Now my friends in the northern hemisphere might be a little perplexed by my saying that since it's still summer there. And by logic one would think that, given the fact the earth is spherical, all that stuff should pretty much be the exact opposite from north-to-south: i.e., north:summer / south:winter. But it doesn't.
Fact is, in North America seasons are delineated using the crazy idea of the relative positions of the sun. So when the sun is lowest in the sky (solstice with the shortest daylight) marks the beginning of winter. Next time when the sun is midway in the sky, marking the equinox, is the beginning of spring. And so on.My blithe assumption that this was how the world works was shattered on Friday when, while out with 3 Australian friends, they all were so happy the next day was the first day of spring. "No it's not," I countered, thinking of when autumn would start in the US. "Spring shouldn't start until around 23 September or so." My utterance was followed by silence as they all exchanged that uh-oh-there-goes-that-crazy-American-again glance I've come to know so well.
"No dear," one woman said as she gently took my hand as if I were a backward child, "spring always starts 1 September."
I think I actually gaped.
Turns out that in Australia, rather than go through that whole sun-thing the year is simply divided into quarters. Sorta like a seasonal fiscal calendar. So Sept-Nov is spring, Dec-Feb is summer, March-May is autumn (NEVER "fall"), and June-Aug is winter.
Which is, I guess, as good an interpretation for them as any. But I think they might consider adopting one of the many aboriginal calendars. These can have 4, 5, even 6 or more separate seasons, depending on the particular region, due to Australia's rather diverse climate areas. However unlike the seasonal fiscal calendar in use tied to nothing in particular, these ancient peoples based them on natural yearly phenomenon.Wow. Basing a calendar on nature. Crazy idea huh?
- Farmer Ted
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