Hāliġmōnaþ or Hāliȝmōnaþ (; modern English: 'holy month') was the
Anglo-Saxon name for the month of
September
September is the ninth month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the third of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the fourth of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. September in the Northern H ...
.
The name was recorded by the Anglo-Saxon
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
Bede in his treatise ''
De temporum ratione'' (The Reckoning of Time), saying only "Halegh-monath is a month of sacredness."
An entry in the
Menologium seu Calendarium Poeticum, an Anglo-Saxon poem about the months, explains that "in the ninth month in the year there are thirty days. The month is called in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''September'', and in our language ''holy month'', because our ancestors, when they were
heathen, sacrificed to their idols in that month."
See also
*
Germanic calendar
The early Germanic calendars were the regional calendars used among the early Germanic peoples before they adopted the Julian calendar in the Early Middle Ages. The calendars were an element of early Germanic culture.
The Germanic peoples had nam ...
*
Anglo-Saxon
*
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haligmonath
September
Old English