why is ireland one month out on the seasons?

It is a pagan thing. We have a different calendar.

This came up before

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2055727667

I regard the seasons this way,

November, December, January and February as winter,

March and April as Spring.

May, June, July, August as Summer.

September and October as Autumn.

The idea that all the seasons should each be equal and three months long seems rather childish. Spring and Autumn are just transitions of two months each between the two main seasons.

Pangea wrote: »

Thats a load of codswallop
seasons are so bigger than weather .
If there was one season then the leaves would never fall in autumn, there would be no snow in winter, no daffodils in spring.

You thought I was serious in that statement? How did that happen?

Which spring do the Daffodils flower in Ireland? Irish spring or rest of the Western world spring?

The traditional celtic seasons... does anyone else think our traditional seasons are more accurate for Ireland than the meterological ones?

I notice our traditional summer season is usually more accurate, e.g. May and June are more summer like here than August.

Chicken Run wrote: »

You can tell when it's summer in Ireland - the rain gets warmer !!

and starts falling vertically

silverharp wrote: »

probably been asked before but as my wife is German get in the neck when we move to a new season. So why is Feb Spring, Aug Autumn etc.?

The real issue is why your German wife assumes that what is conventional in Germany must be good throughout the world.

Seasons may or may not be loosely related to weather, but they are related to climate and to (agri)culture, so they vary from place to place. Much of the world has only two seasons ("wet" and "dry") while others have more than 4 seasons. Where I live there are six seasons, which refer to the traditional food sources available at different times of the year. Even where there are four seasons, there is no reason why they should be the same four seasons, celebrated on the same dates, as in Germany.

Boardwalker correctly identifies the basis for the Irish seasons. Summer is the quarter that revolves around midsummer (there's a bit of a clue in the name), winter the quarter that revolves around midwinter, and spring and autumn revolve - you can see where I'm going with this - around the spring and autumn solstices. The Celts had festivals at midsummer, midwinter and the two solstices, and four more slightly smaller festivals at the mid-points between these four days. The latter four festivals were considered to mark the turning point of the seasons. When the Roman calendar of 12 months was adopted, the conventional turning points of the seasons got moved to the nearest 1st of the month. Perfectly rational and sensible. I don't know why the Germans have yet to discover it.

gbee wrote: »

A point about the Daffodils. Daffs like cold weather and are generally portrayed as breaking through snow, and are heralded as the sign that Winter is ending and Spring can't be far away.

Horticulturists on the boards may confirm that 'warm weather' dafs don't shine as brightly and wither and die sooner giving a short display, as opposed to the one that break ice and snow to bloom.

Daffs should start to bloom still in Winter and the Spring should arrive as they fade ~ but they will bloom regardless, the weather will dictate how long and how bright.

Daffodils began blooming around Glasnevin in the past few days