Primavera
A long time ago, when I was still a fresh-faced immigrant and didn't know the many subtleties of how even the most standard things can actually differ, I walked into my classroom at the Art Institute of Boston and told all my classmates, "Happy first day of spring, everyone!" But they reacted weirdly. That was the moment I found out that spring doesn't start on March 1st everywhere. It certainly helped that back in my high school astronomy classes, I had learned about the concept of astronomical seasons, and it turns out that here in the States, seasons are defined exactly that way.
This seemed terribly inconvenient and crooked to me, much like the imperial system with its feet, pounds, and Fahrenheit. Although in this case, it's actually somewhat closer to Kelvin. So, spring starts not on March 1st, but on the vernal equinox, and summer on the summer solstice, and so on. But it's not that simple. Because these astronomical events don't happen on the same calendar day every year. Some years it's March 20th, and some it's the 21st. And autumn, for example, isn't September 20th or 21st, no. Autumn is the 22nd or 23rd. Yeah, science!
But everything has an explanation, of course. America, as an heir to Europe, calculates seasons exactly this way, and over there in Europe, it's actually more convenient to count them like this not because of astronomy, but mostly because of the Gulf Stream, which delays all the seasons. And the dates jump around because of the so-called tropical year. The Earth makes a full orbit around the Sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds—that is the tropical year. Meanwhile, our calendar year is 365 days, with a leap year every four years, except once every 100 years when the leap year is skipped, except once every 400 years when it isn't. Not everyone caught onto these subtleties at the same time, which is why Russia has the Old New Year, and the October Revolution actually happened in November.
But the reality on the ground is even more complicated.
So, there are countries where seasons are defined astronomically. And then there are those where they go by full months starting on the 1st—this is called the meteorological (or sometimes calendar) system. Turns out, it's not just used in the post-Soviet space, but also in places like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. And it's also the standard among climatologists and various other scientists whose work has anything to do with seasons, because it's simply more convenient and precise.
But wait, there's more. Seasons can be divided not only by the calendar or astronomy. There is also a third system. In East Asian countries, like China, Korea, and Japan, they use a system of solar seasons, where an astronomical event like the vernal equinox falls exactly in the middle of the season. Because of this, their spring actually begins in early February, and their summer is already underway by early May.
Long story short, it's a bit of a mess. And by the way, the Earth actually completes a full rotation on its axis not in 24 hours, but in 23 hours and 56 minutes. The extra four minutes are spent turning to face the Sun with the exact same spot as the day before.
But I also really love the six-season system that Kurt Vonnegut described in his essay collection Palm Sunday:
"Here is the truth about the seasons: Spring is May and June. What could be springier than May and June? Summer is July and August. Really hot, right? Autumn is September and October. See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves? Next comes the season called Locking. November and December aren't winter. They're Locking. Next comes winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold!
What comes next? Not spring. 'Unlocking' comes next. What else could cruel March and only slightly less cruel April be? March and April are not spring. They're Unlocking."
He nailed it perfectly. I couldn't agree more. Happy middle of spring, everyone! ))
