Today’s date in the Old Icelandic Calendar:
The Old Icelandic, or Norse, calendar was based around the solstices and equinoxes as these were, and are, very important in these northern regions of the world. Iceland has very short days in the winter and the coming of the Winter Solstice marks the rebirth of the year and the promise of the long days and light nights of the summer. Because of this, the year begins around the Winter Solstice.
The Old Icelandic Calendar is a “leap week” solar calendar. This means that, instead of adding a day periodically to keep it in synchronisation with the seasons. There are 12 months of 30 days, and an extra four days in the middle of summer, called Sumarauki. This produces a year of 364 days, i.e. exactly 52 weeks. To account for leap years an extra seven days, i.e. a full week, are added to Sumarauki after five or six Gregorian years. This ensures that each date in the calendar falls on the same day of the week each year. For example, leap years in the early part of the 21st century occur in 2001, 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2023.
The arrangement of the months is shown below, with the day of the week that each month starts in brackets, and the starting dates in the Gregorian calendar from December 2017 until December 2024.
Month / *Year-> | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023† | 2024 |
Mörsugr (Wed) | 27 Dec | 26 Dec | 25 Dec | 23 Dec | 22 Dec | 21 Dec | 27 Dec |
Þorri (Fri) | 26 Jan | 25 Jan | 24 Jan | 22 Jan | 21 Jan | 20 Jan | 26 Jan |
Góa (Sun) | 25 Feb | 24 Feb | 23 Feb | 21 Feb | 20 Feb | 19 Feb | 25 Feb |
Einmánuðr (Tue) | 27 Mar | 26 Mar | 24 Mar | 23 Mar | 22 Mar | 21 Mar | 26 Mar |
Harpa (Thu) | 26 Apr | 25 Apr | 23 Apr | 22 Apr | 21 Apr | 20 Apr | 25 Apr |
Skerpla (Sat) | 26 May | 25 May | 23 May | 22 May | 21 May | 20 May | 25 May |
Sólmánuðr (Mon) | 25 Jun | 24 Jun | 22 Jun | 21 Jun | 20 Jun | 19 Jun | 24 Jun |
Sumarauki (Wed) | 25 Jul | 24 Jul | 22 Jul | 21 Jul | 20 Jul | 19 Jul | 24 Jul |
Heyannir (Sun) | 29 Jul | 28 Jul | 26 Jul | 25 Jul | 24 Jul | 30 Jul | 28 Jul |
Tvímánuðr (Tue) | 28 Aug | 27 Aug | 25 Aug | 24 Aug | 23 Aug | 29 Aug | 27 Aug |
Haustmánuðr (Thu) | 27 Sep | 26 Sep | 24 Sep | 23 Sep | 22 Sep | 28 Sep | 26 Sep |
Gormánuðr (Sat) | 27 Oct | 26 Oct | 24 Oct | 23 Oct | 22 Oct | 28 Oct | 26 Oct |
Ýlir (Mon) | 26 Nov | 25 Nov | 23 Nov | 22 Nov | 21 Nov | 27 Nov | 25 Nov |
* The year at the top of each column represents the Old Icelandic year, so for example 2018 means the Old Icelandic year that starts in December 2017 in the Gregorian calendar.
† Leap year in Old Icelandic calendar.