So when is Twelfth Night really? There are different opinions on this.
According to one opinion it's tonight, the 6th of January. This assumes the first day is the 26th of December and the first night is also on the 26th of December.
According to another opinion it was last night, the 5th of January. This follows the Anglo-Saxon way of timekeeping where night precedes day. The first night was therefore the 25th of December followed by the first day on the 26th of December and the night of the 26th of December was the second night.
I don't suppose it really matters unless one is superstitious about Christmas decorations. They have to be down by Twelfth Night or it's supposed to be bad luck. If you do hold by that, what to do? Down by the 5th or leave it another night until the 6th?
My solution: Since there is doubt over which night is Twelfth Night, take the decorations down on or by the 4th of January. By all opinions, it's before Twelfth Night (being either Tenth or Eleventh Night).
That said, we didn't bother with decorations this year. If we had, they'd have been down by New Year. But some people do like to have them up as long as possible.
Timestamps are GMT.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Twelfth Night and Christmas decorations
Fourteen Years Ago Today
It was on this date in 1997 that we left Hartlepool with a massive van of furniture and two cats in pet carriers bound for Northampton. Hard to believe it's 14 years but it is. I was 24, nearly 25; now I'm 38, nearly 39. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the four years we spent there were four of the best years I've had so far. Well, my kidneys stopping working wasn't much fun but that was only about a month of it (most of August 1999, the eclipse month). Other than that, though, even with moving around Northampton a lot, it was good. :-)
What was particularly good about it? Apart from living near family:
1. The time I spent volunteering at the Gold Street Oxfam shop.
2. Tae Kwon-Do.
Good crowds in both places.
Timestamps are GMT.
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Monday, 3 January 2011
Six Years Later
I joined blogger.com six years ago this month. Checking my blog archive, I've blogged every year except 2008. That was part of a massive hiatus. When I came back to it(1), I decided to inject order into when I blogged and it actually worked. But I don't think that I will follow that this year. Good as it was, perhaps it's time to try blogging as and when. If that works out as blogging every day, well and good. If it works out differently, then it works out differently. It'll probably vary between the two.
I hope that I can keep this blogging stint going for longer and that the next hiatus(2) will be short. Here's hoping.
(1)I didn't think I would. It was such a long hiatus, this was an abandoned blog. But come back to it I did.
(2)There will surely be one. Check out this blog from 2005. There are gaps in blogging, some big, some small, throughout it.
Timestamps are GMT.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
5 May 7138 - It's the end of the world!
OK, I don't really think the world is going to end on the 5th of May 7138. That's just when the next great cycle of the Mayan calendar ends. As anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows, the current cycle ends in December 2012, 23 December 2012 to be precise. Some people do seem to be getting into a bit of a tizzy about it.
I suppose it's understandable considering it's attached to the idea of the end of the world, but consider this:
"The Maya believed that time was cyclic and that at the end of a great cycle of 13 Baktuns, the world would be destroyed - only to be recreated for the next cycle." Mapping Time by E. G. Richards, p. 193
A few things to note:
1. A great cycle of 13 Baktuns is followed by another great cycle. This is how it is with every calendar cycle. They repeat. Regularly. The great cycle of the Mayan calendar is no exception.
2. The idea of the world being recreated seems to have been lost somewhere. The main focus for discussion of this date and the associated "event" is the end of the world. I have yet to come across anyone mention the world also being recreated, even though that is also part of the Mayan belief.
"But Drew, what does it matter if the world is recreated if everyone is dead because the world has been destroyed?"
That brings me onto point 3:
3. This whole kerfuffle arises from the Mayan calendar and Mayan belief. Since the Mayans are no longer around, what does it matter to most people what they believed? Why pick up on this one belief just because it's about the end of the world and the date happens to be in our generation?
I see no reason to believe that the world will end on 23 December 2012. Or 5 May 7138. Or any date anyone cares to name. Will the world end at some point? Apparently the sun is going to go supernova in about 4 billion years. That should do it. In the meantime, "plan as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die tomorrow".
Timestamps are GMT.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Time to blow the dust off this
First of all, Happy New Year. Can you believe we're in 2011 already? Where do the years go and how do they fly past so quickly? New Year always gets me like this. I'll probably be over it in a couple of days.
Secondly, the Mayan calendar. Yes, the current great cycle ends next year but it will no doubt be as significant as the turn of the millennium. Some people thought that was the end of the world/return of Jesus but we're still here 11 years on. The end of the current great cycle will, I am sure, be a similar anticlimax. Another cycle will begin and end in 5000+ years time and that generation can get its knickers in a twist. :-)