It's Summer!

[cambrensis]

It looks like Summer, feels like Summer, smells like Summer....it must be Summer!! The ancients had it right! Our problem is that we often do not know or perhaps have forgotten to apply the old rules; as a result we often hear things such as:"Heavens! Spring is early this year! (This in late February...)

We all know of the equinoxes and solstices. All we need do is apply them. The next such "event" is June 21st, the Summer solstice, which makes it Midsummer's day. If all is mathematically correct, then yesterday May 1st, was the beginning of Summer. Hurrah!!

[cambrensis]

Making each season of three months' duration, then they will go as follows: Spring - February to April; Summer - May to July; Autumn - August to October; Winter - November to January. Checking this sort of thing I always go back to the "old language". Doing this with the Seasons, I find that the whole thing depends upon Summer. The word used is "Haf" (rhymes with "starve" as "f"="v" in Welsh). The word for Winter is "Gaeaf" ("shut down Summer"), and it begins on November 1st. Looking at months we have July- "Gorffenaf" (-"end of Summer"), while the word for September is "Medi" (-"reaping"). It works out very well. The long school holidays are timed for harvest, of course. The word for "Autumn" is "Hydref", which also means "October". When I came first to Essex in the early 1960s, I was surprised to find that a child could be signed out of school to go pea-picking with its mother, getting paid for the labour by the local farmer! This was in September.
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[tony41]

The Met Office sets the seasons as follows: Spring is March, April, May, Summer is June, July, August, Autumn is September, October, November and Winter is December, January, February.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather...s-spring-start

[cambrensis]

Yes I know...but what thy say and what happens do not seem to add up; there is a month's difference. And I can remember, as a small boy, "helping" with haymaking in August.

Things like seasons vary considerably throughout the world of course. Some areas have only one season, but two and three are not uncommon; there is a six as well. I have not yet found one with five! It is not uncommon for Egypt to have two harvests in a good year.

[cambrensis]

In my great grandfather's time, November 1st was still New Year's Day and October 31st was, as it still is, "Nos Galan Gaeaf", its Eve, or, literally, "the Eve of the Calends of Winter". "Calends" is the Latin word for the first day of any month. The men and boys went in groups from door to door and sang New Year's carols for "calennig", a hand-out or gift for the New Year. This would be a piece of cake or sweets and a drink -lemonade for the boys and something stronger for the men. By the time of my grandfather that had moved to December 31st and was so when I was a small boy. Having finished the "concert" we would call out, with one voice: "Calennig!!" So we had caught up on what London had decided was New Year!

[moonwitch]

The Met Office sets the seasons as follows: Spring is March, April, May, Summer is June, July, August, Autumn is September, October, November and Winter is December, January, February.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather...s-spring-start

I'll go with the Met Office as I have for 59 years now. and have summer when the weather is hot

"You may have heard the old saying 'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out'. It's been in use since at least the 18th century. A clout is an old word for a piece of clothing. Some people think 'May' refers to the month but others take it to mean the May flower or hawthorn."

​I have always taken it to mean the Month and it works for me

[bluebedouin]

...When I came first to Essex in the early 1960s, I was surprised to find that a child could be signed out of school to go pea-picking with its mother, getting paid for the labour by the local farmer! This was in September.
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Because my parents both worked for the local farmer our holidays had to fit in with the harvest.I remember a couple of times we had holidays when the other kids had gone back to school.Good points,you had the beach etc to yourself.Bad points,there were no other kids to play with!

[cambrensis]

...Some people think 'May' refers to the month but others take it to mean the May flower or hawthorn."

​I have always taken it to mean the Month and it works for me

I've never quite understood why there was any contention about the meaning. The misunderstanding is extremely basic. The plant is the "hawthorn" and its blossom could not have been referred to as "May blossom" until the word "May" appeared in English after the Norman conquest. The Old English for the month was concerned with milking and not an ancient goddess. Welsh uses Mai (from the Latin and not from Norman French) for the month, while the plant translates as "whitethorn".

Adding as an "edit" as this has been published now:

Sorry! The above sounds a bit terse, but something was lost in transmission!

The word "May" means both here. It's simply a pun. Think of the opening lines of "Richard III" by W.S.,,,,"...made glorious Summer by this son of York...." Is it "son" or "sun"? It's both....we rely on the sound only.

A similar thing may occur when trying to translate from one language to another, especially if the two languages belong to different "families". So students of Hebrew may have a tough time with the word "ruakh" and also with the expression "of God". "Ruakh" is usually translated as "Spirit", so at the very beginning of Genesis it speaks of the "Spirit of God". The word we use comes from the Latin for "breath" (think "inspiration" etc). "Ruakh" means "spirit" and it means "breath" and it means "wind". For the ancients the wind was the "breath of God" and a storm was his anger.

Students used to ask which of the three was meant in Genesis. It means all at the same time. And "of God" points to the Superlative and means "mighty/important/biggest/loudest" or whatever suits.

"The Spirit of God" means just that and it means "the breath of God" and it means "a mighty wind" - all at the same time!! No distinction would have been made.

When Moses ascended the "Mountain of God" it was the highest mountain in his locality. All the debating about whether the "mountain of God" refers to Sinai or Horeb is totally pointless. He was not travelling back and forth between the two!

The reference to the plant as "May" comes about because of the month associated with its blooming.