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The Hobbits were conservative and continued to use a form of Kings' Reckoning adapted to fit their own customs. Their months were all equal and had 30 days each; but they had 3 Summerdays, called in the Shire the Lithe or the Lithedays. between June and July. The last day of the year and the first of the next year were called the Yuledays. The Yuledays and the Lithedays remained outside the months. so that January 1 was the second and not the first day of the year. Every fourth year, except in the last year of the century, there were four Lithedays. The Lithedays and the Yuledays were the chief holidays and time of feasting. The additional Litheday was added after Mid-year's Day, and so the 184th day of the Leap-years was called Overlithe and was a day of special merrymaking. In full Yuletide was six days long, including the last three and first three days of each year. The Shire-folk introduced one small i
In the above notes, as in the narrative, I have used our modern names for both months and weekdays, though of course neither the Eldar nor the Dunedain nor the Hobbits actually did so. Translation of the Westron names seemed to be essential to avoid confusion, while the seasonal implications of our names are more or less the same, at any rate in the Shire. It appears, however. that Mid-year's Day was intended to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice. In that case the Shire dates were actually in advance of ours by some ten days, and our New Year's Day corresponded more or less to the Shire January 9. In the Westron the Quenya names of the months were usually retained as the Latin names are now widely used in alien languages. They were:Narvinye ,Nenime, Sulime, Viresse ,Lotesse ,Narie, Cermie, Urime, Yava
The Hobbit week was taken from the Dunedain, and the names were translations of those given to the days in the old North-kingdom. which in their turn were derived from the Eldar. The six-day week of the Eldar had days dedicated to, or named after, the Stars, the Sun, the Moon, the Two Trees, the Heavens, and the Valar or Powers, in that order, the last day being the chief day of the week. Their names in Quenya wereElenya, Anarya, Isilya, Alduya, Menelya, Valanya (orTarion ); the Sindarin names wereOrgilion, Oranor, Orithil, Orgaladhad, Ormenel, Orbelain (orRodyn ). The Numenoreans retained the dedications and order, but altered the fourth day to Aldea (Orgaladh) with reference to the White Tree only, of which Nimloth that grew in the King's Court in Numenor was believed to be a descendant Also desiring a seventh day, and being great mariners, they inserted a "Sea-day',Earenya (Oraearon), after the Heavens' Day. The Hobbits took over this arrangement, but the meanings of their translated names were soon forgotten, or no longer attended to, and the forms were much reduced, especially in everyday pronunciation. The first translation of the Numenorean names was probably made two thousand years or more before the end of the Third Age, when the week of the Dunedain (the feature of their reckoning earliest adopted by alien peoples) was taken up by Men in the North. As with their names of months, the Hobbits adhered to these translations, although elsewhere in the Westron area the Quenya names were used. Not many ancient documents were preserved in the Shire. At the end of the Third Age far the most notable survival was Yellowskin, or the Yearbook of Tuckborough. Its earliest entries seem to have begun at least nine hundred years before Frodo's time; and many are cited in the Red Book a
The Shire Reckoning and dates are the only ones of importance for the narrative of the War of the Ring. All the days, months, and dates are in the Red Book translated into Shire terms, or equated with them in notes. The months and days, therefore. throughout theLord of the Rings refer to the Shire Calendar. The only points in which the differences between this and our calendar are important to the story at the crucial period, the end of 3018 and the begi