Darkness he called Night

1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Ok, first a completely straightforward interpretion.  The darkness existed before the light was created (and separated from the darkness).  This darkness was a long night, and the separation of light from darkness marked the first morning.

How long did the darkness exist?  It was around in verse 2, before the creation of the light in verse 3.  It wasn't explicitly created; perhaps it was around before The Beginning.

To me, day and night are related to my position on the earth relative to the sun, and change with the rotation of the earth or with my moving around on earth.  But this Day and Night seem to be just light and darkness, separated somehow from each other, not tied to the sun and earth.

Is the creation of light (or its separation from darkness) the same as the first morning, or are they somehow distinct?  It's not entirely clear, but the juxtaposition of the naming of Day and Night with the first evening and morning makes it seem like it was intended that they are the same.

With that interpretation, the chronology is:
0. The Beginning.  God is already there, and perhaps darkness.
1. Heaven and earth are created.
2. It is clearly night; and probably at least as far back as The Beginning.
3. Light is created, but not separated from darkness.  The first pre-dawn.
4. Separation.  Almost the first morning, but we're not calling it that yet.
5. Day and Night are named by God.  And now we're officially identifying the previous time as Night, the current time as Day, and asserting that the first morning is completed.

There's an emphasis here on the naming of Day and Night.  And, interestingly, those words are God's.  Of course, this is just an English translation, so not so much.  But in the original, whatever that may be, presumably these are words that come directly from God.

Words, of course, have sounds; this again suggests that God is speaking, that God has a mouth, that God is a physical being.  Further, words have purpose: communication.  This suggests that God is speaking to someone else.  This again suggests a committee or contractor.

Naming the light and darkness occurs immediately after dividing them from each other.  This again suggests a sequentiality to the verses.  However, mentioning the evening at the point suggests a quick jump backwards.  The last phrase, then, can be considered a summary of everything that went before.  We now have a completed description of the first day after The Beginning.