The year of the Shire Calendar began on the second day of Yule (always falling on the day known as Sterday), which was followed directly by the first actual month of the calendar, a period of thirty days known, for obvious reasons, as Afteryule. On a modern Gregorian calendar it would have run from approximately midwinter (specifically, the 23 December) to 21 January. The name 'Afteryule' appears to have been unique to the Shire-hobbits; in Bree, and even in the eastern parts of the Shire itself, the year's first month was known instead as 'Frery'. In the calendars of Men the equivalent period was known as Narvinyë or Narwain.
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