[famous]

Hi. I wrote the article. To tell you the truth, I've not (yet) found a reason why people in some places (it seems to be mainly North America and some in the UK) define seasons as beginning on solstices and equinoxes. Everyone just seems to repeat that that's when the seasons start, even if they acknowledge that there are other definitions.

I'd be curious if anyone finds a good explanation of why and how this definition took root!

[jerf]

I hypothesize that it is because we can predict the astronomical days centuries in advance, which in particular means that we can print calendars with "start of $SEASON" days on them with no fear that weather or something will contradict them.

I live in Michigan, which has a highly unstable climate. In practice as it happens right now, we're really more in "late Fall" than what we'd usually call "winter". Other years, winter has come in early November. Only the astronomical events are predictable in advance.

I offer as evidence the fact that the primary place I encounter these dates is on calendars. And once they are there, I think we have very little left to be explained; trusting words that appear to source from an authority even over the direct personal experience of our own eyes is a very common problem.

[Jedd]

Cool! Though if you've searched exhaustively, I don't like our chances of finding anything. : )

Did you find anything that indicated a causal relationship against the astrological / zodiac - they mostly start/stop on 21st of months I think?