Short answerFalse
Not from a month of drinking mead — that story is folk etymology. The earliest English uses take the moon as an image of something full that then wanes, applied to the first affection of a marriage, which is close to the opposite of the sentimental version.
A word transparently built from honey and moon, a real association between honey and weddings, and a drink whose marketing benefits from the connection. The story explains the word too neatly, which is usually the sign of a folk etymology rather than a derivation.
The claim is that newly married couples drank mead for one lunar month, and that the practice gave the period its name. It is repeated in wedding literature, in articles about mead, and by a good many mead producers.
The earliest attested uses of the word do not describe a drinking custom at all. They use the moon as a figure for a thing that is at its fullest and immediately begins to wane, and apply it to the affection of a newly married couple. The tone is wry rather than celebratory.
Honey does have documented wedding customs attached to it in several unconnected traditions — feeding honey to a bride and groom as a wish for sweetness is genuinely recorded. Those customs are real. The etymology is the part that is not, and the two get conflated constantly.
Widely repeated and not supported by current evidence. Listed so the correction is here rather than only the claim.
Not supported by the early attested usage, which uses the waning moon as an image for fading first affection rather than describing a drinking custom.
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
HoneyHQ saves your cookie choice on this device. Optional analytics run only if you accept — set a preference now, or change it later on the cookies page.