"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 -
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