In our society, each new day begins at midnight. In the ancient Middle East, the new day began when the sun went down. We still see remnants of that practice by celebrating Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas Day. The night and the day were divided into 12 equal segments called hours. Though the actual time varied depending on the time of the year, sunrise would be somewhere around 6:00 AM. Three hours after sunrise was the third hour, about 9:00 AM. The ninth hour would be around 3:00 PM. The night was divided into four sections called watches. The name "watches" comes from the three-hour blocks during the night that soldiers stood on guard or on watch. The watches started at sunset and ended at 9:00, midnight, 3:00, and 6:00.