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Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

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Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#21

Post by foruhar »

Iran (and some neighbors) starts the new year on the Spring Equinox, the first day of spring. It’s named Now Ruz which translates to new day. Kinda makes sense to kick off the year at spring. It’s also pretty precise give that it’s an astronomical event. It dates back to at least Zoroastrian times (15th century BCE).

All the equinoxes and solstices are celebrated there. The winter solstice is named Yalda Night, which was a few nights ago and Christmas may be related to this astronomical event. There is also Mehran and Tirgan. Ancients did like to get together and party.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yald%C4%81_Night

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#23

Post by piombisallow »

Dolototo wrote: post #15

Would be awesome if more would start celebrating the winter solstice again instead of Christmas. It would unite us more and based on science and not on some arbitrary thoughts. So in the spirit of it: happy winter solstice everyone! (I know I'm 2 days late)

The world is increasingly united around Christmas, mostly stripped of its religious connotations.

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#24

Post by piombisallow »

The impulse to chop up life into neat and rounded boxes is one of the most annoying and pernicious. Also the jarring rationalistic condescension towards millennia of evolving norms of time keeping. If only this guy was in charge of our lives, how neat and rational everything would be!

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#25

Post by thriftwy »

gardenhedge wrote: post #16
skissane wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We still cling on to the stupid and useless concept of months. Dividing the year into 12-or-so roughly equally sized pieces has a lot of advantages for human beings. The biggest problem is the randomness of the month lengths. I like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry454 as a replacement (except I’m not sure about the proposed leap week year, I like the ISO 8601 leap week rule better)

A lot of advantages... Such as?

You can divide year into halves, thirds and quarters. You do not have to negotiate boundaries every time.

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#26

Post by mcdonje »

foruhar wrote: post #21

Iran (and some neighbors) starts the new year on the Spring Equinox, the first day of spring. It’s named Now Ruz which translates to new day. Kinda makes sense to kick off the year at spring. It’s also pretty precise give that it’s an astronomical event. It dates back to at least Zoroastrian times (15th century BCE). All the equinoxes and solstices are celebrated there. The winter solstice is named Yalda Night, which…

I like that. I'm in favor of a calendar that works that way. The spring equinox does make a lot of sense. It's when plants start growing again where most people live in the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere seasons being the opposite of the north actually makes an equinox more equitable choice for a global calendar start/end point than a solstice.

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#27

Post by kazinator »

People originally regarded spring as the start of a new cycle, and that comes a bit later. Like when the snow melts, frost thaws and new plants start shooting up. The first month was originally March. The names September, October, November and December refer to the seventh, eight, ninth and tenth months.

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#28

Post by [deleted] »

foruhar wrote: post #21

Iran (and some neighbors) starts the new year on the Spring Equinox, the first day of spring. It’s named Now Ruz which translates to new day. Kinda makes sense to kick off the year at spring. It’s also pretty precise give that it’s an astronomical event. It dates back to at least Zoroastrian times (15th century BCE). All the equinoxes and solstices are celebrated there. The winter solstice is named Yalda Night, which…

[deleted]

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#29

Post by jameshart »

globular-toast wrote: post #6

It's fun to laugh at this, but they made the system we still use. We still cling on to the stupid and useless concept of months. They fixed their stupid calendar. We cling on to it.

I think one of the most remarkable things about calendars is the endurance of ‘weeks’. For thousands of years, across civilizations, we’ve been counting off cycles of seven days, presumably successfully keeping in synch with one another, leading to the broad agreement across billions of humans that today is a Sunday.

Re: Why isn't the new year on the winter solstice? (2018)

#30

Post by s1artibartfast »

Dolototo wrote: post #15

Would be awesome if more would start celebrating the winter solstice again instead of Christmas. It would unite us more and based on science and not on some arbitrary thoughts. So in the spirit of it: happy winter solstice everyone! (I know I'm 2 days late)

I personally advocate for Thanksgiving to all of my ex-us friends.

That said, I think any effort to coerce the global community into some shared holiday would be much more divisive than unifying.

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