The month of maggots and flies

Tha Ruairidh MacIlleathain a’ mìneachadh mar a fhuair “An t-Iuchar” ainm. Tha eadar-theangachadh Beurla às dèidh na Gàidhlig.

Roddy Maclean tells us about the history behind the Gaelic name for ‘July.’ An English translation follows below the Gaelic.

View over farmland near Rhynd by Perth. ©Lorne Gill

Mìos nan Cnuimheag ’s nan Cuileag

Mar as trice bidh blàths an t-samhraidh ann san Iuchar agus air sgàth sin, bidh na cnuimheagan ’s na cuileagan pailt. ’S e sin as coireach ris an fhar-ainm air an Iuchar – Mìos nan Cnuimheag ’s nan Cuileag.

’S ann bho na Ròmanaich a fhuair mìosachan na Beurla ainm airson an t-seachdamh mìos oir chuir Seanadh na Roimhe ainm Julius Caesar air. Bha e airidh air sin oir ’s e a chruthaich a’ chiad mhìosachan dòigheil a bhathar a’ cleachdadh thairis air an Roinn Eòrpa. Anns na seann làithean, cha robh an t-Iuchar co-ionann ri July oir bha e a’ ciallachadh na crìche eadar Ràith na Bealltainne agus Ràith an Fhoghair. B’ e sin an ceala-deug ro Latha an Lùnastail (An t-Iuchar Samhraidh) agus an ceala-deug às a dhèidh (An t-Iuchar Foghair). A-nise tha e co-ionann ri July.

Bhathar a’ gabhail ‘làithean nan con’ air a’ mhìos seo ann am mòran chultaran Eòrpach, a’ tighinn bho dies caniculares nan Ròmanach. Bidh Reul an Iuchair no Reul a’ Choin, an rionnag as soilleire anns an reul-bhad Canis Major, ag èirigh agus a’ dol fodha leis a’ ghrèin aig an àm seo. ’S dòcha gur e an ceangal ri coin as coireach ri ainm eile airson an Iuchair – Mìos Chrochadh nan Con. Ach ’s e am far-ainm as snoige aige Am Mìos Buidhe air sgath solas na grèine agus abachadh an arbhair.

The view west over the Sound of Jura from Crinan. Argyll. ©Lorne Gill

The month of maggots and flies

The month of July has the slightly dubious nickname in Gaelic of ‘the month of maggots and flies’ and is usually a time of warm weather (but Scotland doesn’t always follow the ‘rules’ with regard to temperature!). While the English name for what is now the seventh month of the year derives from the Roman nomenclature (the Senate named it after Julius Caesar who was responsible for the first great pan-European calendar), the Gaelic name An t-Iuchar probably comes from an old word ochair meaning ‘edge, border’, as it was originally viewed as a border time between two quarters of the year. An t-Iuchar was a fortnight before and a fortnight after the quarter day of Lùnastal (1 August) but is now coterminous with the English July.

July was and is called the ‘dog-days’ in many European cultures, derived from the dies caniculares of the Romans. Sirius, the dog star, the brightest in the constellation Canis Major rises and sets with the sun around this time. Sirius is known in Gaelic as Reul an Iuchair ‘the July star’, Reul a’ Choin and Reul a’ Mhadra (both meaning ‘dog star’). The connection to dogs may give us a strange alternative (and inadequately explained) nickname for the month – Mìos Chrochadh nan Con ‘the month for hanging dogs’. Perhaps the quality of light and the ripening harvest give us its most poetic moniker – Am Mìos Buidhe ‘the yellow month’.

Sunset over Kilmory Glen and the Isle of Skye, Isle of Rum NNR. ©John MacPherson/SNH