"Currently, perihelion occurs about 14 days after the December solstice, thus making January 4 the mean date of perihelion. January's perihelion puts Earth at a distance of 91,402,505 miles (147,098,074 km, 0.98328989 AU) from the Sun and July's aphelion is at 94,509,130 miles (152,097,701 km, 1.01671033 AU)"
So, the astronomical event that coincides more of less with Christmas is perihelion, the part of Earth's orbital movement closest to the Sun, culminating around the date of 4th January (in 2011 it's the 3rd of January.
How come people use to have important ritual holidays in this part of the year ever long before the official Christianity parable, dedicated to various deities over time, for example:
"It is beyond doubt that Christmas was originally a pagan festival. The time of the year and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin.
Isis, the Egyptian title for the "queen of heaven," gave birth to a son at this very time, about the time of the winter solstice. The term "Yule" is the Chaldee (Babylonian) name for "infant" or "little child.""
(from: Christmas: Is it "Christian" or Pagan? Lorraine Day, M.D.http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/holidays2.htm)
Other sources mention Baal festivities, Mithra festivities, Adonis festivities etc, but I could not find quotes right now.
Anyway, the idea that Christmas was intentionally super-positioned on pagan rituals is not new, neither the subject of my post.
The question is what astronomical event invariably takes place in this period. Maybe the ancients chose this period because of the earthly symptoms of
Anyway, over the time, some people really interfered with the calendar system. I cannot realize if this shifted some real meaningful ritual dates and made them unknown by the large public or not. Maybe the calendar needed the corrections that were made, but still these raise some questions about what are we celebrating and when.
And the parades and public festivities originate in the antic "lesser mysteries" that were taught to the public through dances and theater, or ritual shows e.g. mask-dances.
The opposite of perihelion is around the 4th of July, in many of the years it falls right on the 4th. Rings any bells? :))
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the common winter solstice-midwinter rituals was explained exactly the other way round: the sun is at his lowest, so the scared humans feel the need to mimic it and "call it back":)But it turns out that astronomically the sun is closer??! Babylonians were good astronomers, so they must have known the Sun is actually closer around these dates. Where they calling back the Sun or actually calling something to come from its direction, since it was closer these days....?
ReplyDeleteAcolo, în loc de echinocțiu cred că vroiai să zici solstițiu.
ReplyDeleteÎn rest, cred că sărbătorile astea păgâne au mai mult legătură cu solstițiile și echinocțiile.
Pe lângă faptul că nu sunt foarte ușor de determinat, periheliul și afeliul nu influențează foarte mult vremea, și în plus data periheliului mai și variază destul de mult în timp. Ea avansează cu o zi la fiecare 58 de ani, ceea ce înseamnă 34 de zile la 2000 de ani, iar un ciclu complet o dată la 21.000 de ani.
Fenomenul se cheamă precesia periheliului:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsidal_precession
"(At) December Solstice...we can see the Sun nearly perfectly aligned with Sagittarius and the Center of the Galaxy (GC).Keep in mind that the Sun and the entire solar system as a "cloud of matter" are rushing headlong towards approximately Vega(...)After the Earth turns in its orbit to head in the same direction towards Vega, it will take literally another two weeks for the Earth to catch up with and accelerate towards the Sun and GC to reach its Perihelion (closest approach to the Sun).Note how the Moon at this time is now ahead of the Earth in its orbit, adding to the draw of the Earth back towards Galactic Center...
ReplyDeleteThis drag and opposition between the orbits is what creates the stress in the Earth's crust, produces the Wobble, the slow shifting of the axis, and generates the motions of the tectonic plates which produce the Great Rift, the subduction zones, and both quake and volcanic activity." from http://www.michaelmandeville.com/earthchanges/bulletin/perihelion/perihelion.htm
"Jan 6 Original Christmas Day. In the original Church of the Way for the first 325 years of Christianity, January 6, was celebrated as Jesus / Yeshua's birthday. Then Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, even making it the official state religion of Rome. He couldn't resist moving Yeshua's birthday to his own god, Sol Invictus' birthday, Dec. 25 on the Roman Calendar (which was the Winter Solstice back then, a day which in our modern calendar usually falls on Dec. 21). Many early Kristian churches continued to celebrate Jan 6 as Yeshua's birthday up into the 600's AD even tho Constantine had changed the date."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.northernway.org/school/way/calendar/jan.html
Mda, numai problema e că în primii 325 ani de creștinism, adică acum aproximativ 2000 de ani, data periheliului nu era nici pe departe pe 6 ianuarie, ci era cam la 34 de zile distanță.
ReplyDeleteDeci, cum spuneam, cineva s-a jucat un pic cu calendarul, dar acuma daca am vrea sa gasim datele reale, de unde le luam...?
ReplyDeleteNu știu dacă neapărat s-a jucat cineva cu calendarul. Precesia e un fenomen ce apare mai tot timpul când ai mișcări de rotație, chiar și la un titirez.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession
Tot ce-i necesar e să observi lungimea ciclului de precesie, care în cazul ăsta a fost determinat ca fiind în jur de 21.000 de ani.
Nu prea pricep, am gasit un mod de calculare a solstitiului in orice an, si inaintea erei noastre, iar periheliul teoretic ar trebui sa fie tot la o distanta de 14 zile, ca acum, sau nu?
ReplyDeletehttp://mb-soft.com/public3/equatime.html
(mai jos e un calculator, care iti da datele solstitiului etc)
"periheliul teoretic ar trebui sa fie tot la o distanta de 14 zile, ca acum, sau nu?"
ReplyDeleteNu. După cum tot spun periheliul (și afeliul) se decalează la fiecare 58 de ani cu o zi față de echinocții (și solstiții), din cauza mișcării de precesie a periheliului, nu foarte diferită de aceea a unui titirez.
Wikipedia tinde să fie printre cele mai informative.
http://earthsky.org/space/are-the-december-solstice-and-the-january-perihelion-related :
ReplyDelete"So in this century, perihelion always comes just after the December solstice – when Earth's northern hemisphere is most tilted away from the sun – bringing the longest night of the year for the northern hemisphere.
These two astronomical events are separated by about two weeks for us. But they were closer a few centuries ago – and in fact must have happened on the same day for a few years around 1300 AD."
Wikipedia e plina de formule si nu le pot procesa asa rapid, nefiind fizician, dar aici am gasit ce se vede...mai scrie ca acum precesia e tot mai incetinita, deci prin 6000 AD periheliul va coincide cu echinoctiul din Martie (anul nou la egipteni currently...parca)
Pe un alt forum, cineva (dupa ce facea tot felul de calcule pe care mie mi-e lene sa le fac) zicea asa "it seems the date of perihelion moves AROUND 1 solar day every 58 years"...
Uf... da, "AROUND 1 solar day every 58 years" înseamnă că poate o fi 1,01 zile sau 0,99 sau așa ceva. Nu există numere întregi în fizică.
ReplyDeleteOricum ideea de bază rămâne. Și, după cum ai găsit și tu în citatele alea, în timpul unui secol periheliul nu variază foarte mult, doar cu o zi sau două, dar când e vorba de milenii, deja se schimbă povestea.
Nu trebuie să procesezi cine știe ce formule. Dacă peste tot îți zice că se decalează cu o zi la 58 de ani, eu zic că ai putea să accepți și tu faptul...