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Ferris Jabr

Nov 14, 2019 • 10 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X

There have never been only four seasons. Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter, so often considered the "standard" system, applies only to the mid-latitudes/temperate zones. The concept of seasons has varied dramatically from place to place and culture to culture throughout history:

The Nile dictated three major seasons in ancient Egypt:
-Season of the Inundation
-Season of the Emergence (when fertile land resurfaced)
-Season of Low Water/Harvest

In ancient Japan the year was divided into 24 seasonal stages and 72 microseasons, each lasting a few days, with names like, "mist starts to linger," "wild geese fly north," "first lotus blossoms," and "deer shed antlers"

Gulumoerrgin seasons:

Balnba (rainy season)
Dalay (monsoon season)
Mayilema (speargrass, Magpie Goose egg and knock ‘em down season)
Damibila (Barramundi and bush fruit time)
Dinidjanggama (heavy dew time)
Gurrulwa (big wind time)
Dalirrgang (build-up)
csiro.au/en/Research/En…

The Cree recognize six seasons:
Spring/Ice Break-Up: miyoskamin ᒥᔪᐢᑲᒥᐣ
Late Spring: miyoskamin ᒥᔪᐢᑲᒥᐣ
Summer: nîpin ᓃᐱᐣ
Fall: takwâkin ᑕᑳᐧᑭᐣ
Ice Freeze-Up: mikiskaw ᒥᑭᐢᑲᐤ
Winter: pipon ᐱᐳᐣ
letsfindoutpodcast.com/2018/09/26/epi…

In the Hindu calendar there are six seasons, or Ritu:

Vasanta - Spring
Grishma - Summer
Varsha - Monsoon
Sharad - Autumn
Hemant - Early Winter
Shishira - Late Winter/Prevernal

Thailand has sometimes been given three seasons:
Ruedu nao / cold season: mid October to mid February
Ruedu ron / hot season: mid February to mid May
Ruedu fon / rainy season: mid May to mid October

Similarly, many tropical areas might only recognize 2 seasons: wet and dry

One way to classify polar seasons is by the amount of light:

Summer - The Brightness - When the sun never sets
Winter - The Darkness - When the sun never rises

We could even imagine seasons from the perspective of other creatures:

Bees
-The Time of Flowers
-The Flowerless Time

Humpback whales
-The Feeding Season
-The Breeding Season

Bears
-The Season of Rousing
-The Season of Gorging
-The Season of Slumber

There's another way to think of seasons: holistically. If we zoom way out, we can see certain global rhythms: the ebb and flow of light; the bloom and wither of plants; the expansion and retreat of ice. Earth has a million seasons, or just one, depending on your perspective.

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More from @ferrisjabr

Ferris Jabr

@ferrisjabr

Nov 2, 2023

For @TheAtlantic I wrote about how climate change is warping the seasons, why it's important to remember that the 'Four Seasons' have never been standard/universal, and how much we can adapt our concept of the seasons on a rapidly changing planet
theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

https://twitter.com/ferrisjabr/status/1195078389276655616

Those of us who grew up in the temperate midlatitudes often learn about only one seasonal cycle—Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall—and assume it applies just about everywhere. But the experience & perception of the seasons vary greatly by place, time, & culture

https://twitter.com/ferrisjabr/status/1195078389276655616

The Larrakia people of northern Australia, for ex, have a particularly diverse seasonal vocabulary, incl: Balnba (early rains), Mayilema (“speargrass, goose egg, and knock ’em down” season), Dinidjanggama (heavy-dew time) & Gurrulwa guligi (big-wind time)
csiro.au/en/research/in…

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Ferris Jabr

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Ferris Jabr

@ferrisjabr

Mar 5, 2023

The American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus), aka water ouzel, is North America's only truly aquatic songbird—the "hummingbird of blooming waters" as Muir wrote

Dippers flit about rocky streams, diving and swimming through the currents to feed on aquatic larvae and tiny tadpoles/fish

@spqchan

American dippers are named for their habit of rhythmically bobbing when perched

But why do they dip?

Theories incl: blending in w/ turbulent water as camouflage; enhanced scoping of underwater prey; visual communication in noisy environment
📹@spqchan

@ashergrey

Cornell Lab describes the dipper's burbling song as "evocative of the rushing whitewater streams this species calls home in western North and Central America"

📹@ashergrey

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Ferris Jabr

@ferrisjabr

Jul 22, 2022

I recently had the opportunity to go night snorkeling with reef manta rays off the coast of Hawai’i. A thrilling experience with amazing creatures. They eat plankton and somersault like this to maximize the amount of food they funnel into their mouths from a given area

We also saw a rippling, bristling fireworm (which you definitely don’t want to touch)

Manta ray night snorkeling/diving tours began several decades ago when people realized lights from nearby hotels attracted photosynthetic plankton, which in turn drew rays. Today,snorkeling tours use modified floating boards with lights, whereas divers use lights on the seafloor

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Ferris Jabr

@ferrisjabr

Mar 13, 2022

A tree is not a member of a formal taxonomic group, but rather a way of being a plant (tall, branching, enduring) that has evolved indep many times

Pachycereus cacti, for ex, can grow 60+ feet high, weigh tens of tons, & live for centuries

📷Leon Diguet bit.ly/3pWyPJl

Tree ferns, which have existed for more than 300 million years and were some of the first plants to evolve tree-like forms, can also grow more than 60 feet tall and live for centuries

📷 bit.ly/36eMqVg bit.ly/3vZQ8Nq bit.ly/3w1qwj4

A Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) is a type of yucca, a grass-like member of the Asparagus family, that can reportedly reach heights of 70+ feet, circumferences of 9+ feet, and live close to 1,000 years

📷 Jon Hammond bit.ly/3J7VjP5 Alan O'Neill bit.ly/3vZCABp

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Ferris Jabr

@ferrisjabr

Dec 22, 2021

I saw a viral tweet claiming that the 5 golden rings in The 12 Days of Christmas are actually ring-necked pheasants(!), which would make sense bc the rest of the first seven gifts are birds

That got me wondering: what if ALL the gifts are really birds?

📷bit.ly/3ySsWQo

Eight maids a-milking

Milk is mostly a mammalian thing, but pigeons & a few other birds produce crop milk, a nutritious, cottage-cheese like substance that parent birds regurgitate and feed their young. This is CLEARLY a coded reference to nursing pigeons audubon.org/news/pigeon-mi…

Nine ladies dancing

In many bird species, only courting males strut about as females evaluate them, but grebes are one group of birds famed for their paired courtship dances. The nine ladies dancing are definitely grebes performing an aquatic ballet