The only thing they have in common is that spring starts in September and summer starts in December ... ditto for autumn starting in March and winter in June.
But the dates don't line up.
For those who lean toward the mysteries and vagaries of the planet's movement in accordance with where the sun lies (the astronomical family) the season of spring will spark into actual life on September 23, for that is the day when a thing called the vernal equinox takes place.
The day when the sun shines directly on to the equator and where the length of the day will be equal to the length of the night.
So, of course, further down the track when they line up again it will be the fall equinox and that takes place on March 20 ... the first day of autumn.
The day will last for 12 hours, 8 minutes and 34 seconds and the night will be 12 hours, 10 minutes and 57 seconds.
But let's not go there yet, for there is a spring upon the horizon ... if you possess the ideals of the astronomical world.
However, if one is more in tune with the meteorological way of thinking (and determining when a season begins) then you have been soaking up the spring sunshine (and chills and spots of rain) for the past 13 days.
Time for a quick poll, I declared.
So I asked six people what day is the first day of spring.
"First of September," the first said.
"First day of October because the seasons are all a month out," the second said.
"First of September," the third said.
"When the first lambs arrive," the fourth said.
"When the pollen starts," the fifth said.
"Your fly is undone," the sixth said.
Personally, I'm with No2, because it seems that over the past few decades the seasons have sort of lost their calender way, which was best reflected in the month of June this year which appeared to have arrived thinking it was the month of spring.
My late mum used to say "the seasons are always late" and she was inevitably right.
There are always the chills of September and seven or eight years ago we had a closure of the Napier-Taupo Rd in early October ... due to snow.
And there was one Anzac Day where the heat turned up to about 26C which caused a couple of the heavily garbed young army cadets standing duty at the cenotaph in Memorial Square to buckle into a fainting salute instead.
So then, last Wednesday, the alarm bells went off way down south as gale force winds and snow and big seas and dark skies at noon overtook the landscape.
The landscape of - spring.
"Typical spring weather," people were saying.
"You always get these late cold snaps."
Yes, I am inclined to agree. Late WINTER cold snaps because the best way to deal with this un-springlike weather is to concede that it is not spring for another 10 days.
There is, however, the possibility September 23 could emerge doused in damp southerlies and with a temperature struggling to reach the mid-teens.
This got me thinking so I looked up the weather page from September 23 last year to sort of reassure myself that yes, spring will be sprung on that day and that the astronomical "vernal" equinox is the day it all goes clement and wonderful.
September 23, 2015: "Rain, some heavy falls and easterlies.14C."
OK, so Mum was right after all - it'll be October 1.
- Roger Moroney is an award-winning journalist for Hawke's Bay Today and observer of the slightly off-centre.
