Morning facts for kids
Morning is the period of time between midnight and noon, especially from sunrise to noon. There are no exact times for when morning begins and ends (also true for evening and night) because they can vary according to one's lifestyle and the hours of daylight at each time of year. However, morning strictly ends at noon, which is when afternoon starts. Morning can be defined as starting from midnight to noon, or from sunrise (which varies throughout the year) to noon, or from when one wakes up to noon.
Morning precedes afternoon, evening, and night in the sequence of a day. Originally, the term referred to sunrise.
Etymology
The Modern English words "morning" and "tomorrow" began in Middle English as morwening, developing into morwen, then morwe, and eventually morrow. English, unlike some other languages, has separate terms for "morning" and "tomorrow", despite their common root. Other languages, like German, may use a single word – Morgen – to signify both "morning" and "tomorrow".
According to Max Weber (General Economic History pp23), the German word Morgen also takes on another meaning, specifically, the size of land strip "which an ox could plow in a day without giving out". As such, a "good morning" could mean "a good day's plow".
Significance for humans
Some languages that use the time of day in greeting have a special greeting for morning, such as the English good morning. The appropriate time to use such greetings, such as whether it may be used between midnight and dawn, depends on the culture's or speaker's concept of morning. Many people greet someone with the shortened 'morning' rather that 'good morning'. It is usually always used a greeting, never a farewell, unlike 'good night' which is used as a farewell.
Morning typically encompasses the (mostly menial) prerequisites for full productivity and life in public, such as bathing, eating a meal such as breakfast, dressing, and so on. It may also include information activities, such as planning the day's schedule or reading a morning newspaper. The boundaries of such morning periods are by necessity idiosyncratic, but they are typically considered to have ended on reaching a state of full readiness for the day's productive activity. For some, the word morning may refer to the period immediately following waking up, irrespective of the current time of day. This modern sense of morning is due largely to the worldwide spread of electricity, and the concomitant independence from natural light sources.
The morning period may be a period of enhanced or reduced energy and productivity. The ability of a person to wake up effectively in the morning may be influenced by a gene called "Period 3". This gene comes in two forms, a "long" and a "short" variant. It seems to affect the person's preference for mornings or evenings. People who carry the long variant were over-represented as morning people, while the ones carrying the short variant were evening preference people.
Morning activities
Many people use the morning as a time to get ready for the day. This includes things like taking a shower, eating a meal (called breakfast, because you break the fast of the night) and getting dressed. Then many people go to work or school.
Many people buy a morning newspaper to read about what is going on in the world.
Images for kids
See also
In Spanish: Mañana para niños
