The Croatian months used with the Gregorian calendar

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...

 by Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 differ from the original Latin month names:

No.	Latin name	English name	Croatian name	Croatian meaning
1	Ianuarius	January	Siječanj	month of cutting (wood)
2	Februarius	February	Veljača	month of changing Also, possibly from "Velja Noć" (Great Night), old Slavic pagan festival that falls in modern-day February
3	Martius	March	Ožujak	lying month
4	Aprilis	April	Travanj	month of grass
5	Maius	May	Svibanj	month of budding (svibovina = Cornel tree)
6	Iunius	June	Lipanj	month of the lipa (lime / linden tree)
7	Iulius	July	Srpanj	month of reaping (with a sickle)
8	Augustus	August	Kolovoz	month of driving the wagon (for harvest) — kolo + voziti
9	September	September	Rujan	month of animal mating (from archaic verb for animal roar "rjuti", referencing mating calls)
10	October	October	Listopad	month of falling leaves — list + padati
11	November	November	Studeni	cold month
12	December	December	Prosinac	the beginning of the Sun's shining (sinuti = to dawn). Also, possibly month of begging, from prositi = beg.

Some names are derived from archaic Croatian-Slavic words that are no longer found in standard Croatian dictionaries. In some cases even the meaning of those words is ambiguous.

In Macedonian, Listopad is also the (archaic) name for October but in Polish, Czech listopad, Belarusian 'listapad' ('Лiстапад') and Ukrainian "lystopad" means November. Likewise, Polish sierpień, Czech srpen and Ukrainian "serpen'" mean August rather than July, and Polish lipiec (Ukrainian "lypen'") means July rather than June.

See also

• Czech months
  Czech months
  The names of Czech months are, as in Polish, Croatian, Ukrainian and Belarusian not based on the Latin names used in most European languages.The suffix -en is added to most of the months' names.* January -- leden...
  
  
• Macedonian months
• Polish months
  Polish months
  The Polish language is one of the Slavic languages that do not use Latin-derived month names .-See also:* Belarusian months* Bulgarian months* Croatian months* Czech months* Macedonian months* Slovenian months* Ukrainian months...
  
  
• Ukrainian months
  Ukrainian months
  The months of the year used with the Gregorian calendar in the Ukrainian language differ from the original Latin month names:-See also:*Croatian months*Czech months*Macedonian months*Polish months*Bulgarian months*Belarusian months...
  
  
• Bulgarian months
  Bulgarian months
  The months of the year used with the Gregorian calendar by Bulgarians bear names derived from the Latin month names and these are used by the Bulgarian population...
  
  
• Belarusian months
  Belarusian months
  The months of the year used with the Gregorian calendar in the Belarusian language differ from the original Latin month names:-See also:*Croatian months*Czech months*Macedonian months*Polish months*Bulgarian months-External links:...
  
  
• Slovenian months
  Slovenian months
  The standard modern names of Slovene months or Slovenian months are derived from Latin names, as in most European languages. There is also a standardized set of archaic Slovene month names:* January ' shining through'* February 'Candlemas'...
  
  

External links

• http://projetbabel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7222 A comprehensive table of Slavic and Baltic month names, explanation in French.