Welcome to Maid Spin, the personal website of iklone. I write about about otaku culture as well as history, philosophy and mythology.
My interests range from anime & programming to mediaevalism & navigation. Hopefully something on this site will interest you.
I'm a devotee of the late '90s / early '00s era of anime, as well as a steadfast lover of maids. My favourite anime is Mahoromatic. I also love the works of Tomino and old Gainax.
To contact me see my contact page.
The course of the year is fundamental to our lives, dictating work, recreation, dress and even our mood. There are many ways to interpret the story of the annual cycle, through the actions of nature, the mechanisms of agriculture or even the story of Christ. And all of these are played out across the year through a multitude of festivals and celebrations, the exact combination of which ones are observed almost seems peculiar to each individual person. But few people, outside of priests and poets, give too much thought to the meanings behind the festivals and the patterns seen across the year cycle. The narrative behind our modern secular system of months is obscured by the patchwork of social, religious and cultural history. Here I will go through each month and explain my personal interpretation of them, through their names, properties and meanings.
January is the coldest month of the year, and as such is the nadir of nature's strength. The trees are bare, the ground is frozen and the creatures are quiet or hibernating. Human activity is accordingly low also. Traditionally there was little outdoor work that could be done in January, no crop could grow and so everyone had to survive on just what they had accumulated in the previous year. And so rather than bodily action, January is a month for planning and introspection. After all the month is named for the Roman deity Janus: a two-headed man with one head looking forward and one back. And in this way this month is for looking back on the previous year and looking forward to the next. And so we make New Year's resolutions and reaffirm our prior convictions.
The roots of the word "February" are rather obscure. It derives from the Roman festival of "Februa", which was later renamed into the more recognisable "Lupercalia". According to Ovid, this festival commemorated the founding of Rome by Romulus, and the festival was meant to purify the city and her people through classic ritual purging, animal sacrifice and a bizarre practice of running naked around the city perimeter whipping young women in order to make them more fertile. And while such off-kilter celebrations are over, the idea of "purification" is still present in the nature of the month. Being the end of winter it is where all vestiges of the previous year are dead and ready to be reborn anew. So if January is for recalibrating your mind, February is for recalibrating your body and soul. The most obvious celebration of February is of course Valentine's day. It's a day for confessions: once your soul is purified you have nothing to lose in the pursuit of innocent love.
Leaving the season of inaction behind, Mars is the first month of Spring and the probably the most important month in the year for action. If you don't begin making action towards your plans now, they have little chance of ever coming to fruition. Agriculturally speaking this was the first month when the ground was soft enough to plough, and when the frosts let up enough to sow seeds; so a lazy March meant hard times for the rest of the year. Before the industrial revolution March also marked the beginning of the campaign season for war, hence March is named for Mars: the Roman God of war. In fact during the republican era March was counted as the first month of the year for its place in time at the rebirth of the world: new plant growth and the awakening of animals and men alike. March also generally lines up with Lent, since although the world is starting to revive, there is still nought to eat.
"April is the cruellest month", is an oft quoted adage of TS Eliot's, and it rings true even today. But before the food security of modern global trade networks April was a month of starvation: even though the world is blooming into flower and green is shooting up wherever you look, but man can't eat flowers nor green shoots and our edible plants are still to come. Its as if the world is taunting or punishing mankind, keeping us hungry while the rest of the rest of creation prospers. This coincides with the story of ultimate cruelty and suffering: the crucifixion. But just as the Lord is resurrected after his suffering, we too will survive and arrive at the promised beauty of summer soon enough. April, being named for Aphrodite is also the first of the three "feminine months". Aphrodite (or Venus) is the young God of beauty and love. But while the visceral beauty of her youth is insurmountable, young people can not yet bare children: the fruits of their labours are still to come.
"March winds and April showers, all bring forth May flowers." It is often said that England in May is the most beautiful place on Earth, being the height of Spring with the vernal green that can never quite be matched by the deeper greens of Summer: where nature is bulging with life. Traditionally the coming of May is celebrated in England with a May Day festival, celebrating the return of the world to her full strength and beauty. The name of the month comes from Maia, a Roman goddess who was the embodiment of growth, with her name being cognate with the Latin word "maior" meaning major, large, great. Her role as the second feminine month is the new mother. Now an adult but still young (I imagine she's in her thirties), and with her children born but still babes. May is the first month where nature gives us her produce to eat, all while being in the prime of her beauty. I think May is my favourite month.
When June arrives and the cuckoos sing then "Summer is a-coming in". And in June we reach the final of the feminine months, Juno Regina, the Queen of the Roman pantheon. She symbolises feminine regal power and, being the eldest, is at the stage where she rules over her adult children as a matron. It's from here on that the world is kind and generous to mankind, the days are warm and crops grow readily; there is food enough for all. We can all start to relax, for all the busy preparations of Spring are coming to an end and throughout the summer all that a farmer has to do is wait for nature to take her course. This is celebrated on midsummer day, the longest day of the year, which marks the first day of Summer proper (although this depends on who you ask).
Julius Caesar was the greatest of the Romans. And by that I don't necessarily mean he was the best, but rather that he was the most influential. Caesar's legacy was one of conquest, triumph and glory; his actions fundamentally changed Western civilisation and is recorded next to Alexander and Charlemagne as the greatest of European emperors. And this reflects man's attitude in July. While the three previous months were the "feminine months", we now enter what I call the "imperial months" for the rest of summer. And while work done during the feminine months is all in preparation for harder times and for keeping yourself alive, the imperial months are free for self-actualisation and pushing your life and the lives of your family forward. July in particular is for pushing the boundaries of your life: events like career advancement, spiritual accomplishments (holidays) or even social events like courtship and marriage all find there most suitable place under the moon of Caesar.
Now is the turn of Julius' adopted son Octavian. Or as he would be known as Roman emperor: Augustus. And while his Father may have been the great conqueror, Augustus was the great consolidator. This pattern is seen with many of the most influential people: the personalities of a conqueror and a consolidator seem mutually exclusive, and so the work of a great conqueror will soon dissipate into the winds of time unless he has an equally great, but more level-headed successor to consolidate his gains into something sustainable. Like Stalin was for Lenin, the four evangelists for Christ, or he who Alexander lacked which leading to the collapse of his empire. And so August is the month to solidify the gains you have made before, it's too hot to go out conquering anyway. In fact the last few weeks of August (along with the first few of September) are known as the "dog days", referring both to the rising of Sirius and to the sultry heat of the late summer sun which turns us all into lazy dogs. And sometimes there's nothing better to do in August than to relax and rest on your laurels.
Ever since I was a child I've been annoyed by the names for the latter four months of the year, which I refer to as the "numeric months". They seem like whoever was in charge of month naming got bored and threw in the towel just naming them after numbers. The fact that the numbers dont actually line up with the ordinal number of the month (September in the ninth month et cetera) is actually my favourite part about the names since at least it gives them some sort of interest. But luckily the moon of September has a pretty solidified name here in Britain: the harvest moon. And while September is not the only month for harvests (traditionally harvest starts on August the first, Lammas day) it is the most important. All the crops must be brought in before they are damaged or ruined by the deteriorating weather. Because being the start of Autumn, September also means the start of the gradual winding down of nature's spirit. And in a reversal of April, men prosper with the fruits of the harvest while nature withers and grows old around them.
Less known colloquially, the traditional British name for the moon of October is that of the hunter. Along with September this month is also traditionally for the gathering of resources for the winter, but has a distinct tone. September is for harvesting what you have worked on all year, a safe return on investment if you will; but October is for the hunt, a gamble and a game of both skill and chance. You are not guaranteed any returns on your work in October, but what you do manage to get will serve you well over the coming winter. October is the most Autumnal month to me, as it is the apex of that auburn beauty that makes Autumn such a popular season (this is purely from anecdotal observation, but Autumn seems far and away the most popular season among girls I've asked, while men seem to prefer Summer or Spring).
Of all the little epithets I've given each months, "the moon of commemoration" is the only one I've completely made up, but I'll plead my case for how it fits. In old English the month of November was called the month of blood sacrifice (Blotmonath), a name which while cool, I don't think fits within a civilised culture, although many of the sentiments behind it remain the same. November as a baseline is a dreary month: the wet and the cold get worse and worse, all while the memory of the joys of summer are still fresh, making everyone miserable. I'd say it was my least favourite month if it were not for the coping mechanism human society has built to prevent annual mass depression: festivals. And November is full of them. Starting off just before the month begins (I promise its not cheating) is Hallowe'en, followed by All Hallows' Day and All Souls' Day on the first and second of the month. Then come Guy Fawkes Night on the fifth and Poppy Day on the eleventh. I'm unsure of the popularity of these last two outside of England, but here they are two of the most important days of the year: Guy Fawkes Night celebrates the failure of an attempt to assassinate King James by burning effigies of the criminal (blood sacrifice?) while Poppy day is a memorial day for those who died in war to protect the nation. But foreign nations have their own festival days: Mexico has the Day of the Dead, America has Thanksgiving, Scotland has St Andrew's Day, the Jews have Hannukkah and the Hindus Divali. And most of these holidays fall into the category of "commemoration": either celebrating past victories or remembering those who have died for us.
When anyone from Christendom hears "December", their thoughts will rest almost exclusively on Christmas, being certainly the most important day of celebration in the modern Western calender. The days of the month prior to Christmas are seen as a countdown to the day itself over Advent, with the twelve days of Christmas running over into January but still being part of that December spirit for the most part. December, much like November, is a month where not much can be done to improve your life, your fortunes are controlled by the effort you put in and the luck you had over the active months. If things went your way in the year prior, December is a time for merriment and excess to stave off the cold. If things didn't, then the cold snow of midwinter will take a less beautiful tone.
As I have been counting the seasons by moon, I must also include the oddball of the bunch: the Blue Moon. The definition of it is not universally agreed, but I and most others see it as being a second full moon within the same calender month as the last. So for instance in October 2020 there was a full moon on the first, which was the hunter's moon, but there was another full moon on the thirty-first, and this was a blue moon. Blue moons only happen once every few years and are not usually particularly blue, but carry with them an aura of mystery. A time when magical powers are at their strongest, both for good or evil, and anything can happen. The phrase "once in a blue moon" says it all: not just that the event itself is rare, but that the usually impossible becomes possible.
PS: The fact that February has only 28 days, which is less than a lunar cycle (29.5 days), means that it is possible for there to be no full moon at all in that month. In this case of a missing moon of purification, I can only assume it'll be a year of broken promises and ill will. But it would mean there would be a blue moon in both the January and the March, so you win some you lose some.
