💾 Archived View for thrig.me › blog › 2024 › 04 › 01 › season.gmi captured on 2024-06-16 at 12:33:01. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Season

A claim was made that during Spring everyone can experience all four seasons in a single day. There are problems with this claim, most prominent the leap from "lots of people" to "everyone". This error also appears in "everyone drives a car" or "everyone owns a smartphone". Lots of people do live in temperate zones and may experience some number of seasons in a single day: perhaps there are some negligent leaves finally brought down by a spring breeze, then a sudden snow, followed by warm sunshine, etc. Another problem is with the number of seasons. I recall Pakistan having a distinctive Monsoon, but otherwise the change was from "not very cold and more wet" to "hot and pretty dry". At the American English School meanwhile we were taught the American temperate system narrative. Nor do all hold to four seasons; an ecologist of the realist bent might use six (prevernal, vernal, estival, serotinal, autumnal, hibernal) while a reverent Indian uses a different six (Ritu).

"Times and customs change," the black-bearded thief philosophized. "Periods of reverence alternate with periods of realism."

— "Swords and Deviltry". Fritz Leiber. 1970.

Move towards a pole, and summer shrinks to "blink and you'll miss it." A similar phenomena happens as one gains altitude, where the forest of some ways towards the equator or down the mountain is now being walked on instead of through. Desert spring follows a rare rain. A nearby sea or ocean can mute or accelerate changes. Fixed calendar systems may only poorly match these local variations; ecologists or the indigenous may look for specific changes to determine the season.

The 24 divisions are each split again into three for a total of 72 kō that last around five days each. The names were also originally taken from China, but they did not always match up well with the local climate. In Japan, they were eventually rewritten in 1685 by the court astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai. In their present form, they offer a poetic journey through the Japanese year in which the land awakens and blooms with life and activity before returning to slumber.

https://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00124/

We might call this the great turning.