Mungo
Member
I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this but I can't see where else it would go.
I love historical curiosities and here is one of them. This is for England - there may be variations for other countries.
The four seasons are Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall) and Winter.
When do they start and finish?
Well, in modern times there are two ways of calculating them.
The astronomical definition, the one we normally use, is based on the equinoxes.
Spring begins on the spring equinox (in March).
Summer begins on the summer solstice (in June).
Autumn begins on the autumn equinox (in September).
Winter begins on the winter solstice (in December).
The actual dates vary between the 20th & 22nd of the month.
In the meteorological definition the seasons start on the 1st day of the month.
Spring runs from March 1 to May 31.
Summer runs from June 1 to August 31.
Autumn runs from September 1 to November 30.
Winter runs from December 1 to February 28 (February 29 in a leap year).
My first curiosity is that Midsummers Day is 24th June. But as summer (in the astronomical calendar) only starts on about 21st June this is hardly mid summer.
Why?
I think the answer lies in the way summer used to be calculated. I’m taking this from a book called The History of England volume II by Peter Ackroyd. I haven’t found any corroboration of this but it sounds plausible.
In the Middle Ages the seasonal and ecclesial calendars were intertwined and the year was not tidily divided into four equal seasons.
Winter started with Michaelmas on 29th September (the feast of the Archangel Michael) and lasted until Christmas. This was a season for sowing wheat and rye (known as winter seed).
The twelve days of Christmas were a time for feasting and celebration. No farm work was done apart from the essentials of feeding the animals.
Epiphany (6th January) to Holy Week of Easter was spring time. The day after Epiphany was called Distaff Day by the women, when spinning commenced after Christmas. The first Monday after Epiphany was called Plough Monday by the men, when ploughing began.
From Hocktide, the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter, until Lammas, the first of August, was Summer.
Then August and September (up to 29th) were Autumn.
Now this is my theory - as Easter was not a fixed date the exact midsummer could not be fixed, but the feast of St. John the Baptist, an important feast in the Church’s year, came to be reckoned as roughly the middle and was thus reckoned as Midsummer.
Note 1: Apparently in Ireland, Spring is reckoned to start on 1 February – St. Brigid’s feast day.
Note 2: According to The Catholic Encyclopaedia the Nativity of John the Baptist is one of the oldest and major feast days in both Western and Eastern Churches. According to Wikipedia it was listed by the Council of Agde in 506 as "one of that region's principal festivals”
I love historical curiosities and here is one of them. This is for England - there may be variations for other countries.
The four seasons are Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall) and Winter.
When do they start and finish?
Well, in modern times there are two ways of calculating them.
The astronomical definition, the one we normally use, is based on the equinoxes.
Spring begins on the spring equinox (in March).
Summer begins on the summer solstice (in June).
Autumn begins on the autumn equinox (in September).
Winter begins on the winter solstice (in December).
The actual dates vary between the 20th & 22nd of the month.
In the meteorological definition the seasons start on the 1st day of the month.
Spring runs from March 1 to May 31.
Summer runs from June 1 to August 31.
Autumn runs from September 1 to November 30.
Winter runs from December 1 to February 28 (February 29 in a leap year).
My first curiosity is that Midsummers Day is 24th June. But as summer (in the astronomical calendar) only starts on about 21st June this is hardly mid summer.
Why?
I think the answer lies in the way summer used to be calculated. I’m taking this from a book called The History of England volume II by Peter Ackroyd. I haven’t found any corroboration of this but it sounds plausible.
In the Middle Ages the seasonal and ecclesial calendars were intertwined and the year was not tidily divided into four equal seasons.
Winter started with Michaelmas on 29th September (the feast of the Archangel Michael) and lasted until Christmas. This was a season for sowing wheat and rye (known as winter seed).
The twelve days of Christmas were a time for feasting and celebration. No farm work was done apart from the essentials of feeding the animals.
Epiphany (6th January) to Holy Week of Easter was spring time. The day after Epiphany was called Distaff Day by the women, when spinning commenced after Christmas. The first Monday after Epiphany was called Plough Monday by the men, when ploughing began.
From Hocktide, the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter, until Lammas, the first of August, was Summer.
Then August and September (up to 29th) were Autumn.
Now this is my theory - as Easter was not a fixed date the exact midsummer could not be fixed, but the feast of St. John the Baptist, an important feast in the Church’s year, came to be reckoned as roughly the middle and was thus reckoned as Midsummer.
Note 1: Apparently in Ireland, Spring is reckoned to start on 1 February – St. Brigid’s feast day.
Note 2: According to The Catholic Encyclopaedia the Nativity of John the Baptist is one of the oldest and major feast days in both Western and Eastern Churches. According to Wikipedia it was listed by the Council of Agde in 506 as "one of that region's principal festivals”