Nearly two months have gone by with three of four new councilors not speaking on issues raised at Boston City Council meetings due to a quirky tradition that largely bars new members from talking before delivering their maiden speech.

While Councilor Benjamin Weber chose to get his speech out of the way at the end of January, thereby “unleashing” him to participate in subsequent debate as described by Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, Councilors John FitzGerald, Enrique Pepén and Henry Santana are still on that invisible leash.

How strict — or even restrictive — the maiden speech tradition is to new councilors depends on who you ask. The amount of time that’s gone by has some current and former councilors questioning whether it’s become a barrier to work.

“When you’re a new councilor, you can’t speak on the floor during meetings until you give a maiden speech, but we have it scheduled,” Pepén told the Herald, saying that he plans to file his first hearing order for the next meeting on Feb. 28.

When asked whether it’s been difficult to sit back and not participate in weekly City Council meetings, Pepén said, “Of course, because there’s topics that you’re passionate about and you want to make sure that you voice your opinion, but due to the rules, I can’t speak.”

The 27-year-old former aide to Mayor Michelle Wu said he’s been waiting for the right moment and topic for his maiden speech, saying that he’s been “learning a lot on the job” and wants the first order he files to be impactful to his district.

FitzGerald is also eying the Feb. 28 meeting for his maiden speech. He said he wanted to take his time to understand how the Council processes work before filing a hearing order of his own, and noted that he has spoken at subcommittee hearings, where matters raised during regular meetings are often sent for further discussion.

“I don’t feel held back in any way because of it,” FitzGerald said of the tradition.

Although not a City Council rule, the maiden speech tradition has been largely adhered to by the body this term, and has become particularly noticeable with each passing week that nearly a quarter of its members don’t actively participate.

Also contributing to the intrigue is how often the matter has been brought up, with Council President Louijeune frequently referencing their silence, and joking about how Weber, who delivered his speech on Jan. 31, has been “unleashed” to speak. Louijeune did not respond to a request for comment.

“Normally first session is the swearing in, next session committee assignments and it’s time to get to work so most should have spoken by their third or fourth session,” a former city councilor told the Herald. “After that, it looks weird and people start asking what’s wrong and what are they waiting for?”

Others have waited longer, the past councilor said, “but if there is a big issue or hot-button topic you should not be ducking it because you haven’t given your maiden speech.”

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If that’s the case, “you have your responsibilities mixed up” the source said, noting that people don’t elect councilors to give speeches.

“They elect you to represent them and to take action, vote on and pass municipal legislation, and most importantly support a fiscally prudent budget and protect Boston’s assets and finances and preserve the AAA bond rating,” the past pol said.

If councilors want to speak on an issue beforehand, they can stand and ask for a courtesy that their comments not be viewed as their maiden speech, the source said — which is what Weber did at the Jan. 24 meeting, when he spoke about a retired Boston Police detective who was being honored by the Council.

Weber and Council Vice President Brian Worrell have both spoken for Santana — with Weber recognizing his parents’ anniversary during end-of-meeting announcements, and Worrell bringing public safety grants to a possible vote as vice chair of the public safety committee that Santana, 28, has been appointed to chair.

Santana did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but one of his staff members told the Herald he was aiming for Feb. 28 for his maiden speech.

“I think it’s intimidating and it’s very difficult to take on,” Weber said. “I felt like the issue that I had chosen, access to counsel for people in eviction proceedings, was in the news.”

Weber said he wanted to speak about the issue, which was included in the governor’s budget, while it was being talked about in the community, despite being advised by former city councilors to wait a couple of months before filing an order.

“If I had my druthers, I would have waited longer also because it’s hard to prepare and put a lot of stress on me and my staff to deal with that quickly,” said Weber, who spoke on the order Jan. 31 with his family present.

The maiden speech is being taken seriously by the new councilors, but some of their colleagues and former councilors say all the build-up is a bit much.

“I totally forget what my first speech was,” said Larry DiCara, a former council president and longtime observer of Boston politics. “I didn’t really make a big deal of it.”

This week will be the first — eight weeks into the new term — that committee hearings chaired by any of the new councilors will be held, according to weekly Council calendars sent regularly to the Herald. The new councilors head some of the more active committees.

Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy said she delivered her maiden speech in January of her first term “so there was nothing holding me back from doing my job.”

The tradition, Murphy said, has “become a weird barrier to starting work.”