{"id":2784,"date":"2011-06-19T07:17:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T13:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2784"},"modified":"2011-06-19T08:54:57","modified_gmt":"2011-06-19T14:54:57","slug":"solstice-is-coming-but-summer-is-here-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2784","title":{"rendered":"Solstice Is Coming, But Summer is Here Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

An exchange on The Wild Hunt<\/em> as to when the “summer festival season” properly began<\/a> led a commenter to post this link<\/a> in response to the statement that summer begins on June 21.<\/p>\n

I hear idiot television newspeople (but I repeat myself) saying that all the time at this point in the year.<\/p>\n

From The Straight Dope:<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

There is a widespread misconception in this country–which extends, I might note, to the makers of most calendars, dictionaries, and encyclopedias–that summer “officially” starts on the day of the summer solstice, June 21 or 22, which is the longest day of the year. Americans also believe (1) that there is some valid scientific reason for doing it that way, and (2) that everybody in the Northern Hemisphere does it that way, and always has.<\/p>\n

None of these things is true. So far as I have been able to discover, no scientific or governmental body has ever formally declared that summer starts on the solstice. . . . .<\/p>\n

“It isn’t really clear how the astronomical definition [i.e., summer starts on the solstice] got started,” says Kevin Trenberth, a climate researcher at the University of Illinois in Urbana. “Although the sun-earth geometry is clearly the origin of the seasons on earth, it has nothing directly to do with temperature or weather.”<\/p>\n

He notes that meteorologists define summer simply as June, July, and August. “For practical purposes, the meteorological definition is the best one, being very closely to the [weather] statistics,” he says.<\/p>\n

In fact, it appears that June 1 was accepted as the beginning of summer in the United States until relatively recently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Go the link to read the part about when summer used to be calculated in Ireland\u2014not May 1, as some might think.<\/a><\/p>\n

The moment of\u00a0 the summer solstice is 1716 hours UTC, June 21st. Track your solar festivals here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An exchange on The Wild Hunt as to when the “summer festival season” properly began led a commenter to post this link in response to the statement that summer begins on June 21. I hear idiot television newspeople (but I repeat myself) saying that all the time at this point in the year. From The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[127,148],"class_list":["post-2784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-festivals","tag-solstice"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-IU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":455,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=455","url_meta":{"origin":2784,"position":0},"title":"Celebrating the wrong solsticeIn Britain,\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Celebrating the wrong solsticeIn Britain, it's time for media coverage of the summer solstice mob at Stonehenge and elsewhere, but some archaeologists think that today's Pagans and friends are celebrating the wrong solstice.It's all in the pig bones, you see.The Telegraph newspaper editorializes,\"And so this multicultural nanny [English Heritage] appointed\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7279,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7279","url_meta":{"origin":2784,"position":1},"title":"How They Celebrate the Summer Solstice","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"From 2012, a BBC piece on how Latvians celebrate the summer solstice: It is not a complicated festival. All you have to do is head out to the countryside, get a fire going, stay up all night waiting for the sun to come up and drink lots and lots of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Latvia\"","block_context":{"text":"Latvia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=latvia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5738,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5738","url_meta":{"origin":2784,"position":2},"title":"Celebrating a Slavic Solstice","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The website EnglishRussia displays photos of a group of Russians celebrating Kupalo, the summer solstice.","rel":"","context":"In \"Russia\"","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=russia"},"img":{"alt_text":"From EnglishRussia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/kupalo2013001-11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/kupalo2013001-11.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/kupalo2013001-11.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=18","url_meta":{"origin":2784,"position":3},"title":"Summer Solstice Nothing this year\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 18, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Summer Solstice Nothing this year in the way of formal outdoor ritual: At the moment of the solstice, I should be streaking across the prairie en route to Chicago aboard Amtrak's Southwest Chief. But I still check my favorite archaeoastronomy site to know just when it will happen.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12935,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12935","url_meta":{"origin":2784,"position":4},"title":"How Smokey Bear Would Celebrate the Summer Solstice","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Flames leapt into the June sky, illuminating the attentive faces of the surroundng watchers, while waves of heat rolled off the fire. Around us was darkness, mountains, and forest. I was thirsty, so I walked over the cooler to get some water. On the way back, my boot felt loose,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bears\"","block_context":{"text":"bears","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=bears"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/6-11-2022-fire-sm-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9623,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9623","url_meta":{"origin":2784,"position":5},"title":"How Paganism is Good for Men","author":"Chas S. 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