Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Season(al) Disorder

So today is officially the first day of Autumn in Australia. But it is not yet the equinox, you say. No it most certainly is not! However like so many other things, Australia assigns the season a little differently than everyone else - they start their seasons on the first of the month which is the Meteorological way of doing things. I had never heard of this as I have lived all my life believing that the seasons changed on the Solstices and Equinoxes. This I have learned is the Astronomical reckoning of the seasonal changes. This has been very educational because I have also learned that there are MANY other ways of assigning the seasons:
Ireland uses an ancient Celtic calendar system to determine the seasons, so spring begins on St Brigid's Day on February 1. Some cultures, especially those in South Asia have calendars that divide the year into six seasons, instead of the four that most of us are familiar with.
In Finland and Sweden, the dates of the seasons are not based on the calendar at all, but on temperatures. Here, spring officially begins when the average temperature rises above 0 °C (32 °F). This means that the seasons within each county start and end on different dates, depending on the regions and their climate.

It still feels like Summer, so I am holding out until March 21st to admit to Fall.