Time Ceremony
The Royal Greenwich Observatory was founded in 1675 and was the first scientific laboratory in Great Britain that was built specifically for the purpose. The main task of the Astronomer Royal was to “apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation.” [Wikipedia article “Royal Observatory, Greenwich”]
This work eventually resulted in the publication of The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris by Nevil Maskelyne in 1767. This was the first book of its type and made hideous calculations for positioning obsolete. A consequence of this work was that both time and space were nailed down by Greenwich Mean Time and the 0th meridian – with suitably British precision (who wants to drink their 5 o’clock tea at 5:03, for goodness sake !).
This certainty changed dramatically, however, with the introduction of British Summer Time by the Summer Time Act of 1916. British Summer Time was defined as:
…the period beginning at one o’clock, Greenwich mean time, in the morning of the last Sunday in March and ending at one o’clock, Greenwich mean time, in the morning of the last Sunday in October. [Statutory Instrument 2002 No. 262 The Summer Time Order 2002]
So, for half the year, time is released from its constraints. Instead of being fixed precisely by the Greenwich standards, time now expands and contracts freely, only obeying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. This effect is hardly noticeable in daily life, but the uncertainty potentially leads to a lot of freedom especially given that space is directly linked to time which is, therefore, wobbling as well. (Incidentally, this is why summers seem short, whereas winters seem much longer – especially in Britain.)
A huge problem arises, however, when going back to GMT in wintertime. The freely floating time is now instantly nailed down and constrained again. Like a string that is pulled too violently, the time line could break and with it, the space-time continuum as a whole.
Mertonians, quite like the space time continuum and would prefer it to remain intact. They like to go to hall, have coffee at the Stone Table, just read a newspaper or maybe do a bit of studying. Thus, to prevent any serious damage, we founded the TIME CEREMONY. The purpose of this is easily explained. One hour before the GMT sets in we gently align the freely wobbling time with the new constraints, therefore guaranteeing a smooth transition back to GMT.
The TIME CEREMONY takes place in Fellows quad at 2 am on the last Sunday in October. It is performed by the students of Merton and conducted by some of the fellows. Sub fusc has to be worn. In recent years port wine has become an increasingly important part in the ceremony.