It’s a not so exciting week here. A little rain, a bit of snow that didn’t stick, a trip to the grocery store – you know all the exciting stuff of life. Today is a little special because sun set was at 4:59 pm.
Tomorrow it will be exactly at 5:00 pm. Okay, maybe most of you don’t follow the exact time of sunset, but it’s something I keep track of. Mostly this is because I don’t like the short days of winter and I want to have longer days.
It also reminds me of Taps – you know, the bugle call we play at military burials. Now before it started to be used at burials it was actually played by the US Army as the “lights out” call at forts, camps or wherever the troops happened to be. In the morning you’d get woken up to the bugle playing reveille. If that didn’t get you out of bed, rest assured that a sergeant’s boot would be the next thing waking you up.
Armies throughout history have had many different ways to communicate with their soldiers and sometime in the last thousand years or so, trumpets and bugle calls became the way to do that. Which naturally leads me to remember the Tattoo. Not the kind on your skin, but a trump call that was used in Europe for troops garrisoned in a town. In those days, most of the soldiers after their daily duty was done, would wander to have a beer.
The word Tattoo derived from a Dutch phrase basically meaning, “Turn off the taps” which ordered inn keepers to close up and send the soldiers to their beds.
In modern times a Military Tattoo is a musical performance. These are done by Military music groups and are often formal or part of a ritual of some kind. Every nation has a different tradition here, but these still happen.
What does this all have to do with sunset? Not much, but the timer just went off so it’s pizza time – I’ll have to explain more later.
Andrew's View of the Week 
I’m smiling. This was delightful, AR. 🙂
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🙂
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Thank you for the derivation of the word “Tattoo,” which I’ve never heard before. I did actually wonder!
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I’m here for you with all kinds of nearly useful stuff.
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Thanks for these facts, Andrew. I hope the pizza was good!
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Pizza was great.
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In Halifax Nova Scotia (Canada) they have a Royal N.S. International Tattoo. It’s a fantastic event and includes the navy’s ‘running of the guns.’
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That’s another one I’d like to see.
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An impressive segue from pizza to sunset to Taps! I keep an eye on the “official” sunrise and sunset times, too; for the same reason. Every extra minute of daylight seems like a triumph at this time of year. 🙂
Enjoy your pizza!
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Early sunsets are nice for a week or two, but then I get an itching to do something outside and can’t wait for the days to get longer.
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You know, I think your mind works like mine. One thought leads to another and takes me down a rabbit trail elsewhere. 😉
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I am easily distracted by following the rabbit.
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I never know what knowledge I will acquire when I visit here. 😉 This post was full of things I didn’t know. I hope your pizza was awesome. 🙂
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Hi Andrew, I didn’t know some of this so I found it most interesting.
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I know all kinds of interesting stuff. Some actually useful.
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I, too, keep a close eye on sunset times. Can’t stand early darkness.
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Yup, early darkness is what I dislike.
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You need to add a line about what kind of pizza you’re having. Pineapple? Anchovies? Hmm…
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Pepperoni and olives almost always unless we’ve bought something special. But I’ll keep you updated.
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Love your posts!
I too track the sunrise/sunset times. Being 700 miles north (not quite the Arctic Circle, ha!), we get sunset today at 4:50pm – I can’t wait for the longer days when the sun stays up until 5pm — lucky you! 😀
So much better than mid-December when the sun was setting at its earliest if 4:22!
The thing that surprises me, and others, is that the Winter Solstice, being the shortest day of the year is NOT the day with the earliest sunset. The earliest sunset is about a week before. (Sunrises keep getting progressively later, making the daylight shorter .)
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I’m not as far north as you so our earliest sunset is about 4:40. And has always surprises me to that Winter Solstice is not earliest sunset.
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Andrew’s View of The Week”… because it’s good to learn stuff 👍
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You always can learn stuff here. On rare occasion it’s actually useful information.
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I was amazed to learn that drummers were also part of a unit, with different signals. I’m supposedly able to apply for the DAR because of a young ancestor being a drummer during the Revolutionary War. But one of Grandma Leora’s brothers was assigned to a drum during WWI! He reported that he didn’t even use it when they got overseas.
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Drummers were important to European armies. They sent signals, kept cadence, etc. As I recall, they were used up until about the American Civil war.
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Flashback to Boy Scout summer camp! I’d forgotten about Reveille and Taps but they were broadcast throughout the facility to start and end our days.
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Our Boy Scout camp had a couple of boys who played the trumpet and they would play Reveille and Taps for us. Our camp was in a canyon so the sound would just bounce off the hills.
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In the UK, the “Edinburgh Tattoo” is the most famous one, and a major occasion in the Scottish year.
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That’s one I’d love to see. No doubt it is a great thing to witness.
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I’ve never seen it, but it is always on our main channel, BBC1, for the majority of a Saturday evening. Members of foreign armed forces are invited from all over the world, with, as you would expect, a good many Americans demonstrating their marching skills. Here’s some Scotsmen with their bagpipes….
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I’ll take a look at that.
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