Midwinter is the middle of the winter. The term is attested in the
early Germanic calendars where it was a period or a day which may have been determined by a
lunisolar calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Ea ...
before it was adapted into the
Gregorian calendar. It appears with several meanings in later sources, including the
Christmas season, the first day of
Þorri and the period from the middle of January to the middle of February. Since the 18th century, it has sometimes been misunderstood as synonymous with the astronomical
winter solstice, which the word also can refer to in contemporary English.
Attestations
Midwinter is attested in the
early Germanic calendars, where it appears to have been a specific day or a number of days during the winter half of the year. Before Christianisation and the adoption of the
Julian calendar, the date of midwinter may have varied due to the use of a
lunisolar calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Ea ...
, or it may have been based on a week system tied to the astronomical
winter solstice.
In
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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, could mean the entire
Christmas season or specifically Christmas Day (25 December), which was also called (midwinter's mass-day). Old English could indirectly also mean the winter solstice, which was regarded as 25 December in Anglo-Saxon England, following the Julian calendar and the localisation of
Jesus' birth to this date.
In the medieval
Icelandic calendar, midwinter day was the first day of
Þorri, the fourth winter month, which corresponds to the middle of January in the
Gregorian calendar. The entire month of Þorri was sometimes referred to as midwinter ( non, miðvetr). According to
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...
's ''
Heimskringla'' ( 1230), the pre-Christian holiday
Yule was originally celebrated at midwinter, but in the 10th century, the king
Haakon the Good moved it to the same day as
Christmas, about three weeks earlier.
In Scandinavia, in popular language since the medieval period, midwinter can refer to the period from the middle of January to the middle of February, which usually is the coldest part of the year in northern Europe, sometimes with
Candlemas
Candlemas (also spelled Candlemass), also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Feast of the Holy Encounter, is a Christian holiday commemorating the presentati ...
as winter's midpoint. In British verses and proverbs attested since the
early modern period, fair weather on Candlemas indicates that at least half of winter remains, whereas foul weather means that winter is over. In the
Sámi week system, 5–11 February is known as the midwinter week.
Association with the winter solstice
Beginning in the 18th century, the term midwinter, and associated terms such as the Icelandic and Old English , has sometimes been misunderstood by scholars as synonymous with the astronomical winter solstice.
Olof von Dahlin wrote in 1747 that the had been at the winter solstice. The word is only attested from Snorri who located it to midwinter—the first day of Þorri. , attested from
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, BÇ£da , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, has been interpreted as the "mother of nights", and thereby the longest night of the year, but the word is more correctly translated as "mothers' night". The association between midwinter and the winter solstice is related to the idea that the pre-Christian Yule was a celebration of the sun, a theory that first emerged in the 17th century and still had a few supporters among scholars in the early 20th century, but since then has been refuted and abandoned.
The ''
Cambridge Dictionary'' says that "midwinter" can mean the winter solstice in modern English.
See also
*
First day of summer (Iceland)
The first day of summer ( ) is an annual public holiday in Iceland that is celebrated on the first Thursday after 18 April (some time between 19-25 April).
It is a celebration of the start of the first summer month () of the old Icelandic calen ...
*
Midsummer
*
Midwinter Day
References
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
* {{cite book , last=Bø , first=Olav , author-link=Olav Bø , chapter=Midvinter , title=Kulturhistoriskt lexikon för nordisk medeltid , language=Swedish , volume=11
Winter solstice
January observances
Early Germanic calendar