[time-nuts] Widdershins

Bill Hawkins bill at iaxs.net
Tue Jun 26 18:05:41 UTC 2012


Around 1530, it was considered very bad luck to walk around a church
widdershins (see the Wikipedia article). I think it goes back earlier
than that, to a time well before clocks.

If widdershins means counter-clockwise, how did they know which way
clocks ran?

The answer lies in northern hemisphere sundials. When clocks with
faces were invented, they ran in the same direction as the shadow
of the gnomon on a sundial.

Widdershins also means anti-sunwise, which would be blasphemous to
people that used to believe that the sun was a powerful god.

There's lots of angles to this time stuff.

Bill Hawkins





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