leap years

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FourWinds F
FourWinds Mar 28, 2006 17:24:17
Replying to tiompan

Then there's the thing about planting crops under a full moon to help them grow. Some modern gardeners swear by that.

Is it a coincidence that Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox? The pagan fertility festival that our modern Easter replaced was probablty on the day of the first full moon after the vernal equinox and so seems to point at planting crops at this time. If so then knowing when the equinox occured was rather important.

P PeterH
PeterH Mar 28, 2006 17:46:54
Replying to FourWinds

The first is true only in that gardeners are superstitious too. Gardening lore is a fascinating mixture of practical advice, mnemonics and nonsense

The second point is a religious one. I am not denying that calendars were used for fixing religious events. On the contrary, I see that as their prime purpose. In the agricultural year they had secondary purposes of fixing feast days, market days and later - rent days.