Midnight is the transition time period from one day to the next: the moment when the date changes. In the Roman time system, midnight was halfway between sunset and sunrise, varying according to the seasons.
Solar midnight is that time opposite of solar noon, when the sun is closest to nadir and the night is equidistant from dusk and dawn. Due to the advent of time zones, which make time identical across a range of meridians, and daylight saving time, it rarely coincides with midnight on a clock. Solar midnight is dependent on longitude and time of the year rather than on a time zone.
In the northern hemisphere, "midnight" had an ancient geographic association with "north" (as did "noon" with "south" – see noon). Modern Polish and Ukrainian preserve this association with their words for "midnight" ("północ", "північ" – literally "half-night"), which also means "north".
Read more about Midnight: Start and End of Day
Famous quotes containing the word midnight:
“But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
““Have no lit candles in your room,”
That love lady said,
“That I at midnight by the clock
May creep into your bed,
For if I saw myself creep in
I think I should drop dead.”
O my dear, O my dear.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)