Does the date of Mid-summer/Mid-winter day vary?

[KatyMac]

Or is it always the same date

I was just wondering if it was a stationary date like Christmas or moveable like Easter?

And we celebrate Mid-summer/Mid-winter (kind of) but we seem to ignore the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes

Bump

no it stays the same

I always thought it was the 3rd Sunday in March and 3rd Sunday in October but I believe this year it is the 4th Sunday in March but that could be because its a leap year??

I haven't got a clue to be honest

this might help

Midsummer's day - June 21st - marks the summer solstice, the day when the sun reaches its northernmost point and stops before beginning its journey back to the south of the equator. The sun reaches its highest point in the sky and Midsummer's Day is the longest day of the year - in northern latitudes of the British Isles the sun is only just below the horizon even at midnight, and it never gets completely dark.

However...

June 24th is a church "Quarter-day" and the feast of St. John the Baptist ? the Christian feast day which is nearest the astronomical summer solstice (which is at precisely 1.48 am GMT on the night of 21st June 2000) and is the day celebrated in much of mainland Europe, particularly Scandinavia, as Midsummer's Day, another case of the church adapting a Christian celebration to accomodate a pagan festival. The British, of course, have to be different from the rest of Europe. We celebrate Midsummer's Day on midsummer's day!

The longest day is approx 21 June and the shortest day approx 21 Dec - can be 20th some years I think but generally it's the 21st.

And Spring/Autumn again is 20th/21st.

Midsummer's Day is the 24th June - that's different

Variation caused by Gregorian Calendar apparently...

I like Midsummer's Day to be on 24 June because that is DD2's birthday

My cousin's birthday is 24th June too, MI, and I've always associated that with Midsummer's Day.

My birthday is either Lady Day or Primrose Day

Oh, have just googled - Primrose only, not Lady (no idea where that came from - probably my mum trying to make me be a Laydee)

duh, should have read the thread, I thought you asked when clocks went back, I'm off to bed