Art 222 Out of the Fiery Furnace

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LABORS OF THE MONTHS
January 26, 2001

One feature of agricultural societies is a strong sense of the cycle of the year, particularly as the seasons relate to planting and pastoralist pursuits. The seasons are marked by changes in weather, but are also signalled by astronomical events that can be easily observed.

The year is divided naturally into four seasons marked by the days of longest and shortest daylight, and moments in which day and night are of equal length. From year to year, these dates vary somewhat:

The most famous music celebrating the traditional divisions of the year is the string quartet of the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), published in 1725. The sonnets celebrating each season were given in a class handout. Sheila Helser's Four Seasons Page reproduces this poetry coordinated to sections of the music. Cycles of poetry and imagery celebrating the four seasons are very widespread.

Yule, around Dec 22nd	Imbolc, around Feb 2nd
Ostara (Easter), around March 21st	Beltaine, around May 1st.
Midsummer, around June 21st	Lughnasadh or Lughnassa, or Lammas, around August 1st
Mabon, around Sept 22nd	Samhain, around Oct 31st

Many world religions incorporate observances that coincide with these four celestial dates. Some pagan religions also incorporated sacred days that fell halfway between these four points, dividing the year into eight sections.

Astronomy grew out of problems originating with the first civilizations, that is, the need to establish with precision the proper times for planting and harvesting crops and for religious celebrations and to find bearings and latitudes on long trading journeys or voyages. A Brief History of Astronomy http://www.restena.lu/al/pub/indivs/wagnjean/astronomy.htm

Observation of the heavens is part of many early cultures, and is frequently used to establish calendars and timetables for agricultural and other ritual observances. The study of the astronomical practices, celestial lore, mythologies, religions and world-views of all ancient cultures is known as archaeoastronomy. Babylonian astronomical records only exist from as early as the 17th century bce, but there are indications that astronomy probably began with the Sumerians, who developed the first formal calendar, based on the lunar cycle. There are other indications of the importance of the moon in their culture. The city of Uruk was dedicated to the moon goddess, and records of the moon priestesses suggest that these were individuals with power.

Similarly, the Egyptian calendar was well etablished by 3500 bce, and its use was tied to the cycles of agriculture determined by the regular flooding of the Nile.

The Greek Hesiod wrote Works and Days, a poetic manual of arable farming. Composed ca. 700 bce, it is one of the earliest writings in the Greek languages. Hesiod lists a wide variety of signs for the farmer, ranging from changes in the weather, observation of animals, celestial motions, and ritual activities. A few typical passages might be:

ll. 293-319
But do you at any rate, always remembering my charge, work, high-born Perses, that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter richly crowned may love you and fill your barn with food; for Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard. Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless drones who waste the labour of the bees, eating without working; but let it be your care to order your work properly, that in the right season your barns may be full of victual. Through work men grow rich in flocks and substance, and working they are much better loved by the immortals (8). Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace. But if you work, the idle will soon envy you as you grow rich, for fame and renown attend on wealth. And whatever be your lot, work is best for you, if you turn your misguided mind away from other men's property to your work and attend to your livelihood as I bid you. An evil shame is the needy man's companion, shame which both greatly harms and prospers men: shame is with poverty, but confidence with wealth.

The celestial cycles give good signs, and seem to work in forty-day cycles that become part of the rhythms of the ritual calendar.

(ll. 383-404)
When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising [Early in May], begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set [In November]. Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the year moves round, when first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains, and of those who live near the sea, and who inhabit rich country, the glens and dingles far from the tossing sea, -- strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get in all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow in its season.

In medieval calendars, calendar cycles known as The Labors of the Months were developed, in which each month (or zodiac sign) is associated with a single activity typical of the work of the land. As Emile Mâle noted, the scenes are "simple, serious and close to man's daily life," showing peasants in individual struggle with nature. Although there are similarities in the activities chosen for each month, each location develops its own individual cycle, responsive to its own local ecology. In class we looked at the imagery from Chartres and Amiens, but significant series can be found on every major French cathedral.

The most impressive calendar series we have from a medieval manuscript has to be the elaborate series illuminated by the Limbourg Brothers ca. 1415-17 for Jean, Duc of Berry, in a manuscript known as The Very Rich Hours or the Très riches heures. In these large miniatures, realistic scenes of peasants at work alternate with images of the upper class at play. Each scene takes place in an identifiable location, all properties belonging to the Kings of France in general, and the Duke of Berry in particular. We see a vivid portrait of life in the fifteenth cenetury, and get a perhaps unintentional glimpse of the vast separations between rich and poor in this period.

• Limbourg Brothers, Tres Riches Heures of Duc de Berry, 1415-1417.
• Online for the humanities class at Univ. of Chicago, with explanations of the calendar pages
• Online at the Webmuseum, some French useful
• Part of the Univ. of Champaign-Urbana's archive of books of hours.

The last series we examined in class were the large series of paintings by Pieter Bruegel, dating to about 1565. There are documents about the painter's series of the months, but much dispute about how many pictures were in the cycle. Five paintings remain, and so most scholars imagine that the original series consisted of six paintings, each representing a two-month period.

	The Harvesters 1565 Oil on wood, 118.1 x 160.7 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
	Gloomy Day 1565 Oil on panel, 118 x 163 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
	The Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565 Oil on panel, 117 x 162 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Larger versions of these images by Bruegel can be seen online in the WebGallery.

For more information about the solstice:

• Find Equinoxes and Solstices for a particular year.
• Ancient Origins: Solstice
• OCRT Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance maintains pages on how various world religions observe these days:
  • Winter Solstice Celebrations
  • Spring Equinox Celebrations and
  • Summer Solstice

Ancient Astronomy of the Fertile Crescent

• Ancient Astronomy, decent material and good links page.
• Jane Sellar Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt. The beginning sections of her book on Egyptian astronomy can be found online.

On Calendars

This Infoplease page gathers together many calendar sites.

FAQ about calendars

Nicely put together explanations of Gregorian, Hebrew, Islamic, Mayan, and Chinese calendars

Earth Calendar, tries to collect lists of all holidays everywhere.

http://merlin.alleg.edu/employee/a/acarr/art222/jan26.html
Posted January 28, 2000