26 Messidor, The Gateway To Hell

Our Glorious History, Part VI

<grisom> I've decided that not even Jesus can alter the navel of the world. However, it is conceivable that the world's navel will relocate when the world is reborn four years from now. Hopefully the new location, if any, will become obvious at that time.

<grisom> Oh! Almost forgot: One key thing that I do not know is when a day starts. The Western world has for the past while started the day at midnight; the Jews (and, I think, Muslims) start the day at sundown; I think much of East Africa starts the day at sunrise. I have no idea what the Mayans and Egyptians did.

<grisom> As I mentioned earlier: When does the day start and end?

"The Jewish day begins at either sunset or at nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear). Medieval Europe followed this tradition, known as Florentine reckoning: in this system, a reference like "two hours into the day" meant two hours after sunset and thus times during the evening need to be shifted back one calendar day in modern reckoning."
"The Islamic and Jewish weekdays begin at sunset."

"In ancient Egypt, the day was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise."

"Present common convention is for the civil day to begin at midnight."
"According to Slavic folklore, midnight was time when strzygas rose from graves to suck the blood of mortals, zmoras assailed the sleeping to steal their breath, and devils came for sinners. Polish Jews believed that it was the time when dybbuks possessed people, causing insanity."

<umunmutamku> YES

<grisom> *stares* Okay, I... didn't realize this would be such an easy choice. :)

Unless there are any objections, then, I say the day of the winter solstice, and the leap year, is determined by MIDNIGHT at the DELPHI MERIDIAN. This turns out to be *checks* an offset of almost exactly one and a half hours from GMT. Which, magically enough, is halfway between the time zones of France and Egypt.

<umunmutamku> So when Itzpapalotl leads the tzitzimime in a swarm down from the cracks in the sky, it'll presumably happen at exactly midnight. :)

<grisom> Ew. What?