Yeah, actually that has bugged me since I first found out how the British refer to it as “midsummer’s day” — the Earth hasn’t warmed up enough around here to do planting until a way into May, and there’s a concern about a hard frost until after May 1, which (with “midsummer” being in the middle) would fall after the beginning of summer.
In the US, the summer begins with Memorial Day weekend, and ends with Labor Day weekend.
Dear Sunken,
I know that there is a ‘normal’ American calendar, but for following the seasonal calendar, which is a ‘version 2.0’ of the olde Celtic calendar, “Wheel of the Year”, here are the established calendar days:
Feb. 2, Imbolc, Candlemas, St. Brigit, 1st shoots come up through the snow, 1st day of Spring;
March 21, Eostre or Ostara - equinox;
May 1, Beltane, ‘Blade and the Cup’, 1st day Summer;
June 21, Lughnassa, Litha, Midsummer - solstice;
Aug. 1, Lammas or Loafmass, 1st Harvest -corn, 1st day of Fall;
Sept. 21, Mabon, 2nd Harvest - grain, (cornucopia flows), equinox;
Oct. 31, Samhain, or Hallowe’en, Last harvest -meats, 1st day of Winter;
Dec. 21, Yule - solstice.
Mind you, I mentioned ‘Celtic’, which predates any Marxist assumptions of ownership to May 1st.
The ‘American Summer’ extends between federal government sanctioned three day ‘holidays’, of which one USED TO BE A SOLEMNITY, (as opposed to mattress sales), to one that was passed by a DEMOCRATIC Congress, to reward all the political hacks with union ties.