Thursday, March 21, will mark the vernal equinox this year,
the time when night and day are very much the same length. If you want to get precise about
it, it will happen at 16:57 UTC or 12:57 PM EDT. That’s when the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero,
which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.
However, the tilt of Earth relative to its plane of orbit, called the ecliptic
plane, is always about 23.5 degrees. So much for the scientific side of the
equation.
Vernal, which means literally fresh and young and youthful,
refers to Spring. This is true in
the northern hemisphere where Winter is ending. However, in the southern hemisphere, it is really the
autumnal equinox and while the hours of daylight and nighttime are equal there
as well, it is the ending and beginning of different seasons. Those of us who live, work and play
in the northern half sometimes forget the other half. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere!
I am one of those who follow the sun’s path on the horizon,
especially at sunrise and often at sunset. It really does not travel north and south but that is how it
appears and that’s good enough for me.
This week the sun will be halfway on its journey north and we will soon
follow it north in real time as the temperatures warm up a bit more to our
liking. Right now, at 8:22 Monday
morning, March 17, here in Key West, it is 75 degrees and the tropical breeze
suits me just fine.
Find what you can in your world to celebrate the arrival of
Spring. For a long time, I
associated Easter with Spring and then had that realization that it was biased
toward the northern half.
Regardless, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after
the vernal equinox and whether or not you celebrate Easter or Passover (the
origin of Easter) or Ostara or some other tradition in Buddhist or Hindu
calendars, you might pay homage to your own gods or goddesses that bring so
many blessings of the seasonal change. After all is said and done, one more
time, it’s about change. Embrace
it!
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