OK, a quick Yorkshire Day question for Gentle Readers—which eighth of the year is your favorite? Let’s number them:
- Winter Solstice-Groundhog Day. Xmas and New Year’s. Snow, ice, sledding, that sort of thing.
- Groundhog Day-Vernal Equinox. A miserable month of dreary, grey foulness, but followed by the first intimations of Spring!
- Vernal Equinox-May Day. Opening Day, and Spring in all its glory, depending of course on where you live.
- May Day-Midsummer. Verdant summer, the end of the school year, and the really long days.
- Midsummer-Lammas. True-summer, with really long days, hot weather, grilling and no school. Also, mosquitoes.
- Lammas-Autumnal Equinox. Dog days. The start of school. More mosquitoes.
- Autumnal Equinox-Hallowe’en. The High Holidays (usually), and then Crisp Autumn days and the leaves turning.
- Hallowe’en-Winter Solstice. Thanksgiving and the dying year. The Holiday Season, with lights and songs and such.
Well, and of course this depends on location (Gentle Readers from the Southern Hemisphere are welcome to comment about how this looks from there) and climate and so on. I’d like a Top Three from each as is willing to comment; I suspect that there will be some very popular ones and some with no supporters, but perhaps I’m wrong.
As for me, my favorite slice would be the third one, with seven placing close, and four to show. Love that Spring.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
Five, then two, then three. (I live in a Mediterranean climate.)
3 & 7 equally, and then, hrm, either 8 or 1.
7, definitely. Then 3 and 8, in some order. Yay fall. (Actually, the second half of 6, the really early part of fall, is good too. But the first half of 6 is too hot, so we’ll skip that.)
7, then 3, and then, hm. Like Chaos, I’d say the second half of 6 is pretty good, but the first half, bleah. I’d have to go with 4, with things sprouting and growing in the garden and blooming and all that good stuff.
Is anybody in New England *not* going to pick 3&7 as their top two? I think I assumed that was universal…
When I was a kid in San Diego, I might have said 5, when the June gloom finally blows off and you’re not freezing at swimming lessons and it’s beach weather. But a lot of those slices are all pretty much the same, in San Diego.
Hmm. 2 and 7 for me. And 6, I guess, if I need to pick three.
If you’d asked 20 years ago, my list probably would have been 3, 4, and 7, but that’s changed in the intervening decades.
I’m strongly 7&8-biased, then 3 if I had to choose. If I weren’t so light-dependent, I’d probably choose 1 next, except that I actually tend to spend winters fairly moody.
peace
I would, I suppose, be 4, then 6, then 7 here. In South Bend, we don’t usually see warm weather until April is half over, and it starts cooling down in mid-August, and the garden goodies come in thick and fast. If I had more time to enjoy the winter holidays and winter sports, our splendidly snowy winter season might rank higher.
Depends a lot on climate. In Boston: 3, 4, 7, for sure. In Pasadena: 2, 3, 8, I think. Not sure about order.
Have to agree with Amy — 7 & 3 are why we have New England, right? Now that New York has same-sex marriage? I guess there’s an interesting question of 7 versus 3 for us New Englanders — 3 was just spectacular this year, especially after that winter, but normally I think I’d give 7 the nod.
To show… I’d have to say 6. Fall is the bomb.
Well, in southern California I would have said 8, then 3, then 5, neatly avoiding the various rainy and dreary seasons.
But now in the Southwest where there’s a more standard 4 seasons, I have to go with 8, then 4 and 5. Cause wow, spring is amazing. 🙂 And boy howdy, I like the lights and hoopla of Christmas. 🙂 6 is too hot, 7 is too busy, 1 and 2 are two cold, and 3 is my newly found allergy season (bleah!).
New England or not, I live on academic time. 4&5 are times of rest and bright possibility. 6 is the worst — the panic as your grand summer plans collide with the realities of finitude. 7 used to be my favorite, now it’s the prelude to the soul-grinding 8.