Arbitrary celebrations
This New Year lark never fails to amuse me.
There are going to be massive celebrations worldwide tonight.
Why?
My point is that there is nothing at all remarkable about midnight tonight. There is no invisible signpost in space to mark this particular point in the Earth’s orbit. In fact there is no way of determining when a new years starts except by some arbitrary figure on a calendar.
We know that the Earth takes roughly 365.25 days to orbit the Sun and that’s fair enough, but the orbit is a circle, and the circumference of a circle has no beginning or end. You can only measure a circumference by picking a point at random and measuring around from that.
Many cultures have different calendars and celebrate their new year at a totally different point. Who is to say that they are correct and our culture is wrong? Or vice versa?
Basically what the celebrations are about is that the calendar hanging on the kitchen wall has suddenly become redundant and has to be replaced with a new one. Nothing else will change so maybe we are all just celebrating the purchase of new calendars and diaries?
Of course there is one way of fixing a point in space without argument. All the have to do is determine the precise number of years [or microseconds?] since the Big Bang, and start from there. That is theoretically the starting point of the Earth’s orbit.
Now why didn’t the scientists think of that?
And for the sake of custom – Happy New[?] Year everyone!
Happy Calendar Changing Day and may the next 365 days be good to you!
That's more like it!
And Many Happy Returns to you sir.
2020 is a leap year, so 366 days!
(There you are, more pedantry!)
Happy New January
Point of order m'lud: it's an ellipse.
As I am well aware. I was just fishing for pedants.
Actually; since the Sun is moving in it’s own orbit, the Earth is moving in a spiral thru space.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!
As the Sun orbits our Milky Way galaxy, so the galaxy travels through space but in an unspecified direction. Who knows, but maybe Space is also orbiting perhaps through a higher dimension?
I wonder when we should be celebrating Happy New Milky Way Orbit?
'Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding, in all of the directions it can whiz …
… and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in Space,
'cause there's bugger all down here in Earth'
Happy 365.256363…. days!
Hah! I must find that song on YouTube [again]. Great lyrics.
We write appointments and reminderson our calendar. If we didn't have to get a new one each year we would have to endlessly repeat all the stuff we did during the previous 12 months! I was hoping for something better in 2020. Anyhow, I hope 2020 is a good one for you.
Now that is a very fair point. Except that most people probably use smartphones these days which have a habit of leaving it up to random to delete everything.
And GD, may I be the first to wish you a very Happy Perihelion for the 5th, and to all who visit your blog 🙂
Using that standard, this year is going to be short by a few days, which may not be a bad thing? Happy Perihelion to you too.
You can only calculate time from the 'Big Bang' if you accept that there was one, which is tantamount to believing in any version of the Sky Pixie, requiring more faith than fact. The alternative 'steady state' theory, which may be true although less popular these days, doesn't offer any definite starting point for date purposes.
So in the absence of any immediate resolution of that conundrum, we make the best of the inadequate system in operation, so a Happy New Year to all, whether you support Sir Fred Hoyle or not.
Jayzus but I've collected quite a haul here! Personally I'm not really bothered whether there was a Bang or not, but I have often wondered what was supposed to have existed before it [if it did exist]. If it didn't then what started everything?
This is why I stayed home to read your blog instead of ringing in the New Year.
Also to make sure your feed was on my new sidebar at http://dwrhodes.com
It's been a very exciting evening. I need to calm down now.
There's a nice bit of self promotion if ever I saw one! Anyone else and I would have marked it as spam!
So I get my own little mention? Nice one, thanks. I'm honoured. In return, you have been added [at great trouble] in my little list of Other Links. Now you'll have to calm down all over again.
Well thanks for not marking me as *SPAM* lol. But I did want to show you the change-up. I know I go through different formats and incarnations over the years, but pretty sure this one is here to stay. A resolution that became somewhat of a Christmas gift to my own 'Herself,' Dorian, was that I'd write every day and spend 2020 trying to make something of myself in the writing wracket.
You're one of the few I can count on who's been steadfast and true, posting very often and little changes around here. My objective is to match your consistency even though I still work fulltime and you’re retired, but I know I can do it as long as I don't spend too much time leaving long, rambling comments on the blogs of Irish writers. *cough*
I confess I had a little chuckle when I saw your comment – Jayzus! He's started another one!
My consistency has become a little easier [if you are going to match it] as I don't post on a daily basis like in The Good Old Days. I frequently miss a day [or two] these times. I have also become somewhat remiss in replying to comments.
I stuck your new site onto my list on the sidebar. There seems to be a slight problem though in that it is stuck on your previous post. I'll have to look into that.
Happy Putting Wrong Date On Your Checks Day! I haven't had to write out a check this year yet so it's still a 50/50 chance I'll get it right.
Incidentally, it's now (almost) 12 days since the days started getting longer rather than shorter. So why isn't it getting warmer?
I've always thought it was a bit unfair that the longer the days became the colder it got–for the first few months that is. Of course the tilt of the earth vs earths' position around the sun might have something to do with it?
I think I wrote two cheques last year and one the year before. I prefer cash as it's cheaper [tradesmen don't have to pay tax on untraceable transactions so they give a lower quote!]
We have actually had a pretty mild winter so far. I have to remember though that a couple of years ago the country was brought to a standstlll by a massive blizzard in March. I'm happy that the days are getting linger but I'll be much happier around April when things begin to warm up a bit.
Just an update here: I wrote out 3 checks this morning and got the year right on every one of them. It's 2200, right?
It's been mild here as well–I'm worried.