Born in November

The name and the season

November comes from the Latin novem, 'nine', after its place in the old Roman year. Bede gives the Anglo-Saxon name as Blotmonath, 'month of sacrifice', when cattle that could not be kept through the winter were slaughtered and, before the conversion, offered to the gods. In the northern hemisphere it is the month of bare trees, mists and lengthening nights, and many European traditions treat it as a season for remembering the dead. In Ireland and Scotland the month began with Samhain itself, the first day of winter in the old Gaelic reckoning.

Festivals and folklore

All Saints' Day on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November honour the saints and pray for the departed; in many Catholic countries families visit and decorate graves with candles and chrysanthemums. In Mexico the same days are kept as the Día de Muertos, combining Catholic observance with older Indigenous customs, with altars of photographs, food, candles and marigolds for returning souls. Martinmas on 11 November, the feast of St Martin of Tours, was a great autumn feast of new wine and roast goose, and a hiring and rent day; a spell of mild weather around it was called 'St Martin's summer'. Britain marks Guy Fawkes Night on 5 November with bonfires and fireworks, and the United States keeps Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of the month.

Birthstone and birth flower

November's stone is the topaz in both the modern and traditional lists, with the yellow quartz citrine added in 1952; some older lists also give the pearl. The name topaz is often connected with Topazios, an island in the Red Sea described by Pliny, though the stone he knew by that name was probably what we now call peridot, a reminder that ancient gem names do not map neatly onto modern minerals. Golden topaz and citrine were long confused in the trade. The month's flower is the chrysanthemum, cultivated in China for well over a thousand years, the imperial emblem of Japan and, in much of Europe, the flower of remembrance.

Traits tradition gives to people born this month

November is shared by Scorpio and Sagittarius, and popular portraits of November-born people combine intensity with a love of freedom. They are traditionally described as determined, perceptive and private, with strong loyalties and deep feelings, and as frank, optimistic and curious about the world. Almanacs warn of stubbornness and secrecy in some and restlessness or bluntness in others. These descriptions are traditional, not scientific: research has not found that birth month or sign predicts personality.