Norse Calendars

Writen by Richard Romando

For many years, we have grown too accustomed to following only one kind of calendar a calendar that is also used by most other people around the world. But do you know that different groups of people in the past used to follow different calendar systems? In fact, some groups of people today are still using some kind of calendar system different from that of the modern Western calendar. And while most of these calendars are already obsolete, some of them are still used for determining some holidays in various parts of the world.

Among the many calendar systems used by people in the past is the Norse calendar (also called the Old Norse calendar or Old Icelandic calendar). This calendar system was used by various German ethnicities, including the Scandinavians and the Icelandic. Just like other ancient calendar systems, the Norse calendar is already obsolete today. Some German and Icelandic holidays, however, are still determined using this calendar.

The Norse calendar is a calendar system with a 12-month calendar year, just like the calendar we use today. These 12 months are further broken into groups of six, with the first group called the Skammdegi, or short days, and the other group called Náttleysi, which means night-less days.

The Skammdegi months starts with Gormánuður (Gor?s month), followed by Ýlir (Yule month), Mörsugur (fat sucking month), Þorri (frozen snow month), Góa (Góa?s month), and Einmánuður (single month). The Náttleysi months, on the other hand, begins with Harpa (after a forgotten goddess), and are then followed by Skerpla (another forgotten goddess), Sólmánuður (sun month), Heyannir (business month), Tvímánuður (second month), and Haustmánuður (autumn month). Lined with the months of our present calendar system, Skammdegi runs from mid-October to mid-April, and Náttleysi runs from mid-April to mid-October.

Another similarity between the Norse calendar and our current calendar is the number of days in a week, which is seven. Actually, some of the names of the days in our present calendar system were loosely based on Norse days. These Norse days are Sunnudagr (Sunna?s or sun?s day), Mánadagr (Munna?s or Moon?s day), Týsdagr (Tyr?s or Tiu?s day), Óðinsdagr (Odin?s or Woden?s day), Þórsdagr (Thor?s day), Frjádagr (Frigga?s or Freyja?s day), and Laugardagr. Except for the last day, the English translation of the Norse days is roughly similar to our current names of days.

Today, the Old Norse calendar is already considered obsolete, even in the German countries that once used it. But because of its similarities to the modern Western calendar, some German and Icelandic holidays are still determined using the Norse calendar.

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