the autumnal equinox came in connection with the French Revolution. On September 22, 1792, the French monarchy was abolished and a republic pro 31 claimed The Revolutionary idealists felt that since a new epoch in human history had begun, a new calendar was needed. They made September 22 the New Year's Day and established a new list of months. The first month was Vend6miare, so that September 22 became Vend6 miare 1. . For thirteen years, Vend6miare I continued to be the official New Yeaes Day of the French Government, but the calendar never caught on outside France or,even among the people inside France. In 1806 Napoleon gave up the struggle and officially reinstated the old calendar.
There are two important solar events in addition to the equinoxes. After the vernal equinox, the noonday Sun con tinues to rise higher and higher until it reaches a maximum height on June 21, which is the summer solstice (see Chapter 4), and this day, in consequence, has the longest daytime period of the year.
The height of the noonday Sun declines thereafter until it reaches the position of the autumnal equinox. It then continues to decline farther and farther fill it reaches a minimum height on December 21, the winter solstice and the shortest daytime period of the year.
The summer solstice is not of much significance. "Mid summer Day" falls at about the summer solstice (die tradi tional English day is June 24). This is a time for gaiety and carefree joy, even folly. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is an example of a play devoted to the kind of not-to-be-taken-seriously fun of the season, and the phrase "midsummer madness" may have arisen similarly.
The winter solstice is a much more serious affair. The Sun is declining from day to day, and to a primitive so ciety, not sure of the invariability of astronomical laws, it might well appear that this time, the Sun will continue its decline and disappear forever so that spring will never come again and all life will die.
Therefore, as the Sun's decline slowed from day to day and came to a halt and began to turn on December 21, there must have been great relief and joy which, in the end, became ritualized into a great religious festival, marked by gaiety and licentiousness.
The best-known examples of this are the several days of holiday among the Romans at this season of the year. The holiday was in honor of Saturn (an ancient Italian god of agriculture) and was therefore called the "Satumalia." It was a time of feasting and of giving of presents; of good will to men, even to the point where slaves were given temporary freedom while their masters waited upon them.
There was also a lot of drinking at Satumalia parties.
In fact, the word "saturnalian" has come to mean dis solute, or characterized by unrestrained merriinent.
There is logic, then, in beginning the year at the winter solstice which marks, so to speak, the birth of a new Sun, as the first appearance of a crescent after sunset marks the birth of a new Moon. Something like this may have been in Julius Caesar's mind when he reorganized the Roman calendar and made it solar rather than lunar (see Chap ter I).
The Romans had, traditionally, begun their year on March 15 (the "Ides of March"), which was intended to fall upon the vernal equinox originally but which, thanks to the sloppy way in which the Romans maintained their calendar, eventually moved far out of synchronization with the equinox. Caesar adjusted matters and moved the beg ning of the year to January 1 instead, placing it nearly at the winter solstice.
This habit of beginning the year on or about the winter solstice did not become universal, however. In England (and the American colonies) March 25, intended to repre sent the vernal equinox, remainedthe official beginning of the year until 1752. It was only then that the January I beginning was adopted.
The beginning of a new Sun reflects itself in modem times in another way, too. In the days of the Roman Em pire, the rising power of Christianity found its most dan gerous competitor in Nfithraism, a cult that was Persian in origin and was devoted to sun worship. The ritual cen tered about the mythological character of NEthras, who represented the Sun, and whose birth was celebrated on December 25-about the time of the winter solstice. This was a good time for a holiday, anyway, for the Romans were used