Time: Dividing the Year

The exact dates are difficult because the boundaries of the different constellations have changed a bit since they were organized. Currently there is no space between the constellations; originally there was, and the intervening space was taken up by juvenile stars belonging to no specific constellation, e.g. the thirty or so stars between Pisces and Cetus. ( Allen 1963, 10) In the poem more attention is paid to the first part of the year than to the latter because the people would have to know more precisely the date for planting, etc., than for harvest. Most, but not all, of the action of the first part of the poem takes place between March 22nd and August 30th.

Currently the year is divided into four seasons: spring starts on the equinox, March 21st, summer starts on the solstice, June 21st; fall on the equinox, September 23rd, and winter on the solstice, December 22nd. Formerly the year was further divided into eighths: in addition to the cardinals there were the ordinals: Whitsuntide, February 2nd; Beltane, May1st; Lammastide, August 1st; Samhain, October 31st. These four cardinals and four ordinals divide the year into six-week segments, easier to keep track of than the three-month segments. In several cases current society has overlaid the original date with a modern celebration: February 2nd Whitsuntide, the depths of winter, Groundhog Day, Christian. There is an old saying, “Half your corn and half your hay still in your barn on Whitsuntide day.” May 1st is Beltane, Mayday, pagan; August 1st, Lammastide, High Summer, First Harvest, pagan, (almost forgotten now), and October 31st, Samhain, Halloween, All Souls Day. I refer to these because the ancients found these dates by referring to the rising and sinking of certain stars and constellations.


back to top of page.