When, how and why did we decide that the day should start from midnight instead of 6am?
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Ancient peoples from around the world came to many similar conclusions based on patterns they saw. Every 365 days or so, there is a repeating pattern of short cold days in winter, and long warm days in summer. Its bad enough when you are a hunter/gatherer, but once you start planting crops, storing them in clay jars, and setting up a permanent village, these patterns remain important.
Knowing the time of year tells you when to plant crops. Too late and they may not be ripe before an occasional early winter frost. Too early and they may die in a late spring frost. Knowing the time of year also tells you when to travel to hunt migrating herds.
There are two days when the night is equal to the day, the equinox in Latin is “equal night”. One day in spring and one day in fall. If you build two markers that are inline on those two days, then the shadows at sunrise will tell you when you can celebrate the spring equinox. The fall equinox tells you when winter will arrive soon and you must prepare.
The winter solstice in December is the shortest day, and the longest night. It is a celebration because from that day forward, the days will start getting longer.
The year-long pattern and the day-long pattern seem to be similar in several ways, so the middle of the night is the opposite of the middle of the day, and that is an analogue of the winter and summer solstices.
There are roughly 12 moon cycles per year, so 12 is a sacred number to them. I would have guessed that ancients would have “naturally” made twelve longer hours to cover both the night and day, but our ancestors decided that the day should have 12 divisions of time, and the night should have its own 12 divisions.
Most of this came from the Babylonians, but many things have evolved over time.
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