Heh. To be on the safe side we light the fire on the 20th and don't let it go out until the 26th *g*

You're not supposed to burn the whole of Shepton Mallet down!

It's a common enough mistake though, for those who aren't either astronomers or (serious) Wiccans.

Some analogy with the misapprehension that Dec 26 is always Boxing Day.

The solstice has a definition based on astronomy though, whereas the Boxing Day thing is a relatively parochial convention, and one on which not everyone is totally agreed. In my culture, December 26th always is Boxing Day, and I was quite surprised when I first encountered weirdoes who disagreed.

That's why I said, 'some' analogy, of course :-)

Boxing Day cannot fall on a Sunday.

Well, yes.

(And it's about time we had the calendar reform to ensure that Christmas is never on a Saturday.)

You feel that is necessary?

Suitable calendar reform could lead to the solstices not only always being on the same date, but even the same day. And you could ban Friday 13th entirely, thereby removing a whole slew of excuses for superstition.

(Instead, we could give them a 13th month to winge about, mwahahaha! Yes, bring on the Positivst Calendar.)

Ooo! http://personal.ecu.edu/mccartyr/pos-cal.html ?

Yes.

It does have the minor hiccough of having a month named after someone who is almost unknown these days, though given that December, the one-time tenth and last month, never got a better name, it doesn't really matter.

*cough*

Next time, warn me. I think I need a new keyboard.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/6199671.stm

yes it did bring a smile when I read about it.