almanac

What is an Almanac?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines an almanac as:

An annual table … containing a calendar of months and days, with astronomical data and calculations, ecclesiastical and other anniversaries, and other information, including astrological and meteorological forecasts.

There are three common pronunciations:

  1. /ˈɔːlmənak/ ALLma-nak
    with a long initial vowel, like that in the words ‘or’ and ‘all’
  2. /ˈɒlmənak/ OLma-nak
    with a short initial vowel, like that in the word ‘on’
  3. /ˈalmənak/ ALma-nak
    with a short initial vowel, like that in the word ‘an’
In all pronunciations the primary stress is on the first syllable, and with many speakers the ‘L’ sound is often almost silent.

The spelling ‘almanack’ (with a terminal ‘K’) was common until the 1800s but is now only used as a deliberate archaism in the titles of some almanacs.

The earliest quotation in the OED is a reference to an astronomical usage from about 1392, and the second is from Geoffrey Chaucer’s lesser-known work, A Treatise on the Astrolabe, thought to have been completed in 1391, and perhaps the first example of technical writing in English (see Wikipedia).

English derives the word almanac from French and Latin, and it is recorded in Latin in 13th-century British documents. The Latin derives from Spanish Arabic al-manāk, and according to the OED this may derive from Arabic munāk, literally meaning ‘making (a camel) kneel’, and by extension the ‘halt at the end of a day’s travel’ or a ‘stopping place’ and from there to the meaning ‘calendar’.

Different Almanacs and Almanacks

Various different types of almanac are commonly published each year. The Astronomical Almanac, published by His Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office, contains information that was for many centuries important to seafarers – data on the position of the sun and moon, the phases of the moon, the positions of the planets in the sky; it is the successor to the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, published since 1766. Other well-known almanacs include the astrological almanac, typified by Old Moore’s Almanack, published each year since 1697, containing predictions of world and sporting events, as well as more reliable data such as tide tables; compendiums of information, such as Whitaker’s Almanack; and other specialist reference books, for example, the annual Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

This Almanac

This Almanac does not contain astrological or meteorological information, but as an annual compilation of ecclesiastical and astronomical data the word is a good description. I started using the name Almanac in February 1999. I had acquired a Palm III handheld device in December 1998, and very soon had the idea of adding a church calendar to it. Emails I wrote that February outline a plan to generate the date of Easter and other major feasts and then to insert them into the Palm’s calendar. I began to use the name Almanac for this from a very early stage.

However, the project proved too ambitious for the hardware and its limited programming environment, and instead I settled for adapting, with permission, an annual calendar made available by Church House Publishing for Outlook. This was the origin of the Almanac download page, which first appeared in September 2000 at around the same time as Common Worship was first published.

After a few years, CHP decided to stop sharing the calendar for Outlook, and so I began to compile the calendar for the Almanac myself from scratch, and this in turn led to the Almanac web page and web app, which largely fulfil my original 1999 idea.

So from kneeling camels to kneeling in church – the story of the Almanac covers nearly a thousand years.

Simon Kershaw
September 2024