cross-quarter days

[nibot]

I've long thought it a little counterintuitive that seasons are said to begin and end on the equinoxes and solstices—after all, wouldn't you naïvely expect the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, to be the middle of summer (midsommar!) and not its beginning? (I would say that the seasons and the length of the days are 90 degrees out of phase... )

I learned on the radio today that the days midway between solstices and equinoxes are called cross-quarter days, and in many cultures do mark the boundaries of the seasons.

Today is November's cross-quarter day, marking the middle of astronomical autumn, and the first day of traditional winter.

Comments

fwiw

[reverend-kate.livejournal.com]

Up at the top of Lake, there is an antique phalanx of convenience, liquor, drug and stationery stores known as Webster's - it has been around for as long as there has been an Altadena.

In the hallway of their rear entrance, there is an image of the foothills where I live, covered in snow, taken in January. Which makes sense, given the charts you've posted. Though it was cold here this year, certainly there was no snow. People are quick to attribute human causes to global warming, and I'm not a meteorologist/geologist so I can't comment on the available data. But I wonder if it will ever snow again here during my lifetime. Maybe once?

Anyway, thinking of 10th August as one way to consider the beginning of Fall Proper just seems wrong. It is WAY too freakin hot, even into October, to feel in any way Autumnal. Intuitively, the equinoxes and solstices do seem like a silly place to start a season, but as it happens in So Cal, it works pretty well. It must be different Back East, when summer ends late August and indian summers are rare. Or are they?

Anyway,

a) we should hang out, and
b) is this the most responses you've ever had to a post?

Re: fwiw

[nibot.livejournal.com]

a) yes! there's a farmer's market, tomorrow, no? want to go? I don't know where it is. (Altadena?)

b) it's a lot for recent times, but i think I used to get way more. I think my peer group went through its livejournal phase, and most are not very active here anymore. )-: