Editing Midnight

{{Redirect-multi|2|The midnight hour|00:00|other uses|Midnight (disambiguation)|and|Midnite (disambiguation)|and|Midnight Hour (disambiguation){{!}}Midnight Hour}}
{{short description|Transition time from one day to the next}}
[[File:Tour de l'horloge de la gare de Metz à Minuit (juin 2019) (cropped).JPG|thumb|right|Midnight at [[Metz]] railway station, in France]]
'''Midnight''' is the transition time from one [[day]] to the next &ndash; the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular [[jurisdiction]].  By clock time, midnight is the opposite of [[noon]], differing from it by 12 hours.

'''Solar midnight''' is the time [[antisolar point|opposite]] to [[solar noon]], when the Sun is [[meridian (astronomy)|closest]] to the [[nadir]], and the [[night]] is [[culmination|equidistant]] from [[sunset]] and [[sunrise]]. Due to the advent of [[time zone]]s, which regularize time across a range of [[meridian (geography)|meridian]]s, and [[daylight saving time]], solar midnight rarely coincides with 12 midnight on the clock. Solar midnight depends on longitude and time of the year rather than on [[time zone]].  In ancient [[Roman timekeeping]], midnight was halfway between [[dusk]] and [[dawn]] (i.e., solar midnight), varying according to the [[season]]s.

In some [[Slavic languages]], "midnight" has an additional geographic association with "[[north]]" (as "[[noon]]" does with "[[south]]"). Modern [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], and [[Serbian language|Serbian]] languages preserve this association with their words for "midnight" or "half-night" (''północ'', ''поўнач'', ''північ'', ''поноћ'') also meaning "north".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wexler|first=Paul|title=The Byelorussian Impact on Karaite and Yiddish|publisher=Anglo-Byelorussian Society|journal=The Journal of Byelorussian Studies|volume=IV|issue=3–4|year=1980|page=103|url=http://belarusjournal.com/article/byelorussian-impact-karaite-and-yiddish-121|access-date=February 3, 2021}}</ref>

==Start and end of day==
{{main|12-hour clock#Confusion at noon and midnight}}
[[File:Midnight Mist.jpg|thumb|Photograph of the [[moon]] taken at midnight]]<!--Do not add any other images unless they can demonstrate "Midnight" either better or in a different way than the current ones-->
Midnight marks the beginning and ending of each day in civil time throughout the world. As the dividing point between one day and another, ''midnight'' defies easy classification as either part of the preceding day or of the following day. Though there is no global unanimity on the issue, most often midnight is considered the start of a new day and is associated with the hour 00:00. 

Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to use "[[12-hour clock#Abbreviations|a.m.]]" and "[[12-hour clock#Abbreviations|p.m.]]" when referring to noon or midnight. The abbreviation a.m. stands for ''ante meridiem'' or ''before noon'', and p.m. stands for ''post meridiem'' or ''after noon''. Since noon is neither before nor after noon, and midnight is exactly twelve hours before and after noon, neither abbreviation is correct. However, many digital representations of time are configured to require an "a.m." or "p.m." designation, preventing the correct absence of such designators at midnight. In such cases, there is no international standard defining which arbitrary selection is best.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.npl.co.uk/reference/faqs/is-midnight-12-am-or-12-pm-faq-time|title=National Physics Laboratory}}</ref>  

In the United States and Canada, digital clocks and computers commonly display 12 a.m. at midnight. The 30th edition of the ''U.S. Government Style Manual (2008)'', in sections 9.54 and 12.9b, recommended the use of "12 a.m." for midnight and "12 p.m." for noon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2008_style_manual&docid=f:chapter9.wais|title=U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual Chapter 9|year=2008|access-date=2009-06-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2008_style_manual&docid=f:chapter12.wais|title=U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual Chapter 12|year=2008|access-date=2009-06-11}}</ref> However, the previous 29th edition of the ''U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual (2000)'', in section 12.9, recommended the opposite. There is no further record documenting this change. The [[US National Institute of Standards and Technology]] (NIST) recommends avoiding confusion altogether by using "11:59 pm" or "12:01 am" and the intended date instead of "midnight" or "12:00 am".<ref name="NIST">{{cite web |url=https://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/times.cfm |title=How to use a.m./p.m. vs. noon/midnight. |publisher=[[National Institute of Standards and Technology]] |date=February 4, 2010|access-date=2012-09-02 }}</ref>

There are several common approaches to identifying and distinguishing the precise start and end of any given day.
* Use of a [[24-hour clock]] can remove ambiguity. The "midnight" term can be avoided altogether if the end of the day is noted as 24:00 and the beginning of the day as 00:00. While both notations refer to the same moment in time, the choice of notation allows its association with the previous night or with the following morning.
* "Midnight" can be augmented with additional disambiguating information. A day and time of day may be explicitly identified together, for example "midnight Saturday night." Alternatively, midnight as the division between days may be highlighted by identifying the pair of days so divided: "midnight Saturday/Sunday" or "midnight December 14/15."
* The approach recommended by the NIST ("11:59 p.m." or "12:01 a.m." instead of midnight) can be particularly helpful when any ambiguity can have serious consequences, such as with contracts and other legal instruments.<ref name=NIST/>
* A clear convention may be legally defined or culturally promulgated. For example, the [[Hebrew calendar]] associates the start of a new day with sundown and midnight being a [[relative hour]] falling six hours after sundown.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Counting of 'Day' and 'Night'|last=Ydit|first=Meir M.|journal=Conservative Judaism Journal|volume=35|issue=1|pages=25–29|date=1981|url=https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/resources-ideas/cj/classics/11-29-11-calendar/counting-day-night.pdf|access-date=March 24, 2022}}</ref>{{rp|25}} Similarly, in traditional [[Saudi Arabia Standard Time#History|Arabic time]] at sunset, which marked the start of each new day, clocks were reset to 12:00.<ref name="muslimJewishCalendar">{{cite book |last1=Burnaby |first1=Sherrad |title=Elements of the Jewish and Muhammadan calendars: with rules and tables and explanatory notes on the Julian and Gregorian calendars |date=1901 |publisher=George Bell & Sons |location=London |isbn=1345910282 |url=https://archive.org/details/elementsofjewish00burnuoft/ |language=English}}</ref>{{rp|381}} As noted above, however, such conventions or definitions may not be uniformly observed.
* The [[International Organization for Standardization]] (ISO) in specification [[ISO 8601#Times|ISO 8601]] states: "00:00:00" may be used to refer to midnight corresponding to the instant at the beginning of a calendar day; and "24:00:00" to refer to midnight corresponding to the instant at the end of a calendar day.
* The [[AP Stylebook]] assigns "midnight" to the day that is ending, not the day beginning.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons}}
*[https://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/faq.cfm National Institute of Standards and Technology]

{{Parts of a day}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Parts of a day]]
[[Category:Night]]