so much for New Year's resolutions

I can't believe it's been, what, ten days, since I last posted. Not even February yet, and my New Year's resolution is already frailing at the edges.

New Year, there's a thing. Why is the Chinese New Year and the Japanese New Year around the same time as our New Year? I reckon they must have shifted it, otherwise it's a pretty big coincidence, don't you think? Why do we celebrate the New Year on January 1, anyway? The Jews have theirs in September. The Maori have theirs in June. I mean, it's pretty arbitrary when you decide to start the year.

The beginning of spring seems logical to me. But then, I guess it depends whether you're looking at the sky or the earth around you.

Ok, I've just done a quick Google - what did people do before Google? And I found out I'm right - logical as ever. The Babylonians began their year with the first new moon after the spring equinox. The Maori, on the other hand, dated their year from the new moon after the Pleiades rises (above the horizon, I'm assuming). Except some Maori tribes used the rising of Rigel (a star in the constellation Orion).

Ok, that was more than anyone wanted to know. It's funny though, that everyone seems big on the moon (I'm pretty sure the timing of the Chinese New Year has something to do with the moon). And people dating things from the movement of different stars. I mean, it doesn't surprise me Mike's brothers know all that stuff, about the night sky, but they're always going on about people in olden times going to bed with the sun and getting up with the sun ... Just another of the zillion misconceptions about our ancestors, I guess. I collect those, too. Mike has a long list.