{
  "turnings": [
    {
      "id": "candlemas",
      "name": "Candlemas",
      "emoji": "🕯️",
      "start": "02-02",
      "end": "03-19",
      "explainer": "The midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox. Traditionally a day of candle-blessings and weather divination — \"if Candlemas be fair and bright, winter will have another flight.\" The older Welsh and Gaelic tradition called this same turning Imbolc, the feast of St. Brigid, marking the first stirrings of spring beneath still-frozen ground.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "02-01", "name": "St. Brigid's Day / Imbolc", "desc": "Welsh and Gaelic patron of hearth, healing, and early spring; the older name for the Candlemas turning.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc"},
        {"date": "02-02", "name": "Candlemas", "desc": "Midpoint of winter; candles blessed, weather divined.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlemas"},
        {"date": "02-14", "name": "Valentine's Day", "desc": "", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day"},
        {"date": "movable:mardi-gras", "name": "Mardi Gras / Shrove Tuesday", "desc": "The last day before Lent; Mobile hosts the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras"},
        {"date": "movable:ash-wednesday", "name": "Ash Wednesday", "desc": "The start of Lent in the Western Christian tradition.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday"},
        {"date": "month:02", "name": "First peepers calling", "desc": "Spring peeper frogs begin their evening chorus; Alabama's earliest nighttime sign of spring.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "03-01", "name": "St. David's Day / Dydd Gŵyl Dewi", "desc": "Patron saint of Wales; leeks and daffodils traditionally worn.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_David%27s_Day"},
        {"date": "month:03", "name": "Welsh daffodils in bloom", "desc": "The flower of Wales, and a Southern early-spring marker.", "url": ""}
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "quickening",
      "name": "Quickening",
      "emoji": "🌱",
      "start": "03-20",
      "end": "04-30",
      "explainer": "An old English word for the first undeniable signs of life returning — when seeds swell past dormancy, sap rises, and the earth \"quickens.\" The same root as \"the quick and the dead.\" Lady Day on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, was the legal New Year in Britain until 1752.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "03-19", "name": "St. Joseph's Day / San Giuseppe", "desc": "Major Sicilian-American feast; St. Joseph's altars and zeppole.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph%27s_Day"},
        {"date": "03-20", "name": "Spring Equinox", "desc": "Day and night of equal length; the astronomical start of spring.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "03-25", "name": "Lady Day / Feast of the Annunciation", "desc": "The historic British New Year until 1752, and one of the four quarter days of the old legal calendar.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Day"},
        {"date": "movable:easter", "name": "Easter", "desc": "Christian feast of the Resurrection; includes Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter"},
        {"date": "month:04", "name": "Dogwoods bloom", "desc": "Southern folk signal that it's safe to plant.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "04-22", "name": "Earth Day", "desc": "", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day"},
        {"date": "04-23", "name": "St. George's Day", "desc": "Patron saint of England and Catalonia; dragons and spring flowers.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George%27s_Day"},
        {"date": "movable:arbor-day", "name": "Arbor Day", "desc": "Last Friday in April.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "beltane",
      "name": "Beltane",
      "emoji": "🔥",
      "start": "05-01",
      "end": "06-20",
      "explainer": "The Welsh name for this turning is Calan Mai, the beginning of summer in the old Celtic reckoning. Bonfires were historically lit at dusk on May Eve. The modern May Day falls on the same date with different resonance — spring flowers, labor, May baskets.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "05-01", "name": "Beltane / Calan Mai", "desc": "The Celtic and Welsh beginning of summer; bonfires historically lit at dusk on May Eve.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane"},
        {"date": "05-01", "name": "May Day", "desc": "Spring flowers, May baskets, and the international labor holiday.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day"},
        {"date": "movable:mothers-day", "name": "Mother's Day", "desc": "Second Sunday in May.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day"},
        {"date": "movable:memorial-day", "name": "Memorial Day", "desc": "Last Monday in May.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day"},
        {"date": "movable:decoration-day", "name": "Decoration Day", "desc": "The older Southern tradition of cleaning family graves, predating and originally distinct from federal Memorial Day; observed by many Alabama families on the Sunday nearest Memorial Day.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoration_Day_(Southern)"},
        {"date": "month:06", "name": "Fireflies emerge", "desc": "Alabama's great early-summer spectacle.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "month:06", "name": "Mulberries ripen", "desc": "Backyard forage across the South.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "06-19", "name": "Juneteenth", "desc": "Commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas in 1865.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "midsummer",
      "name": "Midsummer",
      "emoji": "☀️",
      "start": "06-21",
      "end": "07-31",
      "explainer": "The summer solstice and the days around it. Shakespeare's Midsummer Night is June 23, the eve of St. John's Day — a date when bonfires were lit across both Wales and Sicily. The longest days of the year, when the sun seems to pause before turning back.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "06-21", "name": "Summer Solstice", "desc": "The longest day of the year.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "06-24", "name": "St. John's Day / Midsummer proper", "desc": "Bonfires observed across Wales and Sicily; Shakespeare's Midsummer Night is the eve before.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer"},
        {"date": "07-03", "name": "Dog Days begin", "desc": "The traditional Dog Days run July 3 through August 11, when Sirius the Dog Star rises with the sun.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days"},
        {"date": "07-04", "name": "Independence Day", "desc": "", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States)"},
        {"date": "07-15", "name": "Feast of St. Rosalia", "desc": "Patron of Palermo; major festa with processions and lights, observed wherever Sicilian-Americans settled.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalia"},
        {"date": "month:07", "name": "Figs ripen", "desc": "Southern and Sicilian staple; sacred to Mediterranean tradition.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "07-20", "name": "Perseid meteor shower begins building", "desc": "Peaks in mid-August around the Feast of St. Lawrence.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "lammas",
      "name": "Lammas",
      "emoji": "🌾",
      "start": "08-01",
      "end": "09-21",
      "explainer": "From the Anglo-Saxon hlaf-mas, \"loaf-mass\" — the day when the first wheat of the harvest was baked into bread and brought to church to be blessed. The older Gaelic name is Lughnasadh. This is the turning of the year when summer's long labor starts paying out.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "08-01", "name": "Lammas / Loaf-Mass", "desc": "The first wheat of the harvest blessed into bread; one of the four cross-quarter days of the old calendar.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammas"},
        {"date": "08-10", "name": "Feast of St. Lawrence / San Lorenzo", "desc": "The Perseids peak on his feast; the shooting stars are traditionally called \"the tears of St. Lawrence.\"", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Rome"},
        {"date": "08-15", "name": "Ferragosto / Feast of the Assumption", "desc": "The great Italian summer holiday, rooted in both Roman and Catholic observance.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto"},
        {"date": "month:08", "name": "Katydids begin", "desc": "Southern folk tradition holds that first frost comes six weeks after the first katydid call.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "movable:labor-day", "name": "Labor Day", "desc": "First Monday in September.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day"},
        {"date": "month:09", "name": "Muscadines ripen", "desc": "Native Southern grape, found wild along creek edges.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "movable:harvest-moon", "name": "Harvest Moon", "desc": "The full moon nearest the autumn equinox; the brightest and earliest-rising full moon of the year.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_moon"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "michaelmas",
      "name": "Michaelmas",
      "emoji": "🍂",
      "start": "09-22",
      "end": "10-31",
      "explainer": "The Feast of St. Michael, September 29. One of the four historic quarter days of the British legal calendar — the day when rents came due, servants were hired, and the year turned toward its darker half. Michaelmas daisies bloom in Alabama right around now.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "09-22", "name": "Autumn Equinox", "desc": "Day and night of equal length; the astronomical start of fall.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "09-29", "name": "Michaelmas / Feast of St. Michael", "desc": "One of the four quarter days of the old British legal calendar, when rents came due and the year turned toward its darker half.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas"},
        {"date": "10-04", "name": "Feast of St. Francis", "desc": "Traditional day for the blessing of animals.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_Saint_Francis_of_Assisi"},
        {"date": "month:10", "name": "Michaelmas daisies bloom", "desc": "Purple asters, named for this turning.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "movable:hunters-moon", "name": "Hunter's Moon", "desc": "The first full moon after the Harvest Moon.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter%27s_moon"},
        {"date": "month:10", "name": "First frost window opens", "desc": "Cardiff's historical first frost typically falls in early November.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "month:10", "name": "Persimmons ripen after first frost", "desc": "Southern folk holds that frost sweetens them.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "10-31", "name": "Halloween / All Hallows' Eve", "desc": "The eve of Hallowtide and its popular face.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "hallowtide",
      "name": "Hallowtide",
      "emoji": "🕸️",
      "start": "11-01",
      "end": "12-20",
      "explainer": "The old English name for the three-day arc of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints, and All Souls. The Welsh called this same turning Calan Gaeaf, winter's beginning. The Sicilian tradition of Il Giorno dei Morti — gifts left for children from deceased relatives — lives in this stretch of days.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "11-01", "name": "All Saints' Day / Calan Gaeaf", "desc": "The Welsh beginning of winter and the first day of Hallowtide.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calan_Gaeaf"},
        {"date": "11-02", "name": "All Souls' Day / Il Giorno dei Morti", "desc": "In the Sicilian tradition, the day the dead return bearing gifts for children.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls%27_Day"},
        {"date": "11-11", "name": "Veterans' Day / Armistice Day", "desc": "", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day"},
        {"date": "11-17", "name": "Leonid meteor shower peaks", "desc": "One of the year's reliable meteor showers.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonids"},
        {"date": "movable:thanksgiving", "name": "Thanksgiving", "desc": "Fourth Thursday in November.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)"},
        {"date": "12-06", "name": "St. Nicholas Day", "desc": "European Christian tradition of shoes left out for small gifts.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas_Day"},
        {"date": "12-07", "name": "Earliest sunsets of the year", "desc": "The sun sets earliest a week before the solstice itself.", "url": ""},
        {"date": "12-13", "name": "Santa Lucia", "desc": "Observed especially in eastern Sicily; traditionally no wheat or bread is eaten, and cuccìa (a wheat berry pudding) is made.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "yuletide",
      "name": "Yuletide",
      "emoji": "❄️",
      "start": "12-21",
      "end": "02-01",
      "explainer": "The old Germanic name for the turning around the winter solstice, kept in English long after Christmas absorbed most of its practices. Traditionally a full season rather than a single day, running from solstice through Twelfth Night on January 5. The longest nights of the year, and the slow turn back toward light.",
      "entries": [
        {"date": "12-21", "name": "Winter Solstice / Yule", "desc": "The longest night of the year and the start of Yuletide.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule"},
        {"date": "12-24", "name": "Christmas Eve / La Vigilia", "desc": "In Sicilian tradition, the Feast of the Seven Fishes.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Seven_Fishes"},
        {"date": "12-25", "name": "Christmas Day", "desc": "", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas"},
        {"date": "12-31", "name": "New Year's Eve", "desc": "", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Eve"},
        {"date": "01-01", "name": "New Year's Day", "desc": "", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Day"},
        {"date": "01-05", "name": "Twelfth Night", "desc": "The end of the twelve days of Christmas; traditionally the night to take down the greenery.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_(holiday)"},
        {"date": "01-06", "name": "Epiphany / La Befana", "desc": "In Italian tradition, an old witch flies from house to house leaving gifts for children, older than Santa Claus in the Italian imagination.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana"},
        {"date": "movable:mlk-day", "name": "Martin Luther King Jr. Day", "desc": "Third Monday in January.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr._Day"},
        {"date": "01-25", "name": "Dydd Santes Dwynwen", "desc": "The Welsh Valentine's Day; patron saint of lovers.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwynwen"},
        {"date": "02-02", "name": "Groundhog Day", "desc": "Descended directly from the Candlemas tradition of weather divination.", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day"}
      ]
    }
  ]
}