Croatian months

The Croatian months used with the Gregorian calendar by Croats differ from the original Latin month names:

No. Latin name English name Croatian name Croatian meaning
1 Ianuarius January Siječanj month of cutting or hewing (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 month of budding (trees) from the verb ožujati
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 "листопад" means November. Likewise, Polish sierpień, Czech srpen and Ukrainian "Серпень" mean August rather than July, Czech říjen means October rather than September, Slovenian prosinec means January rather than December, and Polish lipiec, Belarusian Лiпень, and Ukrainian Липень' mean July rather than June.

See also

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