Calendar & festivals¶

How the year was counted in the 1380s: the old month names, the festival wheel, the saga’s magical zeniths and the Teutonic Order’s Christian calendar.

Labels. [Historical record] is attested in the sources or standard scholarship; [The saga’s invention] was made for this series.

A caution about „pagan“ customs. Almost everything we know about Lithuanian festival customs was written down centuries after 1387: by 16th–17th-century churchmen, and above all by 19th–20th-century folklorists recording peasants who were Catholic. What those sources preserve is double faith, old practice under Christian names. How any of it looked in 1382 is unrecorded. The saga is entitled to its pre-Christian versions, but it should know that it is reconstructing them.

1. Counting time in the 1380s [Historical record]¶

1.1 The Julian calendar and the eight-day gap¶

Everyone who wrote dates in 1382 used the Julian calendar. In the 14th century it ran 8 days behind the sun as the modern (Gregorian) calendar measures it (for dates between 1 Mar 1300 and 28 Feb 1500, Julian + 8 = proleptic Gregorian).

The astronomical turning points of the 1380s therefore fell on these Julian dates (computed with Meeus’s formulas, ±1 day):

Event	Julian date, 1382–87	Old saying
Spring equinox	12–13 March	—
Summer solstice	13–14 June	—
Autumn equinox	14–15 September	—
Winter solstice	13–14 December	St Lucy’s Day (13 Dec) was „the shortest day“ in Julian-era lore across Europe

Consequence for the saga. Christmas Eve (Kūčios, 24 Dec) fell about 11 days after the winter solstice, and St John’s Eve (Joninės, 23 June) about 10 days after the summer solstice. The folk equation „Kūčios = the solstice, Rasos = midsummer“ is right in spirit, because the Church set its feasts on the old solstice festivals, but in the 1380s the days no longer matched.

Saga rule [The saga’s invention]: the Kalba zeniths are astronomical, because the elements watch the sky, not the Church calendar. In 1382 the pagan solstice night falls on about 13 December. Christianised households keep Kūčios on 24 December. After 1387 the feast drifts away from the zenith, and the night that families keep sacred is no longer the night the stars are strongest. It is a quiet image of the Unbinding, and Books II–V can use it.

1.2 How documents dated¶

Latin and German documents dated by feast days: in die Assumptionis beatae Mariae virginis (15 Aug), in vigilia Assumptionis (14 Aug), feria secunda post Michaelis (the Monday after Michaelmas). The year was Anno Domini. Chanceries in the Empire often began the year at Christmas; the Order’s practice should be checked.
Ruthenian documents used the Byzantine era from the Creation. AD 1382 is 6890. A Ruthenian chronicle entry for Kęstutis’s death reads „in the year 6890“.
The Krėva Act is dated 14 August 1385, the eve of the Assumption, and so the eve of the third anniversary of Kęstutis’s death in the same castle (master_chronology).

1.3 How Lithuanians counted¶

Pagan Lithuania wrote nothing down. It counted by moons (mėnuo means both „moon“ and „month“), by seasons, by feasts and by work: rugiapjūtė (the rye harvest), linarūtė (flax-pulling), sėja (sowing). Whether a seven-day week was in general use among pagan Lithuanians is unknown. Where the week appears in older Lithuanian and in the dialects, its day names are Slavic loans [Historical record]: panedėlis (Monday), utarninkas (Tuesday), sereda (Wednesday), četvergas (Thursday), pėtnyčia (Friday), subata (Saturday), nedėlia (Sunday). The modern names (pirmadienis „first day“ and so on) are 20th-century coinages. Kęstutis should not say penktadienis. If he names a day at all, it is a feast or a moon.

2. The months¶

The modern Lithuanian month names are old folk names, but they were standardised only around 1900. Before that, regions used different names, and some names sat a month earlier or later. None is attested from the 14th century. The saga may use them as the moon-names of the pagan year ([The saga’s invention convention]), knowing they are attested later.

Modern name	Month	Meaning [Historical record]	Older or regional variants	Work and weather in the 1380s
sausis	January	from sausas „dry“: the dry frost	—	Deep winter; the winter Reise season; frozen rivers are roads
vasaris	February	from vasara „summer“: the turn toward light (gloss uncertain)	—	Candlemas; the Order’s winter Reise; Shrovetide
kovas	March	kovas „rook“: the rooks return	karvelinis „dove-month“	Thaw, mud; spring equinox ~12 Mar
balandis	April	balandis „dove, pigeon“	sulų mėnuo, „birch-sap month“	Ice-break on the Neris and Nemunas (late Mar–Apr); birch sap (sula) tapped
gegužė	May	gegužė „cuckoo“	—	Sowing; Pentecost greenery; the cuckoo counts your years
birželis	June	usually from beržas „birch“ (young birches)	sėjinis, „sowing-month“	Summer solstice ~13 June; Rasos
liepa	July	liepa „linden“: the lindens flower	—	Hay; the rye ripens
rugpjūtis	August	rugiai „rye“ + pjūtis „reaping“	degesis, „the burning (heat)“	Rye harvest; harvest-home; Žolinė (15 Aug); the summer Reise
rugsėjis	September	rugiai „rye“ + sėja „sowing“	—	Winter rye sown; autumn equinox ~15 Sept
spalis	October	spaliai „flax shives“	—	Flax broken; the time of the dead begins
lapkritis	November	lapai „leaves“ + kristi „to fall“	—	Vėlinės; first ice on the lakes
gruodis	December	gruodas „frozen, rutted earth“	—	Winter solstice ~13 Dec; Kūčios

In chancery documents the Grand Duchy’s Ruthenian scribes used the Church’s Latin-derived month names (Cyrillic forms of Ianuarius… December), not native ones.

3. Moon and sun¶

3.1 The moon [Historical record]¶

Lithuanian names the phases: jaunatis (new moon, „the young one“), priešpilnis (waxing, „before full“), pilnatis (full moon), delčia (waning). Folk practice recorded in the 19th–20th centuries sows in the waxing moon, fells timber and cuts hair in the waning moon, and does not start anything at the new moon. The Moon (Mėnuo) is a warrior and a faithless husband whom Perkūnas cut in half, which is why he wanes (Cosmology §3.1).

3.2 The saga’s reckoning [The saga’s invention]¶

The krivis of Šventaragis keeps the year. The year turns at the winter solstice, read from the sun’s rising point against the hills of the Neris valley. The year counts twelve moons from there.
The blind moon. Twelve lunar months fall about 11 days short of a solar year. When the twelfth moon dies too early, the krivis declares a thirteenth moon, aklasis mėnuo („the blind moon“), in which no oath is sworn and no marriage made. (Name and rule are inventions. They give the saga a real-sounding lunisolar mechanism, since medieval Lithuania must have reconciled moons and seasons somehow, and nothing is recorded.)
After 1387 there is no krivis and no one to declare the blind moon. Peasants slowly adopt the Church calendar, and the old moon-year drifts. Another sign of the Unbinding.
The zeniths are astronomical (§1.1). The calendar of feasts is how people keep them, and the two need not coincide.

3.3 The zeniths¶

Element (deity)	Zenith	Festival that keeps it	Julian date in the 1380s
Stars (Praurimė)	Winter-solstice midnight	Kūčios	~13 Dec (Christian Kūčios 24 Dec)
Fire (Gabija)	Summer-solstice noon	Rasos	~13–14 June (Christian Joninės 23–24 June)
Water (Bangpūtys)	Full moon or high tide; strongest at the spring ice-break	The spring equinox feast (the magic doc’s „Pusiaukojis“)	Equinox ~12 Mar; the ice usually goes out late Mar–Apr. Recommended rule: the first full moon after the ice-break
Earth (Žemyna)	Autumn-equinox dusk	Dagotuvės	~14–15 Sept
Wind (Vėjopatis)	Storms	Vėlinės	Late Oct–2 Nov, and any great storm

The two agree if the spring zenith is the first full moon after the ice goes out. The Church fixes Easter by the same full moon (the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring), so Bangpūtys and Easter compete for the same night. That is good material for 1387.

4. The festival wheel¶

Festival	When (Julian, 1380s)	Folk customs [Historical record, mostly 16th–20th-c. ethnography]	Sagoje
Kūčios and Kalėdos	Kūčios 24 Dec (Christmas Eve), Kalėdos 25 Dec. Solstice ~13 Dec	A meatless supper (later twelve dishes; counts vary); hay under the tablecloth; kūčia, grain with honey-water; a place left for the dead; fortune-telling by drawing straws from under the cloth; animals said to speak at midnight. Mummers (kalėdotojai). Kūčios and Kalėdos are Slavic loan names (kutia, koliada)	Praurimė’s zenith on the solstice night. Amber-reading, shadows on the wall. Star costs are halved
Grabnyčios	2 Feb (Candlemas, Purification of Mary)	Candles blessed and kept; lit when a thunderstorm comes, against Perkūnas’s fire. The name comes from Slavic gromnica, „thunder candle“	The Order’s winter Reise season. Perkūnas and the Virgin share a candle, which is double faith in one object
Užgavėnės	Shrove Tuesday, movable: 18 Feb 1382, 3 Feb 1383, 23 Feb 1384, 14 Feb 1385, 6 Mar 1386, 19 Feb 1387	Masked processions; the mock fight of fat Lašininis against lean Kanapinis; the effigy Morė burned or drowned; pancakes; eating many times over. Customs recorded mainly from the 19th–20th c.	Henė’s season: masks are licensed. Winter is driven out
Pusiaugavėnis	Mid-Lent (Wednesday of the fourth week of Lent)	Children told that Lent is being „sawn in half“, and small treats left for them	Minor
Velykos	Easter, movable: 6 Apr 1382, 22 Mar 1383, 10 Apr 1384, 2 Apr 1385, 22 Apr 1386, 7 Apr 1387	Dyed eggs (margučiai); egg-rolling; lalavimas, Easter-night carolling from farm to farm. The name is from Slavic „great day“; any pagan name for the spring feast is lost	Bangpūtys’s spring zenith (first full moon after the ice-break; §3.3)
Jurginės (Jorė)	23 April (St George)	Cattle driven out to pasture for the first time; the rye fields walked; „the earth is unlocked“. Jorė is a modern Romuva name	St George is also the Order’s soldier-saint, so the same day is kept by both sides
Sekminės	Pentecost, movable (10 May–10 June in 1380–87)	Greenery and birch branches in houses; herders‘ feasts	Minor
Rasos and Joninės	St John’s Eve, 23–24 June. Solstice ~13–14 June	Hilltop bonfires; leaping the fire; wreaths floated on water to read one’s fate; bathing in the morning dew (rasa, hence Rasos); herbs gathered for the year; the search for the fern’s flower at midnight; the kupolė, a bouquet or pole of herbs	Gabija’s zenith at solstice noon. Fire-leaping as Sielos Šarvas
Rye harvest-home (pabaigtuvės)	Late July to mid-August, when the rye is in	The last sheaf left or bound with ceremony; a rye wreath carried to the house and drenched with water; feast of the new bread	Recommended setting for ch. 1 (see §7)
Žolinė	15 August (Assumption of Mary)	Bunches of herbs, flowers and new grain blessed; harvest thanks. Christian name: „the herb feast“	The day Kęstutis died (1382). The Order’s great Marian feast
Šilinė	8 September (Nativity of Mary)	Pilgrim feast (later famous at Šiluva)	Minor
Dagotuvės	The saga sets it at the autumn equinox, ~14–15 Sept	End-of-harvest thanks to Žemyna and the earth; bread of the new grain; the last sheaf. Dagotuvės is used in modern Romuva calendars; its age as a folk name is uncertain. Žemyna’s offerings of bread and beer are described in 17th-century sources	Žemyna’s zenith at equinox dusk
Mykolinės	29 Sept (Michaelmas)	End of the herding season; servants hired	Minor
Ilgės and Vėlinės	Late October to 2 November (All Souls; All Saints 1 Nov)	The dead are fed: food left out overnight, the bathhouse heated for them, graves visited with fire; quiet kept in the house. Ilgės is an older name for this autumn commemoration. Vėlinės is from vėlės	Vėjopatis’s zenith in the season of storms. The vėlės travel the Birds‘ Way; it is the best time for the Krėva fog

5. The Christian calendar overlay: the Order’s year [Historical record]¶

Two Reise seasons. The Order raided Lithuania mostly in winter (December–February, when swamps and rivers froze into roads) and in late summer (August–September, after the harvest). Western „guests“ (French, English, Bohemian knights) came for them. By custom the Reisen were tied to the great Marian feasts: the Purification (2 Feb) for the winter season and the Assumption (15 Aug) for the summer. A banquet of honour, the Ehrentisch (Table of Honour), was sometimes held before a Reise.
Mud seasons. Spring thaw (March–April) and autumn rains (October–November) stopped armies. The „two muddy seasons“ are why Book I’s set pieces cluster in high summer and deep winter.
Marian feasts (the Order’s patroness is Mary): Purification 2 Feb, Annunciation 25 Mar, Assumption 15 Aug, Nativity of Mary 8 Sept. (The Visitation, 2 July, was only instituted in 1389; no Order knight keeps it in Book I.)
Dates that fall on feasts:
- 15 Aug 1382: Kęstutis found dead at Krėva on the Assumption, the feast of the Order’s own patroness. The Lithuanian name Žolinė belongs to the Christian centuries; in the saga, the peasants who later keep Žolinė half-remember it as „the day the old duke died“.
- 21 Oct 1383: Vytautas baptised Wigand at Tapiau on St Ursula’s Day.
- 14 Aug 1385: the Krėva Act, on the eve of the Assumption.
- 18 Feb and 4 Mar 1386: Jogaila’s wedding and coronation both fall in Shrovetide, the last days before Lent (Ash Wednesday was 7 Mar 1386), when weddings were still allowed. The haste of the Kraków calendar is visible in the dates.
- Feb–Mar 1387: the baptism of Lithuania falls in Lent (Ash Wednesday 20 Feb 1387; Easter 7 Apr). Jogaila’s privilege to the Catholic boyars is usually dated 20 Feb 1387, which would be Ash Wednesday itself.
- 15 Jul 1410: Žalgiris, on the feast of the Dispersion of the Apostles (Długosz notes it).

8. Quick reference: zenith dates, 1382–1387 (Julian, ±1 day)¶

Year	Bangpūtys (equinox; first spring full moon)	Gabija (solstice noon)	Žemyna (equinox dusk)	Praurimė (solstice midnight; moon)
1382	12 Mar; full moon 30 Mar	13–14 Jun	15 Sep	13 Dec (waxing; full 21 Dec)
1383	12–13 Mar; full moon 19–20 Mar	14 Jun	15 Sep	13–14 Dec (waning; full 10–11 Dec)
1384	12 Mar; full moon 6–7 Apr	13 Jun	14–15 Sep	13 Dec (new moon: the darkest, clearest star-night of the decade)
1385	12 Mar; full moon 27 Mar	13–14 Jun	15 Sep	13 Dec (waxing; full 17 Dec)
1386	12–13 Mar; full moon 16–17 Mar	13–14 Jun	15 Sep	13–14 Dec (waning; full 6–7 Dec)
1387	12–13 Mar; full moon 4–5 Apr	14 Jun	15 Sep	13–14 Dec (new moon 11–12 Dec)

The first spring full moon is the earliest Bangpūtys date. If the ice has not yet gone out on the Neris, the zenith waits for the next full moon (§3.3).