Re: The New Year

I'm late to this discussion, but there it is.  Part of the reason I hide my
horns is the overwhelming input!  At any rate, I think the Julian Calendar
and its spring New Year made a whole lot of sense.

Starting the New Year in the middle of winter and the coldest part of the
year, smacks of the same logic that starts the new day at the darkest hour
of the night.  I suppose it's a threshold one crosses.  The pendulum at the
midpoint of its swing.

The old Teonim used to celebrate Spring on the equinox, but settled for
March 1, Summer on June 1,  Harvest on September 1, and winter on December
1.  Nothing is perfect; the Celts had the New Year starting on All Saints
Day (November 1) which was also the beginning of winter; February 1 for the
beginning of Spring, May 1 for the beginning of Summer, and August 1 for the
beginning of Harvest.  I rather like that, because Harvest is my birthday,
and the New Year is my husband's!

Sally
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."



----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim May" <butsuri@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2002 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: The New Year


> James Landau writes:
>  >
>  >  Where have you decided to start your new years, and in what
>  > seasons? The belief that the year should change with winter (or
>  > more precisely, ten days from the start of winter) seems
>  > arbitrary. Rosh Hashannah occurs in September, the Julian calendar
>  > if I recall began on April Fool's Day, and only the other day an
>  > episode of "The Simpsons" was on in which Officer Wiggum mentioned
>  > he had confiscated some fireworks from some Chinese people who --
>  > get this! -- claimed they were celebrating New Year's in February!
>  > If anything, I would think the obvious time to start a new year
>  > would be with spring. Spring is where things begin again; in winter
>  > it's just a lot of dying and washing away of The Old. (But looking
>  > at my new date, the Kankonian New Year begins EXACTLY when we're
>  > celebrating the beginning of spring.  Hmmmm.)
>
> Well, the Old Persian calendar started the year on the vernal
> Equinox*.  So does Rick Harrison's Vorlin calendar, IIRC.  I'm planning
> to do the same thing myself (but I'm waiting for my language to evolve
> itself to the point where it can produce names for months, etc. before
> I do any serious work on my calendar).  I'm also considering starting
> the day at... well, 06:00 in our system.
>
> * At least, approximately.
>