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What makes March so special?... in zodiac terms? Pure speculation on my part, but it is spring-- daylight is returning.. and in a agracultureal community, it is the start of the year. even in pre-agraculturual communities, the spring markes the beginning of life. herding animals often have biological cycles that time birth to the spring.
Ireland's old celtic new year is February 1st-- the beginning of lambing.. the 4 major seaonal holidys are Feb 1, Begining of summer, May 1 Summer, August 1, Midsummer, Nov 1, death of summer. (death of summer was also the death of the year, and marked the time that all who had died during the year crossed over into the spirit land.. so on the eve of the death of the year, the spirits of the dead arose, and started there journey to the other world.. this is still celebrated as halloween.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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I vaguely recall that February has only 28 days because Julius Caeser and August Caesar each took one day from February and added that day to their respective months, July and August, so that their months would not be shorter than others.
Can anyone confirm or correct?
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I too understood Caesar and Augustus to have taken days from February for their own months; but now checking The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature s.v. Calendar and measure of time, it says Numa Pompilius (successor to Romulus as king) "is said to have added the months of January and February, making a year of twelve months (four of 31 days, seven of 29, February of 28), a total of 355 days", with intercalations to bring it into line with the solar year. This was the calendar that Caesar reformed into essentially the modern one, with the same distribution of days as our own.
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This reminds me of an annoyance of mine own, the strange dates that people variously assign to the beginnings of seasons. By my understanding the middle of something divides the front half (the bit that talks) from the back half (the bit that kicks) in a fairly even way. So as midwinter - which is an astronomical feast of quite definite timing - occurs in about the middle of December (both pre and post Gregorian reform), the winter that it's said to be the middle of should be the months of November, December, and January. The Celtic method of having Beltane, Samhain, Lunasa, and whatever the other one is, as the doorway dates, makes perfect sense to me.
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Pooh-Bah
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Carpal Tunnel
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midwinter which is an astronomical feast of quite definite timing occurs in about the middle of December Don't think so. You're assuming that each "season" is defined so that "mid-season" (e.g., midwinter) falls on the astronomical solstice or equinox. However, the definition of "season" is a period beginning at solstice or equinox (and ending at the next equinox or solstice; that is, at the start of the next season). http://bartleby.com/61/51/S0195100.html: "Each season, beginning astronomically at an equinox or solstice, is characterized by ..."Max, notice my care to avoid implying that December 23 is the winter solstice.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jazzo, I am certain you are correct in surmising that the old date for New Year's Day resulted in Aries being the first of the signs of the Zodiac. My sign is either Aries or Taurus, first or second, my birthday being Apr 20, right on the cusp. Thus my friends who are into astrology account for my often schizophrenic or contradictory beliefs and habits.
There is a wealth of religious symbolism which has grown up around the equinoxes and the solstices. The best known is that of Passover and Easter, which are, of course, related. Passover is, if I remember correctly without going to look it up, the 2nd day of the Hebrew month Nisan, and falls in our calendar somewhere around the vernal equinox. Since we know from the Gospel accounts that Easter is the Sunday following Passover (the Last Supper was probably a seder, the ritual meal celebrating Passover), it should logically be the Sunday following the Jewish celebration of Passover, and it usually is, but not always. (Incidentally, the word for Easter in a number of languages is Pasqua, or Paques, or Pasca, or some other derivation of the Hebrew "Pesach" = Passover). For some reason I have forgotten, Easter is defined in Church calendars as the Sunday following the full moon which follows the vernal equinox. Hence the possible range of dates is Mar. 25 to Apr 25 and sometimes it's a week or more away from Passover, but it's always linked to Passover.
Then there is the curious case of the feasts of the two Saints John. The feast of St. John the Evangelist is Dec. 27, which, in the days of the Julian calendar, was the winter solstice. The feast of St. John the Baptist is June 24, which used to be the summer solstice (sorry Max, you only get a brief S. Hemisph. acknowledgement). I'm positive this is some kind of symbol involving either light or renewal, or both, but needs a good deal of thought. Any ideas?
Then there is the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, which occurs on Sept. 29, or near the autumnal equinox, which celebrates the triumph of that archangel over Lucifer (= lightbearer !!) and his fellow fallen angels. This is today a minor deal even in ecclesiastical circles, but it was formerly a major holiday -- so much so that it gave its name to a season. There is a Michaelmas (= Michael mass, feast of Michael, on the same pattern as Christ-mass) quarter for financial purposes and a Michaelmas term at Oxford & Cambridge.
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However, the definition of "season" is a period beginning at solstice or equinox (and ending at the next equinox or solstice; that is, at the start of the next season).
Well that's entirely my point. Who "defines" this? I'm complaining that such a definition is sometimes used, with obvious absurdity.
For me, my winter is the period of greatest cold, which is more or less evenly distributed around midwinter (in my case mid-December). This seems the natural definition of a season. It's winter when it's most wintry, and it's summer when it's most summery.
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Carpal Tunnel
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A public-spirited Canadian subject of Her Majesty's has typed in 24 Geo. 2. c. 23, the Act of Parliament that changed the dating system used in His then Majesty's Dominions and Countries from Old Style to New Style. http://www.urbanlegends.com/legal/calendar_act.htmlBingley
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