What is winter?
Eoin C. Bairéad
ebairead at GMAIL.COM
Wed Feb 24 11:30:48 UTC 2010
Hi
apart altogether from the southern hemisphere...
In fact it's not apart from anything. Because seasons are local. Lots of the
world has two seasons - rain and not-rain.
The month and feast names in Irish give some clue to the seasons on an
island that is, if that's not oxymoron, extremely temperate. The range
between the hottest day ever on record and the coldest day ever on record is
about 50 ºC or for those still counting with fingers and two toes, 90 ºF
September is Meán Fómhair - literally the middle of Autumn.
and St Brigid's Day, February 1st is "teacht an Earraigh", the coming of
Spring.
So, here in Ireland,
Spring is February, March, April.
Summer is May, June, July.
Autumn is August, September, October.
and Winter, therefore, is November, December, January.
So, provided the weather isn't over-extreme, that makes sense, because bang
in the middle of Winter and Summer we have the solstices.
and bang in the middle of Spring and Autumn we have the equinoxes.
OK?
Eoin
On 24 February 2010 11:06, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: What is winter?
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> Summarizing the “What is winter” thread in the ADS forum.
>
>
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Eoin C. Bairéad
Dublin, Ireland
Áth Cliath, Éire
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