It's a Cross-Quarter Day
Never mind groundhogs, astronomically February 2nd is a cross-quarter day, halfway between the solstice (winter for us, summer for my southern hemisphere friends) and the equinox.
What this means is that the slow gain of daylight, a minute or two a day, will speed up. More sunshine! I'm looking forward to it.
posted by Alwen | 10:19 PM
7 Comments:
I hope you enjoy gradually getting more sunshine. We have a little too much of it at the moment. I love the long days but the sun has a real bite to it, and we're constantly being reminded that 2 in 3 Australians will develop skin cancer.
The light, it burns!
Just kidding, my body is starving for sunlight.
Me personally, I'd like a little less sunshine! And it sounds like my wish is the sun's command!!!
"Cross-quarter day", eh? Hadn't heard that term before -- interesting.
Yesterday (cross-quarter day, as I now know) my 4yo asked why I was making dinner already, "It's nowhere near dinner time, it's not dark yet!!" Ah, the children of the northern latitudes. The winter my oldest was 2 was another particularly bad one, and somewhere around February or March the sun came out and he asked, "What is that strange glow?" Ha. That's the SUN, kiddo!
Yup, yup, yup! Celebrated in older European religions as Imbolc -- it's all about getting a little more of that sunshine in northern climes. I hope you're starting to feel it!
I learn such cool things on your blog. The thought of more sunshine is totally exciting, although I hope it doesn't thaw so fast we have more flooding. I think we've had enough flooding this fall/winter season.
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