Yule is not over! So...
Dec. 27th, 2003 03:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniFirst off, I am a firm believer in celebrating Yule/Christmas for the full span of time, not just one or two days.
Psychologically, we spend far too much emotional and physical energy building up to let it die in just one day. No wonder people tense, hyper, and depressed, in turns. If we celebrated for longer, then if one of those days doesn't live up to your expectations, there's always a chance the next day will be better....
And magically, if we are going to burn the logs and/or string those electric lights all over the place to call the sun back from the brink, we might as well do enough magic to bring it back for the whole year.
Traditionally, this has meant celebrating one day for each of the coming months of the year, or the Twelve days of Christmas (which is actually 13 days, since Christmas itself wasn't counted... the "first day of Christmas" is actually December 26th, and the Twelfth Day is Epiphany, or January 6th)
"But there aren't 13 months!" I hear from the peanut gallery... Actually, there are... if you define "one month" as how long it actually takes the Moon to make one revolution around the Earth (as measured against a "fixed star") instead of what it looks like in the sky.
Our current calendar as lasting from full moon to full moon, or (roughly) 30 1/4 days each (so we fudge, a little, and have some months be 30, and some 31 days). Multiply that by 12 and you get 363 days -- pretty close to a full year, especially if you're fudging anyway, and throw in a leap year now and then (which 2004 will be).
But when you define "a month" the other way -- by how long it actually takes Moon to actually circle the Earth, or a "sidereal month," -- then it's roughly 28 days long. There are 13 sidereal months in a year, and when you multiply that out, you get 364 days -- even closer to a full year than the 12 month system we use now (before the fudging came into play).
So. If you're Neo-Pagan, and celebrating Yule, the holiday isn't over until January 3rd. If you're Christian, it's not over 'till those three king-dudes come riding over the hill on the 6th. And since I have both Neo-Pagans and Christians on my list, I intend post messages in the Holiday Spirit unto the very end!
Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!
(watch this space)
Psychologically, we spend far too much emotional and physical energy building up to let it die in just one day. No wonder people tense, hyper, and depressed, in turns. If we celebrated for longer, then if one of those days doesn't live up to your expectations, there's always a chance the next day will be better....
And magically, if we are going to burn the logs and/or string those electric lights all over the place to call the sun back from the brink, we might as well do enough magic to bring it back for the whole year.
Traditionally, this has meant celebrating one day for each of the coming months of the year, or the Twelve days of Christmas (which is actually 13 days, since Christmas itself wasn't counted... the "first day of Christmas" is actually December 26th, and the Twelfth Day is Epiphany, or January 6th)
"But there aren't 13 months!" I hear from the peanut gallery... Actually, there are... if you define "one month" as how long it actually takes the Moon to make one revolution around the Earth (as measured against a "fixed star") instead of what it looks like in the sky.
Our current calendar as lasting from full moon to full moon, or (roughly) 30 1/4 days each (so we fudge, a little, and have some months be 30, and some 31 days). Multiply that by 12 and you get 363 days -- pretty close to a full year, especially if you're fudging anyway, and throw in a leap year now and then (which 2004 will be).
But when you define "a month" the other way -- by how long it actually takes Moon to actually circle the Earth, or a "sidereal month," -- then it's roughly 28 days long. There are 13 sidereal months in a year, and when you multiply that out, you get 364 days -- even closer to a full year than the 12 month system we use now (before the fudging came into play).
So. If you're Neo-Pagan, and celebrating Yule, the holiday isn't over until January 3rd. If you're Christian, it's not over 'till those three king-dudes come riding over the hill on the 6th. And since I have both Neo-Pagans and Christians on my list, I intend post messages in the Holiday Spirit unto the very end!
Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!
(watch this space)
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 01:12 pm (UTC)I'm glad.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 03:03 pm (UTC)I'm glad you're glad.
And I like your icon...
no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 03:09 pm (UTC)Interesting fact - December 22nd was the Solstice this year, but up north here the earliest sunset was on December 10th and the latest sunrise will be on Monday Dec 29th...
Syncopated Seasons
Date: 2003-12-27 05:29 pm (UTC)Yes. The overall amount of sunlight per day gets shorter and longer... But that doesn't mean the days get shorter or longer in an even way. That could be why, culturally, the different "Bring back the sun" festivals all generally happen around the same time of year (in December in the northern hemisphere and in June in the southern), but they're not fixed on a common date.
It's sort of like snipping away at a piece of paper -- you can snip different amounts from either end, and tape them back together differently, too.
But it's the general trend toward darkness or lightness, that our brains respond to, seeing as we did not evolve with an inborn sense of minutes and seconds and such.
So, shall we think up a name for the 13th month?
Re: Syncopated Seasons
Date: 2003-12-28 02:53 pm (UTC)Kaiju Big Battel!
Date: 2003-12-27 07:09 pm (UTC)*ga-DUNG!!!*
~rolls head over heels as if Hobbes-tackled~