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The Modern Antiquarian Forum » True date to celebrate Beltaine |
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astro353 3 posts |
Apr 13, 2009, 12:32
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The ancient festival of Beltaine coming up soon and yet again several thousands of people will be celebrating it on May 1st...Why?.... They don't celebrate the Winter Solstice on Christmas day or the Spring Equinox on Easter Sunday but continue to go along with these artificial calendrical dates for the cross quarter days, for the most part without an acknowledgement of them being only symbolic dates Beltaine, Lammas (or Lughnasa), Samain and Imbolc are solar festivals occurring exactly half way between the Solstices and the Equinoxes. Celebrations are often held as much as week away from the actual solar midpoint. The true date of Imbolc is around the 4th-5th February, Beltaine is around the 5th to 7th May, (this year its on the 5th of May), Lammas is around the 5th -7th August and Samain is around the 5th -8th November.(There's a free download of a printable moon/astrocalendar calendar for 2009 at my astro353.com website with the exact dates for this year.) Even if you take an alternative viewpoint that the quarter days were lunar festivals then the dates celebrated still make no sense. That certain standing stones and stone circles are aligned to the solar midpoints refutes this theory anyway. Actually that one of the reasons I'm why I'm posting I did have some references from several well respected antiquarians supporting this on computer that has been lost and I would love to start compiling an even more comprehensive list of quarter day stones that people have recorded as 'activating' on the actual solar midpoints. So if you have any information about stones or circles you have visited please contact me at [email protected] or post a comment.
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Stoneshifter 379 posts |
Apr 13, 2009, 15:16
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Yes, it's crackers. There's nowt as strange as folk. Some time, a few hundred years ago, the calendar was reset and it's this that's responsible for the difference between, say, Winter Solstice and Christmas Day. What's worse is that nobody realises it - it took me ages to figure it. This is controversial but, in Bolton, at Barrow Bridge, there's a fairly well preserved stone row that has a wide view of the eastern horizon before it. There's a very prominent hill on the horizon, actually on Scout Moor in Rochdale, and the Mayday sunrise should rise from behind this Knowl Hill. It's one for your calendar. The stone row is called Thurstones. There's another one half a mile to the northwest, at a place called Burnt Edge, that does a similar trick with the summer solstice sunrise. And another a mile to the west that indicates the winter solstice sunset - that one's on Winter Hill! The archaeologists have yet to get to any of them, however ...
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astro353 3 posts |
Apr 14, 2009, 12:39
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Thanks for that if you hear of any more let me know, the new agers can get a bit funny if you bring this up, I wonder how many are being missed because nothing happens on May 1st
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bawn79 864 posts |
Apr 15, 2009, 18:36
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astro353 wrote: Thanks for that if you hear of any more let me know, the new agers can get a bit funny if you bring this up, I wonder how many are being missed because nothing happens on May 1st Astro, how big is the difference say in the sun rising between May 1st and May 5th for instance, in terms of sun widths (if that makes sense). For instance I hear that at winter solstice the sun rises in pretty much the same spot for 3 mornings in a row, would this be similar at Beltaine or vastly different?
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tiompan 5758 posts |
Apr 15, 2009, 19:50
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bawn79 wrote: astro353 wrote: Thanks for that if you hear of any more let me know, the new agers can get a bit funny if you bring this up, I wonder how many are being missed because nothing happens on May 1st Astro, how big is the difference say in the sun rising between May 1st and May 5th for instance, in terms of sun widths (if that makes sense). For instance I hear that at winter solstice the sun rises in pretty much the same spot for 3 mornings in a row, would this be similar at Beltaine or vastly different? Between 1and 5 May the sun is moving at a constant speed rising in a different point of the horizon each one sucessively further west but at the solstice it has reached it's maximum eastern or western setting and is about to change direction giving the impression staying in much the same place .
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bawn79 864 posts |
Apr 15, 2009, 20:12
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tiompan wrote: bawn79 wrote: astro353 wrote: Thanks for that if you hear of any more let me know, the new agers can get a bit funny if you bring this up, I wonder how many are being missed because nothing happens on May 1st Astro, how big is the difference say in the sun rising between May 1st and May 5th for instance, in terms of sun widths (if that makes sense). For instance I hear that at winter solstice the sun rises in pretty much the same spot for 3 mornings in a row, would this be similar at Beltaine or vastly different? Between 1and 5 May the sun is moving at a constant speed rising in a different point of the horizon each one sucessively further west but at the solstice it has reached it's maximum eastern or western setting and is about to change direction giving the impression staying in much the same place . So in other words there would be a big difference in its rising point at this time of year?
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tiompan 5758 posts |
Apr 15, 2009, 20:58
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bawn79 wrote: tiompan wrote: bawn79 wrote: astro353 wrote: Thanks for that if you hear of any more let me know, the new agers can get a bit funny if you bring this up, I wonder how many are being missed because nothing happens on May 1st Astro, how big is the difference say in the sun rising between May 1st and May 5th for instance, in terms of sun widths (if that makes sense). For instance I hear that at winter solstice the sun rises in pretty much the same spot for 3 mornings in a row, would this be similar at Beltaine or vastly different? Between 1and 5 May the sun is moving at a constant speed rising in a different point of the horizon each one sucessively further west but at the solstice it has reached it's maximum eastern or western setting and is about to change direction giving the impression staying in much the same place . So in other words there would be a big difference in its rising point at this time of year? At this time of year the sun is moving about half a degree westwards as seen from it's rising point on the horizon .which coincidentally is much the same as it 's width . So a suns width every day until June when it slows a bit .
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bawn79 864 posts |
Apr 16, 2009, 11:46
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tiompan wrote: bawn79 wrote: tiompan wrote: bawn79 wrote: astro353 wrote: Thanks for that if you hear of any more let me know, the new agers can get a bit funny if you bring this up, I wonder how many are being missed because nothing happens on May 1st Astro, how big is the difference say in the sun rising between May 1st and May 5th for instance, in terms of sun widths (if that makes sense). For instance I hear that at winter solstice the sun rises in pretty much the same spot for 3 mornings in a row, would this be similar at Beltaine or vastly different? Between 1and 5 May the sun is moving at a constant speed rising in a different point of the horizon each one sucessively further west but at the solstice it has reached it's maximum eastern or western setting and is about to change direction giving the impression staying in much the same place . So in other words there would be a big difference in its rising point at this time of year? At this time of year the sun is moving about half a degree westwards as seen from it's rising point on the horizon .which coincidentally is much the same as it 's width . So a suns width every day until June when it slows a bit . Cool thanks Tiompan.
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Stoneshifter 379 posts |
Apr 16, 2009, 12:50
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It's a sine wave - think of a camshaft (perhaps!) - and the daily rate of change of rising and setting positions is greatest at the equinoxes and least at the solstices. In some ways this is reflected by human activity - wizzing about in spring and sitting around at Christmas (also perhaps).
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astro353 3 posts |
Apr 16, 2009, 13:19
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so this is why they are getting missed because nothing happens at 'quarter day stones' because people are there too many days away.
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