Sunrise to Sunset

Did you know WAY back in the olden days (as in, before sundials were introduced in 203 BC!!), the Romans split their days in two parts: before noon and after noon. In their lingo: ante meridan and post meridan. Ring a bell? That’s where our “AM” and “PM” came from.

Then when they adopted the good ol’ sundial, they split their days up into 12 hours. Sunrise to sunset=12 hours.

But…they didn’t use 60 minutes per hour. They adjusted the number of minutes in the hour depending on whether it was Winter or Summer. And in their Mediterranean latitude, their winters only had 9 hours of daylight from sunrise to sunset and their summers had 15.

So, their “hour” in winter was only 45 minutes long while their hour in summer was around 75 minutes long.

I find that awesome. It’s a reminder that many of the things we take for granted (like 60-minute hours and lawns in our front yard”) are neither natural nor inevitable, nor even immutable.

One immutable fact, though, is that time gone by is really gone and I can’t get it back.

From me to you:

Have an awesome AM and PM!

From sunrise to sunset.

TODAY.