Re: CHAT: Weird Seasons was The English/French counting system

As far as I know, the seasons don't have official start dates.
The equinoxes and solstices are used by astronomers to divide the
year up into four parts; each such point is named by the season in
which it falls; and therefore the four parts inherit the name of the
event which starts them off.  I really don't think that is meant to
be an assertion that the tropical season of summer doesn't begin until
the summer solstice and lasts until the autumn equinox.

In the US, at least, summer is considered to run from Memorial
day to Labor Day, or from June through August; that puts both ends
almost a full month earlier than the astronomical interpretation.
However, the vernal equinox does seem to be commonly considered the
"first day of spring"; that's probably because the Easter
stuff gave it heightened visibility among the masses. (Which
visibility also resulted in such gems as the egg-balancing myth. :))

I've lived in Georgia my whole life, where we have all four seasons,
but spring and autumn tend to be relatively short compared to summer
and winter.  So it makes sense for me to have spring be, say,
March 20th through May 31st, summer be June 1 through September 21st,
and autumn be Sept 21st through Nov 30th, and winter be Dec 1st through
March 19th.  But if pressed for an even division I would lump the
rest of March into spring, not borrow from June to postpone summer to
the solstice.

-Mark

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