Seasons

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)"
<catlady at ...>
wrote:

Carol:
> who has yet to figure out why people refer to Christmas and
> New Year's as occurring in midwinter when winter has barely begun >>

Catlady:
> Because the theory that seasons BEGIN on the Solstice or Equinox is a
> big modern hoax. If the season is defined by length of day, with
> winter having short days and long nights, then whatever length is
> defined as 'short', there are an equal number of short days before
> the Winter Solstice and after it. And there are an equal number of
> long days before the Summer Solstice as after it, which is why
> Mid-Summer Day approximates the Summer Solstice -- or do you complain
> that the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is set when Summer has
> barely begun?

Geoff:
I see where you're coming from, but here in England at least, we look
upon the season changes as starting round about the times of the
Solstices.

Personally, I always visualise the length of days as approximating to
a sine curve in Maths where the dips and troughs correspond to the
relevant Solstice. As we approach the Winter Solstice, for example,
the length of the day changes almost imperceptibly in the last few days
leading up to 21st December and then afterwards, the change is
equally gradual until you get to, say, yesterday, when I suddenly
realsed it was still fairly light until about 5.45.

But this isn't the case with the weather. Here, certainly, we usually
expect the coldest spells of weather and possibly the wettest in
January and February which are more disliked by us than October
or November.

Similarly, although April and May are the same distance from the
June Solstice temporally speaking, July and August always see
better, more settled and hotter weather; hence, we do look upon
the Solstices as being the beginning of the season changes - or
at least nearer to the beginning than the midpoint.