The start of a new year

According to the calendar, 2018 began just over 18 hours ago. Is this calendar evidence-based? Yes; in the sense that the duration of a year is well established by empirical observations. No; in that the timing of the start and end of a year is a convention. Why should it not start at the beginning of Spring? Which is the start of new growth , followed by fruitfulness before decline and sterility. That raises the question of whether or not we use a Northern hemisphere Spring or a Southern hemisphere one. Choosing a solstice or an equinox would likewise be devilled by the hemispheres being polar opposites. So perhaps the Gregorian calendar (introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582) anticipated that when used around the world, a calendar's start date for the year is essentially arbitrary. 

Those of us raised in a European tradition in this regard need remember that other cultures had (and still have) other calendars. A global society needs a single standard calendar to function. Although when I think of the feudalism approach being taken by the present administration of the USA, perhaps they should return to a Julian calendar (which immediately preceded the Gregorian version and produced over centuries a major shift in the timing of various events).

Anyway. I was still awake as midnight neared. I picked up the Pentax; changed the ISO to a very high number; went to the point of our property so that I could see down to the northern end of Snells Beach where a local land owner has provided a fireworks display every New Year for some years now. This was the best of the photos I got.

This afternoon I started my own new year with a three quarter hour jog (run and walk), during which I spotted a myna in a tree. That is my extra.