Quoting "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>:
> Most other traditional cultures started the day at sunrise; the
> modern practice of using midnight is an artifact of the mechanical
> clock. Once we had the means to measure time independently of
> the sun, it became apparent just how dramatically the time between
> successive sunrises or sunsets varies throughout the year. By the
> same token, the time between successive noons or midnights (defined
> as the midpoint between sunset and sunrise) stayed relatively
> constant. Between noon and midnight, midnight was chosen because
> it was inconvenient (for pretty much everyone but astronomers)
> to change the date in the middle of the day.
There has been periods of my life in which I've more commonly been awake at
midnight than at noon. But then I live in the blessed age of electric light!
And come from a country where night is more or less optional in summer ...
Andreas