Question by Lena L: How did the ancient Druids, Wiccans, and Pagans figure out when midnight was?
Anyone know how the ancient druids, wiccans, and pagans figured out when midnight was without use of our modern day technology/devices? Please be as descriptive as possible.
Best answer:
Answer by ?d? so??? ?nlqblue chaos jpa
Wicca is only 60 plus years old.
It has to do with the height of the moon in the sky
What do you think? Answer below!
I think an obvious way would be by tracking the stars:
At sunset, pick a star which has just risen. When it is at its maximum height, it’s midnight. Picking that maximum point could be a bit hard to pinpoint precisely, but they could sight the star using some well-placed sticks, and fine-tune over several nights. (This is the same way we determine mid-day, but picking the sun as our star)
Another way would be by the crescent shadow on the moon to determine where the sun is.
Stars.
Guesswork maybe? Or maybe Midnight didn’t play as much a role as did Sunrise, and Sunset.
Well. There weren’t ancient Wiccans, but as for the rest, it was really a union of the position of the stars and guessing.
There is actually decent information here:
http://www.crichtonmiller.com/ancient_time_keeping.htm
That being said, the webpage’s owner seems to be a nutter, so only pay attention to the stuff that points to other sources
There is also this index:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/time/Calendars_and_Concepts_of_Time.htm
it discusses a little of how each of the listed cultures did it.
And Tahuti has an excellent point, there is little to indicate ancient peoples cared much for the exact point of midnight.
Greetings!
You know, people think that they are advanced, because “Druids, Pagans, etc.” laid plans thousands of years ago FOR the things we have today, by INVENTING, WITH THEIR MINDS, THAT WHICH IS NEEDED!
But, thank you for the question, as it shows me the “opinions” of others, and that is always a good thing.Yow!
So, you all know about Stonehenge, and other Megalithic structures?
Built over 5000 years ago? Silly old New Stone-Age guys and Gals! How, and Why did they even put enough Time aside to do all that?
Did anybody research “Oil Lamps” to find that each Lamp burns at a measurable length of Time? Let`s see….when did “we” have Oil Lamps…….200,000 years ago? Longer?
And the concept of “0”? That`s one of my favorites!
So, the Moon at Zenith? That`s one way, probably discovered rather early in our Journey, eh?
We have a Class at the Grove, that delves into “How, Why, When”, and doing the research was enlightening, to say the least-Time, and Calendars are also part of the Class, part of the Druidic “Cors” that each MUST learn, before one may proceed into the rest of the 20 year learning program.
Good luck with that, enjoy the Journey!
Don`t be late!
/!
Wicca is not ancient.
Why would ancient pagans (including Druids) need to know when midnight was? Ancient people would have scheduled things according to observable phenomena: sunrise, sunset, high sun, high moon, phases of the moon, equinoxes and and solstices, etc.