Etymology

From Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus and wife of Ceyx. When her husband died in a shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the sea whereupon the gods transformed them both into halcyon birds (kingfishers). When Alcyone made her nest on the beach, waves threatened to destroy it. Aeolus restrained his winds and made the waves be calm during seven days in each year, so she could lay her eggs. These became known as the "halcyon days", when storms never occur.

Noun

1. Period of calm during the winter, when storms do not occur.
2. A period of calm, often nostalgic: “halcyon days of yore”, “halcyon days of youth”.

Quotations

• c.1880 — Ambrose Bierce, On a Mountain

  And, by the way, during those halcyon days (the halcyon was there, too, chattering above every creek, as he is all over the world) we fought another battle.

• 1891 — Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Book XXXIV

  Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
  The brooding and blissful halcyon days!

• 2002 — Orihime Inoue, s: Bleach ep.141,

  I can't believe I can't bring myself to do it. I'm sorry. Goodbye Kurosaki. Goodbye Halcyon Days.halcyon days!