I mean, everyone knows that in January it’s hot in Australia, and in July it’s cold there.

But do Australians call it “winter” in January and “summer” in July? Or does just “winter” imply hot weather and beaches, and “summer” implies winter, eh, i mean, snow sports and wool socks.

And given that, most of the population lives in northern hemisphere, is there a body of dad jokes and culture tropes related to the fact that “we’re different”, or is it just too cringe and boring. (I realize both could be true on this one.)

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    No, summer and winter are reversed in the southern hemisphere.

    But more than that, the seasons aren’t even consistent within each hemisphere—the exact beginning and ending dates of each season vary from region to region depending on the local climate.

    • Meron35@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The concept of 4 seasons itself is very Eurocentric, and leads to the inaccurate belief that the seasons/climate are messy and unpredictable in Australia.

      The native aboriginal peoples have their own season system for each region, which much more accurately describes the weather. For example, the aboriginal calendar identifies 7* seasons in Victoria.

      *Edit for previously incorrect info which stated there were 6 seasons (different area of Australia)

      • Signfeld@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        That’s actually really interesting, I had no idea. Do you have a link with the page to that image? It got jpeg’d and I’d like to read more.

        Edit: thanks for the links all, really appreciate it.

    • teft@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      As an example, where I live near the equator we have seasons that are only a few weeks long. We alternate between “summer” and “winter”. The quotes are because the only real difference in our seasons is how much rain falls since neither the temperature nor the amount of daylight changes much. Winter seasons are cloudy and wet and summer seasons are sunny and dry.

    • neidu2@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      As a scandinavian who has worked in Brazil for two years I can confirm that Brazilians do in fact call two identical seasons differently based on whether it’s closer to Christmas. I usually worked the night shift, and in July-ish, my Brazilian coworker usually wore a hat while on the backdeck while I was sweating like a hog.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Except for the surfing, which is taking place in Tahiti. 'Course it’s not really “winter” there because it’s tropical, but still, it’s at the same latitude as parts of Australia.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m in two places:

    • In Australia

    and

    • in tears!! XD

    ‘But do Australians call it “winter” in January and “summer” in July?’ !!!

    • For future reference, every country on the planet calls their own cold time of year - Winter, and their hot time of year - Summer.

    Except countries near the equator(halfway between the top and bottom of a world map), equatorial countries are hot all year and have a wet-season and a dry-season.

  • Kelly@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    And given that, most of the population lives in northern hemisphere, is there a body of dad jokes and culture tropes related to the fact that “we’re different”, or is it just too cringe and boring.

    Nothing anyone wound mention but there are some ironic Christmas clothing like a shirt with Father Christmas with sunglasses and cooking a barbeque, or a rashie with a knitted sweater pattern.

    We are also aware that if a foreign studio announces a game or movie with a season for their release window they probably mean the northern season. Our studios tend to just use a month instead.