The Anglo-Saxon Calendar

This is a purely notional calendar that I have invented, based upon various known aspects of solar calendars in the past and traditions in England, many of which still survive today. This page explains how the calendar is structured and my reasons for this. It is not intended to be a proposal for calendar reform, which I have detailed elsewhere, but more for personal interest.

How it works

The ancient Anglo-Saxon calendar was reputed to be a luni-solar calendar, following the cycles of the moon and adding an extra month every few years to keep it in line with the seasons. This calendar was reputed to have its new year on Christmas Eve. However, this would not be possible every year if the calendar were luni-solar, due to the lunar year not matching the solar year. It is thought that the 12 days of Christmas may have been epagomenal days added at the end of the year to compensate for this but this is speculative.

The calendar I have devised, however, is a solar one using Anglo-Saxon month names, in the same vein as Tolkien's Shire calendar. It is purely solar, with either 365 or 366 days depending on whether the year is common or leap. The most important event in the calendar is the winter solstice, or Yule, and each new year always begins on the day that the solstice takes place, according to universal time (UT). There are two calendars, the classical or traditional calendar and the standard or revised calendar, the latter being the one in general use. These calendars are explained below.

Structure of the calendar

As stated above, the year always starts at the winter solstice (Yule), and every other quarter starts on or near the other solar events of the year, namely the vernal equinox (Ostara), the summer solstice (Litha) and the autumn equinox (Mabon). The following table shows the months with their current usual start dates in the Gregorian calendar. These dates can vary by up to two days either side of the given dates due leap years in the Gregorian calendar etc. In leap years (see below) an extra day is added to the summer month of Wedmonth, making it 32 days long.

Epoch

The epoch for the calendar is the year 444 C.E. and the era is called A.S.E. (Anglo-Saxon Era). The years are therefore approximately 444 years behind those of the Gregorian calendar.

Leap years

Leap years in the Anglo-Saxon calendar occur irregularly as the number of days in a year is governed by the time between one winter solstice and the next. They usually occur every four years but occasionally there is a five year gap, e.g as between Anglo-Saxon years 1562 (2005-6) and 1567 (2010-11).

Days of the week

The days of the week were named after Norse deities,apart from Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and have the same origins as the names that are still used today. The Old English names for the days of the week were: Sunnandæg, Monandæg, Tiwesdæg, Wodnesdæg, Þunresdæg, Frigedæg, and Sæternesdæg.

Holidays

The main holidays observed in the calendar are the 12 days of Yule (1 Afteryule to 12 Afteryule), the summer solstice (1 Afterlithe) and the four cross-quarter days, which occur roughly halfway between the solstices and equinoxes. These usually occur on or around 4th February, 5th May, 7th August and 7th November. The other main festivals are the Egg Moon festival, which occurs on the night of the first full moon of spring in the month of Ostermonth, and the Harvest Moon festival, which occurs on the last full moon of summer in Holimonth.