Fading
Blooding
Foreyule
That looks like a great and well-made list. I don't think I can use any of it, though. I don't even understand some of it, lol.


My setting has nine deities. They split the year into nine forty day months, each month is named after one of the gods. Holy days to specific gods usually fall in their deity's month.

The last five days of the year have no month. They represent the anniversary of the five day battle where the Nine deities battled and overthrew their creator, Turoch. In a sense the last five days are called the month of Turoch.

The last five days are considered unlucky days, and most intelligent creatures stay inside and do as little as possible.

I also have a nine year zodiac cycle that follows the same pattern as the months. Children born during the month and/or year of one of the gods are said to take on the traits of that god slightly.
That's a nice way to do it, and it would make things a lot easier on me, but this setting doesn't really have deities. The clerics worship the sun, moon, and stars, while the druids worship the earth.

As an aside, I do love it when calenders exclude days at the end like that. It makes things feel a little more exotic. My calender cuts out all of winter.

[Corneel]

So repeated with derivations/explanations.

Yule (winter solstice - not part of any month)
This an old term for midwinter festival, probably meaning something like festivities, and related to "jolly"

Afteryule
Easy, month after Yule.

Horning
Referring to the antlers shed by the deer around this period in the year (late winter).

Stirring
The stirring of life in the transition of winter to spring.

Eostrun (spring equinox - not part of any month)
Easter, referring to the (goddess of) dawn or the coming of the sun.

Chithing
Comes from the Bree version of the Shire Calendar of the works of Tolkien. It probably derives from ciðing "germinating".

Thrimilch
Month of three milkings (since the pastures are quite good, so the cows give more milk).

Forelithe
Month before Lithe.

Lithe (summer solstice - not part of any month)
From Old English liþa, referring to the months of June and July and probably related to liþe, meaning "mild".

Afterlithe
Month after Lithe.

Hayweed
Combination of hay and weed in the more general sense of plant.

Harvesting
Self evident.

Gathering (fall equinox - not part of any month)
Referring to the English name of Mabon, the Feast of Ingathering.

Fading
The fading of light and life.

Blooding
The month of slaughter (alternative names for November in Dutch are Slachtmaand - Slaughter Month or Bloedmaand - Blood Month). This is the period in the year where the livestock is thinned to avoid unnecessary food expenses during the winterseason while at the same time provisioning food for that same winter season.

Foreyule
The month before Yule.

[Celestia]

So repeated with derivations/explanations.

Yule (winter solstice - not part of any month)
This an old term for midwinter festival, probably meaning something like festivities, and related to "jolly"

Afteryule
Easy, month after Yule.

Horning
Referring to the antlers shed by the deer around this period in the year (late winter).

Stirring
The stirring of life in the transition of winter to spring.

Eostrun (spring equinox - not part of any month)
Easter, referring to the (goddess of) dawn or the coming of the sun.

Chithing
Comes from the Bree version of the Shire Calendar of the works of Tolkien. It probably derives from ciðing "germinating".

Thrimilch
Month of three milkings (since the pastures are quite good, so the cows give more milk).

Forelithe
Month before Lithe.

Lithe (summer solstice - not part of any month)
From Old English liþa, referring to the months of June and July and probably related to liþe, meaning "mild".

Afterlithe
Month after Lithe.

Hayweed
Combination of hay and weed in the more general sense of plant.

Harvesting
Self evident.

Gathering (fall equinox - not part of any month)
Referring to the English name of Mabon, the Feast of Ingathering.

Fading
The fading of light and life.

Blooding
The month of slaughter (alternative names for November in Dutch are Slachtmaand - Slaughter Month or Bloedmaand - Blood Month). This is the period in the year where the livestock is thinned to avoid unnecessary food expenses during the winterseason while at the same time provisioning food for that same winter season.

Foreyule
The month before Yule.
Ah, I get it now. Thanks for the explanation. That also helps explain some of the names from Jay R's link, too.

Alright, so, I've got two more names now. Currently, the months are Seed (1st), Rain (2nd), Flower (3rd), Milk (4th), Haywheat (6th), Harvest (8th), Hunt (9th), and Frost (10th). Now I just need two more summer names.

[Scalenex]

Ah, I get it now. Thanks for the explanation. That also helps explain some of the names from Jay R's link, too.

Alright, so, I've got two more names now. Currently, the months are Seed (1st), Rain (2nd), Flower (3rd), Milk (4th), Haywheat (6th), Harvest (8th), Hunt (9th), and Frost (10th). Now I just need two more summer names.

The clerics worship the sun, moon and stars, and the druids worship the earth?

You don't need to include the earth in this because most of the months have to do with harvesting things from the Earth.

If say the months are all lunar months, (ie each month covers one complete cycle of the moon going through it's phases) then you don't need a month named after the moon. That leaves one month to celebrate the sun (presumably whichever month has the Summer solstice in it), you can call it "Zenith" or "Day." Then the other one can celebrate the stars. SInce you know no one is planting or harvesting so they might as well go stargazing. I don't know "Cosmos" "Stella" "Stellar" "Descending" (the nights are beginning to slowly get longer because the summer solstice is over.

If you decided NOT to cut winter, you can give the month with the winter solstice to the stars or moon.

[Celestia]

The clerics worship the sun, moon and stars, and the druids worship the earth?

You don't need to include the earth in this because most of the months have to do with harvesting things from the Earth.

If say the months are all lunar months, (ie each month covers one complete cycle of the moon going through it's phases) then you don't need a month named after the moon. That leaves one month to celebrate the sun (presumably whichever month has the Summer solstice in it), you can call it "Zenith" or "Day." Then the other one can celebrate the stars. SInce you know no one is planting or harvesting so they might as well go stargazing. I don't know "Cosmos" "Stella" "Stellar" "Descending" (the nights are beginning to slowly get longer because the summer solstice is over.

If you decided NOT to cut winter, you can give the month with the winter solstice to the stars or moon.
The sun (and moon) have weeks named after them. (As an aside, I'm surprised that the real world never named the weeks like it did for the days and months.) Also, the summer solstice is inconsistent. The calender, to keep its consistency with the moon, starts on the first full moon after the spring equinox, which creates huge variation in when the others happen. Thus, the summer solstice can happen any time from the second week of Flower to the third week of Milk.

As for the stars, that branch of the church is full of monks (the traditional kind) and scholars who don't really care about that sort of thing. They have a few holidays, but that's it. They focus more on their study of magic and science and largely disconnect from the world. Although, I do like your idea that winter could be a good time for stargazing. I think I'll put most of their holidays then. Thanks.

[Cespenar]

Though I love worldbuilding, one thing I always avoid is the calendar. The reason is that it's usually really unintuitive for all but the most hardcore players, and it's either like homework for them, or it's not used enough and becomes irrelevant anyway.

That said, I really like Corneel's suggestions. Really flavorful and has a nice balance of mystic oldness vs. relevance.

Your own set doesn't sound half bad as well. Easy to memorize and remember.

If you need more summer months like that, hmm:

Fest: Because of the many festivals given in that month.
Blaze: Kinda obvious.
Joy: Because of most children getting born at this month.
Market: Like Fest.

[Pronounceable]

Ordinarily, you would name months AND days after whatever major gods are there in the setting. But unless you're using a standard real world pantheon or the usual suspects of DnD, you're just better off just keeping them all the same or going Firstmonth, Secondmonth, Thirdmonth... The chances of any given group of standard players caring enough to remember "exotic" month/day names are slim to none so spending much effort on this sort of worldbuildery is not of additional value.

Besides, it's what Romans did when they ran out of originality and it's been enduring for like a million years in real world. Clearly it's a flawless method. Just ignore the shifted numbers.

[DigoDragon]

I remember one fond campaign I ran where I just took our modern calendar system and stuck January and February at the end of the year. March started the calendar year, which coincided to when Spring was starting. This also caused the months September, October, November, and December to coincide again as the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th months of the year, fitting their names once more.

And somehow that confused players even more than just making up a calendar of months. XD

[Celestia]

I hear you in regards to the difficulty, and I completely agree. I've been playing the Elder Scrolls games for years, and yet their calender is still a mystery to me. However, I am kind of between a rock and a hard place on this one. Due to lore reasons, the power of Moon Clerics varies with the phases of the moon. If I stuck with the real world calender, that would cause all sorts of problems and needless difficulty. However, with a lunar calender, the phases fall on the same days each month, hopefully making it easier to deal with.


If you need more summer months like that, hmm:

Fest: Because of the many festivals given in that month.
Blaze: Kinda obvious.
Joy: Because of most children getting born at this month.
Market: Like Fest.
Hmm. Those are some decent suggestions. I'll think about it when I wake up a bit more.

[eru001]

In my campaign the months are named for a rough military calender.

January. Wintering
February. Decamping .
March. Marching
April. Reconnoitering.
May. Positioning.
June. Engaging.
July. Pursuing.
August. Plundering.
September. Regrouping.
October. Provisioning.
November. Redeploying.
December. Encamping.

[Malimar]

I didn't put a super-large amount of creativity into mine. It goes:
Melts
Rains
Flowers
Plants
Grows
Farms
Harvests
Colors
Falls
Frosts
Snows
Ices