From Columbina to Culverine: Deep Dive

 
Culverine 3341 -- what with Eastre, the new year, *and* Culverine all happening on the same day, I was bound to miss something. It's three days late, but better late than never!

Culverine is the first month of spring and the first month of the new year, beginning on March 21 with the festival of Eastre. The meaning of the word itself is uncertain -- which triggered another deep dive for me into our calendar!
 
I was curious about the change from Columbina to Culverine. Searching for Culverine on the internet, the closest result was to a 'culverin', referring to a type of medieval cannon that the French adapted from an early musket. 'Culverin' is the English mis-pronunciation of the original French 'couleuvre.' Couleuvre still refers to a type of grass snake common in that country, and derives from a Latin word meaning snake, snakelike: 'colubrinus'. I was most interested to learn that the type of snake meant by couleuvre bears two half-moon shapes on its head & neck, and hibernates through the winter, waking in March/April -- right around Culverine. Though on the one hand, this seems a tenuous link, on the other, French and Latin (and later Hindi and Sanskrit) were important influences on Madrian and early Filianic sources; perhaps they may not have been this involved in choosing a new name for the month, but there it is for your consideration!

I was under the impression that Columbina ('dove' or little dove; from Latin 'columba' and all Latin-influenced languages) was a name only the Janites used, or that it was at least their invention, but looking at the first spring issue of The Coming Age (the second issue), the Madrians used Columbina too:

The Coming Season
Correspondence of sacred and profane calendars for the seasons of Moura and Spring:
Moura (Feb 20 - Mar 19)
Hiatus (Mar 20)
Columbina (Mar 21 - Apr 17)
Maia (Apr 18 - May 15)
Hera (May 16 - Jun 12)

Columbina is used consistently through all issues of the Coming Age. It appears that Culverine first appears, then, after the formation of Aristasia; Aristasia later became the Daughters of Shining Harmony or Chelouranya, and the calendars they published used Culverine rather than Columbina. I do not know exactly when they began using these month names; the oldest calendar the Daughters of Shining Harmony that I know of is for 3332 (2012), but the Aristasian Perpetual Calendar (linked below) dated 3327 (2007) is using Culverine as well. A great deal of the Chelouranyan web presence has disappeared over the past few years, though parts of it are still accessible through the use of the Wayback Machine. The Glossary they published unfortunately does not give the meaning of the month names but merely the dates the months correspond to.

The Aristasian Perpetual Calendar (only accessible through said Wayback Machine) appears to define Culverine as "The World Egg". The other months of the year have their correspondences written alongside -- Hera referring to Sai Rayanna whose Day is the first of that month, and Rosea referring to the Rose of the World (there does, however, appear to be some error causing every month thereafter to show Rose of the World) -- which would imply Culverine refers in some way to a World Egg. This post has a screenshot from an Aristasian website showing Culverine/Columbina meaning 'the Dove month, the month of Rebirth' -- which would suit the idea of a 'World Egg' as hatching; interestingly this could be either a dove's or a snake's egg, and would suit the old Pelasgian creation myth of Eurynome and the snake, or the old Greek of Ananke. 

 

An Aristasian calendar for the year 3332 that appears to be in a midpoint between the Madrian and 'final' Aristasian form we normally see (retaining both Hesperis and Hathor, though Culverine has already appeared) writes that both Culverine and Columbina mean Dove (page 3, Concerning the month names) but I wonder if it is simply applying the meaning of the older name -- Columbina -- to the newer name. We see this also with Vaskaras, another later name change that is commonly given as 'evening star' because that was the meaning of the original name of that month, Hesperis (Ancient Greek: Ἑσπερίς, Hesperís, "evening"; Hesperus was the God of the Evening Star; in some myths his daughter Hesperis is the mother of the Hesperides, Nymphs of the Evening). The later Aristasian names seem to have no clear origin, but pull the meanings from what the Madrians had used word for word. This could be from an effort to make these words fit with their world building and the dialects they used, where these month names were intended to mean the same thing but were invented words they thought suited their purpose better -- had the Aristasian movement continued in strength for a few more years, I wonder if we would have seen a fuller conversion of month names.

 

Given that a pattern begins to appear in which the months are named after the festivals that occur in them, it is interesting to note to that Hera was already in use by the Madrians. Sai Rayanna's Day is a later addition to the calendar once Aristasia forms, as it comes from the world-building they developed around the faith. As only Florimaia/Floralia occurs in Hera, which is dedicated to Our Lady of Flowers, Hera seems the odd one out. Columbina refers to the Dove, which is celebrated at Eastre; Maia is marked by May Day honouring Sai Maia, but the only festival in Hera is Florimaia/Floralia in honor of Anthea, the Janya of Flowers, and the pattern is broken.

Of course it would be wonderful to simply see why the change was made, and what the person(s?) who made the change were thinking. If it were a reference to something else, or based in another language, or if was a change based purely on aesthetic reasons. After my bit of research, I'm leaning to it referencing the snake and egg creation myths rather than the dove, possibly through a French influence, and will likely use that association going forward. I like the straight-forward nature of Columbina but have grown so used to Culverine it would be difficult for me to change it in my personal use!

Please do forgive the lateness of the post and the link-heavy nature of it! Happy spring!

~x~