Saint-Joseph school
A few years ago, in Quebec City, first-grade students at the Saint-Joseph school were busy. They were preparing a show to celebrate the arrival of spring. 25 students were happily singing the song “Bonjour, Monsieur printemps”. [1] I don’t really know why. I always thought the real title of this nursery rhyme was “Monsieur Printemps, dans son habit vert pomme.” This title seems more representative to me. The first words are as follows:
This morning a little man
With a face as fresh as candy
Wearing a beautiful apple green outfit
Arrived in the valley
It was perhaps to greet him
that immediately mister the Sun
with all his red rays
put his nose to the window
then through the meadows and the woods
all the little children
sang at once…
I remember that as the youngest in my class, I was placed at the very front of the choir. Because I sang out of tune, Mother Cecile asked me to pretend. Leading the group, she also mimed the words, to remind us. It was a bit complicated and a bit long for first-year students.
Why this rhyme? Because from the first months of the year, we are always eager to be done with winter. I also believe that it was to reward us who had worked hard all winter. The first graders of the Saint-Joseph school in the Saint-Sacrement district of Quebec, had practiced “Mr. Spring in his apple green suit” all winter. When I was very young, I learned that year after year, we relive a new time. A time when nature adorns itself beautifully after dark winter nights. It opens up to new days of sunshine.
But when does spring begin?
This nursery rhyme is one of my fondest memories of childhood. It expresses my astonishment at seeing nature transform and the prospect of the pleasures of summer. This leads me to ask myself another question. When exactly does spring arrive? It seems that no one knows.
What kind of spring are we talking about exactly? The one with young girls dressed with flowers. The one with terraces warming us in the sun, or Van Gogh’s almond trees. Easter and family reunions. The first drops of maple sap and spring car rides or Marcel de Dubé’s lilacs. It is indeed this kind of spring that we are talking about. These imaginary images are all very beautiful, but they do not determine the beginning. All this remains a little vague.
To my knowledge, the calculation of the dates of the seasons goes back to several ancient civilizations. For example, the astrological calculations of the Druids [2] predicted four ephemerides around the 20th day of the month. December,March, June and September divide the year into four seasons according to the following events. The summer and winter are the solstices when daylight hours are either the longest or the shortest of the year. The autumn and spring equinoxes correspond to the days where the duration of sunlight and the night are equal.
Several of these dates were imprecise and subsequently appropriated by Christian celebrations. Notably, Christmas, December 25, and Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17. The latter having long been reserved for the Irish, we can no longer retain it as the beginning of spring.
I propose that the time change announces the beginning of spring.
Given the uncertainty surrounding the arrival of spring, I propose that the time change to be it. Time change announce more hours of daylight during the summer. This is a great victory over long and difficult winters. Despite this, many people would like to abolish the event.
Time change is, to my knowledge, the only social event that does not generate any economic impact. In fact, it is totally useless. But, in my opinion, this is not a reason to abolish it.
If the economic impact does not exist, we could create it by celebrating the arrival of spring. We could thus pay tribute to all those who worked hard all winter. This would honor the students of the first grade class of the little Saint-Joseph school in Saint-Sacrement in Québec. Many years ago.
The petition
In the spring of 2024, a petition with 75,000 names called the federal government to permanently stop daylight saving time.
According to Brampton resident Irene Shone, who initiated the petition, [3] daylight saving time is unnatural and harmful to health. The Canadian Sleep Society (CSS) is a national organization that promotes healthy sleep through research and health professionals. According to them, daylight saving time induces sleep deprivation at the beginning of spring. It imposes later darkness during the summer. This promotes late bedtime, social disconnection and greater sleep loss.
But the SCS does not tell us whether we would be happier or not? Have we forgotten to consider that the darkest period of winter is when the days are the shortest. That, it is what brings the most seasonal depression? Have we forgotten to consider that seasons in the northern countries are very different from those in the southern countries? We need to highlight an event that makes us see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It is a bit strange to see such associations or groups commonly denouncing pleasure in all its forms. What about good wine, good food, and the warmth of daylight? Why to always pretext they are harmful to health? Doesn’t Christmas Eve deprive us of many hours of sleep for more pleasure and happiness?
Beaudelaire himself suggested that we ask the wind, wave, star, bird, and clock. Ask everything that flees, everything that moans, everything that rolls, everything that sings, and everything that speaks. Ask what time it is. In spring, it will be the time to get drunk, he says. We should indulge in wine, endlessly on poetry, and on virtue, as we please. [4] Is this not the true hymn to spring? Let us therefore celebrate the coming of spring.
This is why I did not want to sign the petition.
Louis Bellemare
[2] National Geographic, Winter Solstice: Traditions that Mark this Astronomical Phenomenon
[3] Noovo Info, 75,000 Canadians sign a petition to end time changes
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