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So I'm talking to Brö, and the subject of the summer solstice comes up. There's a notion in Wicca (and elsewhere in paganism) that the seasons start at the cross-quarter days as opposed to the weatherman's notion that they start at the solstices and equinoxes. It got me to thinking why, and how that works, and all that stuff, so it obviously deserves a journal entry. This is probably written up elsewhere, but screw it. I might incorporate this into a lesson at some point.
First, a visual aid:
That's a sine wave, and here it's representing the Sun's path where the horizontal axis represents time (a single year) and the vertical axis represents (you pick) either the position of the Sun against the celestial sphere or the length of the day (meaning amount of daylight; of course every day is 24 hours long). Either way, the top point of the wave is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the bottom point is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The starting (and ending) point is the spring equinox, where the day and night are of equal length but on the increase; the other point where it crosses the middle is the fall equinox, again day and night of equal length but days are on the wane. So we have a diagram of the year from March 21 (approximately) to March 21 (in the northern hemisphere).
So, we have four seasons. I won't go into the notion that not everyone necessarily agrees that there are four seasons, or that not everyone assumes they are of equal length. Seasons are a man-made construct, just like months and weeks and such- they may be based on astronomical events but the divisions of the seasons are man-made. But let's go with the idea that there are four seasons of equal length.
When do they start? Well, if you want to do it in the laziest way possible you can say "okay, we'll just divide the year into four using the most obvious four points along the sine wave, the top, the bottom, and the points where it crosses the middle. That's where the seasons start." It's easy, it's obvious, and if you only care about the starting points it makes sense to do it in a simple way like that.
The pagan viewpoint requires some more points on the line. We celebrate 8 solar holidays throughout the year. There's the aforementioned solstices and equinoxes, and then the half-way points between them for a total of 8. The half-way holidays are called the 'cross-quarter' holidays for reasons that are now obvious.
So when we divide up the seasons, we want to put summer not from the top of the curve to the half-way point, but move it over 1/8th of a year earlier, so that summer runs from half-way between the midpoint and the top, peaks at the top, and ends at the point that's half-way between the top and the midpoint heading down. So the middle of summer, the height of summer, is the longest day of the year. Shakespeare was referring to that shortest night in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Similarly, the season of winter is the darkest part of the year- the eighth before the winter solstice and the eighth after it.
This makes more sense to me. Now, I know someone who believes that Texas seasons include a winter one eighth of the year long, spring and fall one quarter each, and summer three eighths long. But that gets too complicated for my brain, so I'm sticking with the standard pagan system.
First, a visual aid:
That's a sine wave, and here it's representing the Sun's path where the horizontal axis represents time (a single year) and the vertical axis represents (you pick) either the position of the Sun against the celestial sphere or the length of the day (meaning amount of daylight; of course every day is 24 hours long). Either way, the top point of the wave is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the bottom point is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The starting (and ending) point is the spring equinox, where the day and night are of equal length but on the increase; the other point where it crosses the middle is the fall equinox, again day and night of equal length but days are on the wane. So we have a diagram of the year from March 21 (approximately) to March 21 (in the northern hemisphere).
So, we have four seasons. I won't go into the notion that not everyone necessarily agrees that there are four seasons, or that not everyone assumes they are of equal length. Seasons are a man-made construct, just like months and weeks and such- they may be based on astronomical events but the divisions of the seasons are man-made. But let's go with the idea that there are four seasons of equal length.
When do they start? Well, if you want to do it in the laziest way possible you can say "okay, we'll just divide the year into four using the most obvious four points along the sine wave, the top, the bottom, and the points where it crosses the middle. That's where the seasons start." It's easy, it's obvious, and if you only care about the starting points it makes sense to do it in a simple way like that.
The pagan viewpoint requires some more points on the line. We celebrate 8 solar holidays throughout the year. There's the aforementioned solstices and equinoxes, and then the half-way points between them for a total of 8. The half-way holidays are called the 'cross-quarter' holidays for reasons that are now obvious.
So when we divide up the seasons, we want to put summer not from the top of the curve to the half-way point, but move it over 1/8th of a year earlier, so that summer runs from half-way between the midpoint and the top, peaks at the top, and ends at the point that's half-way between the top and the midpoint heading down. So the middle of summer, the height of summer, is the longest day of the year. Shakespeare was referring to that shortest night in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Similarly, the season of winter is the darkest part of the year- the eighth before the winter solstice and the eighth after it.
This makes more sense to me. Now, I know someone who believes that Texas seasons include a winter one eighth of the year long, spring and fall one quarter each, and summer three eighths long. But that gets too complicated for my brain, so I'm sticking with the standard pagan system.
