Born in December

The name and the season

December comes from the Latin decem, 'ten', because it was the tenth month of the Roman year that began in March. The Anglo-Saxons, Bede records, called December and January together Giuli, distinguishing Ærra Geola, 'before Yule', from Æfterra Geola. The winter solstice, the shortest day in the northern hemisphere, falls on 21 or 22 December, and the festivals of the month have long gathered around the return of the light. In the southern hemisphere the same solstice brings the longest day, and December is high summer.

Festivals and folklore

The Roman Saturnalia, beginning on 17 December, was the merriest festival of the year, with feasting, gift-giving, candles and a temporary reversal of social order in which masters served their slaves. The Germanic midwinter feast of Yule gave its name to the season in the North, and the Christian feast of the Nativity on 25 December, attested in Rome by the fourth century, gathered many of these customs: evergreens, candles, feasting and gifts. St Nicholas's Day on 6 December, with its gift-bringer, and St Lucy's Day on 13 December, celebrated in Sweden with processions of girls crowned with candles, also fall in the month, as does Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, in most years. In China the winter solstice festival, Dongzhi, is a family feast. Modern Pagans keep the solstice as Yule (see the Wheel of the Year).

Birthstone and birth flower

December has three stones in the modern American list. The turquoise, whose name means 'Turkish stone' because it reached Europe through Turkish trade, was named in 1912 beside lapis lazuli; the zircon replaced lapis in 1952; and the tanzanite, a violet-blue zoisite found only in northern Tanzania and brought to market in the late 1960s, was added in 2002. Older traditional lists give bloodstone or ruby instead. Turquoise has been a stone of protection in Persian, Tibetan and Native American traditions. The month's flowers are the holly, emblem of foresight and of midwinter, and the narcissus.

Traits tradition gives to people born this month

December is shared by Sagittarius and Capricorn, and popular portraits of December-born people combine optimism with discipline. They are traditionally described as generous, good-humoured and adventurous, fond of learning and travel, and as ambitious, responsible and patient in pursuit of their goals. Almanacs warn of impatience and over-confidence in some and reserve or pessimism in others. These are traditional associations, offered as cultural lore; studies have not found that birth month or sign predicts character.