Found this thread absolutely fascinating. While the vocab is almost purely archaic, it is still… - Feed Post by Kakka_rotSRL

• 
  Arachkid

  I find many things associated with Japanese culture or language but not directly things that help with language good to break up the monotony. In addition to the language, I study the geography and history, as well as the origin of many things. It's very interesting.

  April 21, 2015 at 10:41am
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  black_snake

  "even teachers are busy at the end of the year“ Haha.

  April 22, 2015 at 3:44am
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  Arachkid

  Obviously from the past, when the school year was different. Not it's spring break that's the pain. For them, not me. Muhahaha! Oh wait, it's over. But GW is on the way! And we have a proper Silver Week this year, too!

  April 23, 2015 at 8:34am
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  mog86uk

  Haha. Interpretations of "even teachers are busy" can be hilarious, depending on how you read it. I think the meaning of 師走 also refers to priests, which probably makes more sense regarding new years.
  
  That page is pretty interesting. I already knew about the traditional month names (seeing as only a week ago I posted about them on here in a reply), but I hadn't taken much notice of the kanji in their names before.
  
  I was surprised to see June's month written with those kanji, and the first explanation given even saying it means that--"waterless month"--for June, lol! The comments below address this translation though.
  
  But the thing is though, the old lunisolar calendar's 6th month 水無月 begins at the earliest around June 21st. Depending on the moon phase cycle, 水無月 can begin anywhere between roughly June 21st ~ July 23rd, and the month lasts for either 29 or 30 days. For this year 2015, the 6th month of the lunisolar calendar would probably be July 16th to August 14th (29 days), which is hardly rainy season...
  
  And the arguments for 無 also having "no meaning" in October's 神無月 do not really make a lot of sense, if Izumo uses 神有月 instead to mean its opposite...
  
  I was also interested to see April's month name is written 卯月, because the 卯 kanji is basically used for the second month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar--which mainly represents March and frequently begins in February (although it does usually run into April a bit)...
  
  I'm finding the discussion really interesting to follow though. It seems the more useless something is to know, the more I want to waste vast amounts of my time studying it! :D

  April 23, 2015 at 3:20pm