My birthday is on a wiccan holiday?

[TeaDidikai]

Sorry, can you rephrase the question?  

[Gho the Girl]

TeaDidikai

Sorry, can you rephrase the question?

What is a solar day, what is a lunar day, and/or how are they different?  

[whiporwill-o]

Gho the Girl

TeaDidikai

Sorry, can you rephrase the question?

What is a solar day, what is a lunar day, and/or how are they different?

ah, you beat me to it, lol.

sorry Tea, obvious answer to the way i had worded my question. thank you Gho.  

[Gho the Girl]

whiporwill-o

Gho the Girl

TeaDidikai

Sorry, can you rephrase the question?

What is a solar day, what is a lunar day, and/or how are they different?

ah, you beat me to it, lol.

sorry Tea, obvious answer to the way i had worded my question. thank you Gho.

Welkies. 3nodding  

[TeaDidikai]

A day is a day and a night is a night.
Some cultural opinions on that might differ, but the bottom line as far as the calenders are concerned is that a day and night cycle equal a "day".

Sorry. Still confused. Maybe I'm confused because I don't see a difference? confused  

[whiporwill-o]

TeaDidikai

A day is a day and a night is a night.
Some cultural opinions on that might differ, but the bottom line as far as the calenders are concerned is that a day and night cycle equal a "day".

Sorry. Still confused. Maybe I'm confused because I don't see a difference? confused

so... a lunar day is just nighttime? *scratches head*  

[TeaDidikai]

whiporwill-o

so... a lunar day is just nighttime? *scratches head*

I'm going to have to translate this into modern time keeping methods:

A "day" when it comes to a lunar calender is equivalent to about a 24 hour period by our modern time keeping, just as it is for a solar calender.

What made them different was not the mark of the "day" but the mark of the "date", when they started their year and how they kept track of it.  

[whiporwill-o]

TeaDidikai

I'm going to have to translate this into modern time keeping methods:

i'm sorry for my ignorance crying

Quote:

A "day" when it comes to a lunar calender is equivalent to about a 24 hour period by our modern time keeping, just as it is for a solar calender.

What made them different was not the mark of the "day" but the mark of the "date", when they started their year and how they kept track of it.

i just want to understand so i'm not just sitting here smiling and nodding like i know whats going on.

so, lunar days are specific dates, be it daylight or nighttime. how does solar days and lunar days alternate, is it every other day/24 hourish period? do you have any links that can identify how the calendars work? (i'm a visual learner sweatdrop )  

[CuAnnan]

Gho the Girl

TeaDidikai

Sorry, can you rephrase the question?

What is a solar day, what is a lunar day, and/or how are they different?

Calendar basics:

A day is the length of time it takes the earth to rotate around its own axis. Which is a period of 24 hours. Any variations thereon are so irrelevant that they can be outright ignored. (See the libration effect of the moon on the earth for specifics).

This is the same whether we use a lunar calendar or a solar calendar. Where they differentiate is in what the base unit is.


In a solar calendar, the base unit is the year. It is defined by the elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun. This process takes approximately 365.2425 days. You can work this out, to the reasonable level, by determining the amount of days in 400 years.

A leap year, which occurs in 97 of those years, has 366 days (35502 days). A non leap year, which occurs in 303 of these years, has 365 days (110595 days). Thus, in 400 years, there are 146097 days. Thus, there are 365.2425 days on average in the solar year. Now, this gets squiffy if you want to be overly scientific, with the introduction of leap seconds. But these are only really important if you're doing complex geo-coordination stuff.

So, the solar year is the time it takes the sun to complete an eliptical orbit. Mileage may vary from year to year.


A lunar month depends on how you want to define it. The most common is the length of time to complete an elliptical orbit (the synodic month). This is 29ish days (from one full moon to the next, or any other distinct phase of the moon). There are about 12.5 synodic lunar months in the year. This is, most likely, the type of lunar month used by the Gael.


The Coligny calendar is a good example of the European Celts attempting to reconcile the lunar and solar years, though I am not really aware of any definitive attempts by the Gael to do so.


Given the differences between the two, and how they are practically irreconcilable, the OP may have, or may not have, been born on Samhain. Both of the Alexandrian covens I worked with used the lunar calendar to determine Samhain but I could be mistaken on that.  

[Kitsune_Lunami]

whiporwill-o

Kitsune_Lunami

To my knowledge, Samhain is celebrated on the 31st

"November 1st was traditionally known as samhain, literally translated the 'end of summer'"

source: http://goireland.about.com/od/historyculture/qt/trad_samhain.htm

The celebration of a day and the actual day are two different things however, that's why I said "Samhain is celebrated on the 31st." It's much like Christmas, even though it's widely believed that Yeshua was born in the Summer months.  

[TeaDidikai]

Kitsune_Lunami

The celebration of a day and the actual day are two different things however, that's why I said "Samhain is celebrated on the 31st." It's much like Christmas, even though it's widely believed that Yeshua was born in the Summer months.

You misunderstand. Samhain is a very specific holiday based on a lunar date.

Anything else isn't Samhain, but a misnomer.  

[CuAnnan]

Kitsune_Lunami

The celebration of a day and the actual day are two different things however, that's why I said "Samhain is celebrated on the 31st." It's much like Christmas, even though it's widely believed that Yeshua was born in the Summer months.

Is there something in my explanation as to why Samhain is not celebrated on the 31st that you don't understand, disagree with or contest or did you just not read it?  

[TeaDidikai]

CuAnnan

Kitsune_Lunami

The celebration of a day and the actual day are two different things however, that's why I said "Samhain is celebrated on the 31st." It's much like Christmas, even though it's widely believed that Yeshua was born in the Summer months.

Is there something in my explanation as to why Samhain is not celebrated on the 31st that you don't understand, disagree with or contest or did you just not read it?

Come to think of it, I'm not sure it is physically possible for it to fall on October 31st.

I'll need to do the math to confirm it though.  

[CuAnnan]

TeaDidikai

CuAnnan

Kitsune_Lunami

The celebration of a day and the actual day are two different things however, that's why I said "Samhain is celebrated on the 31st." It's much like Christmas, even though it's widely believed that Yeshua was born in the Summer months.

Is there something in my explanation as to why Samhain is not celebrated on the 31st that you don't understand, disagree with or contest or did you just not read it?

Come to think of it, I'm not sure it is physically possible for it to fall on October 31st.

I'll need to do the math to confirm it though.

I'm not sure it is myself.  

[TeaDidikai]

CuAnnan

I'm not sure it is myself.

Did the math.

The three proposed beginnings in relation to the solar year make it impossible for it to take place on October 31st based on the standing stones you mentioned last time we spoke about this, the Gaulish word for summer or Bonsing's position arguing for spring without exception as the solar event that marked the shift is over a lunar month away from the last day of October.

That is to say, no matter what phase of the moon you mark it by (as apparently that has been disputed as well) you cannot line up the first new, full or first quarter moon after any of the proposed start dates and have the date of Samhain fall on October 31st. At best, assuming the festival is even viewed as a three-day observation and the marking phase took place the day before the solar measure- you would be landing no later than October 25th.