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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 20 March 2009 |
Spring has sprung. But you can’t tell it from the temperatures out side. This Saturday will be the first official day of the season, it feels more like January outside than March most of the time.
The designation of the seasons is an arbitrary thing. Long ago it was decided the year should be divided into four seasons of equal length. Deciding where one season ended and another began was just a matter of figuring out what season goes where.
Since snow is usually on the ground in December, it was decided long ago to call that season winter. Everyone knows winter is an old Roman term for “It’s cold outside, better put on your long toga.” And since August is so hot, they called that season summer. Summer was the term the ancient Greeks used to use to describe the heat, as in “It’s so hot, summer us are going to the beach.”
Unfortunately that left six months and two seasons unaccounted for. They decided to call the time between winter and summer – spring: a nonsense word that has no meaning whatsoever. A special meeting was held to come up with the name for the third and final season. After sorting through several suggestions, it was decided to call it “Frank.” That name lasted for two weeks until the National Federation of people named Frank lodged a protest claiming they did not want to be associated with that time of year. After another conference, they settled on autumn. Flavious Herapole, the citizen who submitted the name for consideration, won a three-week vacation to Rome. We all know about the fall of Rome, which just so happened to occur on Flavious’ trip, so that is why we also call that particular season…“fall.”
Not all parts of the world experience the seasons in the same way. Winter in Australia is their hottest season of the year. In Hawaii, there is no appreciable difference in the climate from day-to-day, it is always hot and wet. Summer for an Eskimo only means putting away the winter parka and wearing the one with less seal fur on it.
It may be time to throw away the old conventions and come up with better ways of differentiating one time of year. Every one has different ideas on what seasons are.
A sports fan knows there are only three seasons. Baseball season begins in March and ends in November. From there we spring right into football season, which ends in January. The time between is known as college basketball season.
Kids only know two seasons: School and Summer Vacation. Even that is misleading. Summer vacation only lasts two weeks (in the opinion of kids everywhere), while School goes on forever.
Farmers know planting season, growing season, harvest season, grumbling about bills season, and seed buying season.
Hollywood executives know sweeps season, rerun season and “What new reality show can we put on the air this week?” season.
I’m open to suggestions. If anyone has a better idea, let me know. If we get enough people behind us we could start a ground floor movement that will change the world. Or we could just get looked at funny, but I’m used to that.
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