Is it just me, or does anyone else in the northern hemisphere find it bizarre that here in Ireland, November 1st is considered to be the first day of winter, rather than December 1st? (Likewise, spring is considered to be February-April rather than March-May, etc.) Or is it just in the UK that summer includes August…?
5 thoughts on “In the bleak mid-Autumn”
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I believe this is because the Celtic new year used to start on November 1st, before it was declared All Saints Day and the Julian calendar was implemented. Though, I am just guessing.
Even that’s somewhat debatable (e.g. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#Samhain_mistaken_as_New_Year)… and if it is true, it seems strange that the same doesn’t happen in (say) Scotland or Wales, in my experience anyway.
If one looks at the Welsh names for months one sees that July (Gorffenaf) translates directly into “End of summer”, thus having winter starting on November the first makes sense.
Also the shortest day of the year is in December, making it logical to have winter November – January since it’d put the shortest day roughly in the middle of winter.
It certainly feels like winter down here in Cork..
Don’t know for other european country, but here in france winter starts the 21/22th of december (each season starts around the 21th).