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uk.sci.weather (UK Weather) (uk.sci.weather) For the discussion of daily weather events, chiefly affecting the UK and adjacent parts of Europe, both past and predicted. The discussion is open to all, but contributions on a practical scientific level are encouraged. |
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#1
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What does midsummer actually mean?
Surely it can't mean the middle of summer as my calendar says the 21st is the official start of summer. So where has this come from? Graham |
#2
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I've always understood midsummer to be the 24th June,
So if summer starts on the 21st, then it officially ends on the 27th. For the UK, sounds about right to me. Regards. Len. "Graham Jones" wrote in message ... What does midsummer actually mean? Surely it can't mean the middle of summer as my calendar says the 21st is the official start of summer. So where has this come from? Graham |
#3
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"GKN" wrote in message
.uk... | I've always understood midsummer to be the 24th June, | So if summer starts on the 21st, then it officially ends on the 27th. For | the UK, sounds about right to me. | | Regards. Len. | "Graham Jones" wrote in message | ... | What does midsummer actually mean? | | Surely it can't mean the middle of summer as my calendar says the 21st is | the official start of summer. So where has this come from? | | There are two "midsummer days". One is the one you think it is - the solstice day when the sun reaches its maximum north declination. The other is one of the old "quarter days", which were used in days of yore to divide the year up for business purposes. From memory (although I stand to be corrected), the others are Michaelmas (in September), Christmas Day, Lady Day (in March). "Lady Day" is not quite obsolete. Students of the calendar will be aware that Julius Caesar's first attempt, although pretty good, was not spot on and Pope Gregory came up with an improvement in the Middle Ages. By the time we got round to adopting this in the 18th Century, the discrepancy was 10 days, and these were struck out of the calendar to bring the seasons back into line with where they originally were when the Julian calendar started out - and where they were in most of the rest of the world where Gregory's reform had already been accepted (so the English balking at "Johnny Foreigner's" ideas is not a new thing!). There were riots, apparently by people thinking they would lose 10 days of their lives but more likely, according to some scholars, instigated by the business people who stood to lose 10 days' profits (out of the quarter after Michaelmas IIRC). The old date for Lady Day + 10 just happens to be the date we now use for the start of the Tax year. The "official" start of summer is actually 1 June. This is because statistics are compiled by calendar month. Any statistics you see quoted for "Summer" will normally be for June, July and August (although I have also seen an "extended" summer referred to, which also includes May and September). The seasonal forecasts the Met Office and others produce are also normally for the three calendar month periods - June, July, August for Summer and December, January, February for Winter. Well, how about that? Summer is "officially" two days longer than winter! (one in leap years) Even this last observation has some basis in fact. While February was allegedly shortened to pander to certain Roman emperors' egos, it is also the case that because the earth is at perihelion in January it moves through the winter part of its orbit faster than the summer section, when it is over 2 million miles further out. So, for those of us lucky enough to live in the northern hemisphere, Winter really is shorter than Summer, even if only by a day or two. -- - Yokel - oo oo OOO OOO OO 0 OO ) ( I ) ( ) ( /\ ) ( "Yokel" now posts via a spam-trap account. Replace my alias with stevejudd to reply. |
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