March Equinox- Where everybody is ready for a change!

Spring, for me, is an inspirational time of year. Autumn is introspective, summer is active, winter is depressing. Spring is a time when new things get planned and done. It’s annoying than for me to be late posting something that was supposed to be written for the beginning of the season…three days ago!

We were shown a tease of the season to come last week. The weather was warm and sunny. The birds flocked around the feeders, and chipmunks popped out of their dens. The time changed here in the US last week too. It made change feel that much more imminent. I just wish the mornings didn’t require heat and a hoodie.

Science of Spring

The spring equinox doesn’t get a lot of hype as change of seasons goes. I blame Stonehenge for that. Everybody wants to see the sun align with the stones on the longest day of the year, but what about some love for equality!

Thi is one of the two times throughout the year where day and night are roughly equivalent worldwide. A fun consequence of this equality is that the sun rises and sets more quickly on the equinox than it does on the solstice. This difference isn’t more than maybe a minute or two, but if you think it seems to get dark quicker, you’re not wrong.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

The equinox is the only time of the year when the sun travels a direct East-West path across the sky in all parts of the world. Bird migrations follow this movement of the sun.

A 1945 Life magazine article mentioned balancing an egg on end during the spring equinox as a Chinese custom. With the popularity of that article an urban legend sprang up. As with most urban legends, though, there is no truth to the story. If the yolk is centered in the shell, an egg can be balanced any time of year. And anyway, Chinese culture celebrates spring closer to the lunar new year, not the astronomical equinox.

There is a difference between astronomical spring and meteorological spring. The astronomical spring is what I described above, the period between the equinox and the solstice. All rather scientifically based, no? Meteorological spring, on the other hand, is an arbitrary date set by humans. Spring (or fall) is the months of March, April, and May. Basically, the warmest three months are “summer’, the coldest three are “winter”; spring and fall are thrown in between as a means of organization.

Observations of Spring

Researching deeper into what spring really is, I discovered there are a lot of traditions associated with the March equinox. The Arab world celebrated Mother’s Day on Saturday. This makes sense, spring is associated with birth.

Saturday was a holiday in Japan too. Shunbun no Hi or Vernal Equinox Day is a largely secular holiday in Japan. This day was a Shinto holiday dedicated to the memory of lost loved ones before the 1940’s. Now, similar to memorial day here in the US, it seems like a day for families to gather and celebrate the change in season. I’m a DBZ fan. When I read about this holiday, I pictured the scene in Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan, where our heroes are enjoying a picnic among the cherry blossoms.

One of the niftiest things I discovered was another Mayan date observance. I’d always known of the gathering at Chichen Itza on the solstice, but I just read about the serpent slithering down the steps of the Temple of Kukulkan. The incredibly awesome way the ancient Mayan builders designed the temple makes the setting sun on the equinox take the illusion of coils of a snake descending the stairs. There is even a snakehead carving at the bottom.

That would be incredible to see in person, but I’d probably be one of the unlucky ones to arrive on a year with a cloudy day!

When it’s not Spring

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Saturday marked the beginning of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. There always seem to be so many more festivals planned for Fall. Almost like we’re trying to soak in the last of the decent weather.

There are scores of travel sites urging me to visit the south side of the world in the fall. The weather in Patagonia apparently is ideal in March. The summer vacation crowd has gone back to school, but the winter weather hasn’t turned frigid. The images are just beautiful. If I had the money (and unrestricted travel) I think it would be neat to go to Alaska in September, then go to Southern Chile in March and compare.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

From Argentina to Australia, the fall wine festivals pop up all over. It looks like the typical Autumn harvest festivals that are so common in my half of the world.

The take home

One of the first rites of Spring in the Washington DC area is the National Cherry Blossom Festival. This year again, because of COVID restrictions, the festival is largely virtual. According to the National Park Service, there may not be visitors allowed around the tidal basin, they haven’t made the final decision.

I’m reminded through all this that March 2020 was the start of the lockdowns.  While we’re not totally safe yet, there is hope that soon we’ll be back to enjoying the blessings spring has to offer.

As I mentioned in my last post, we’ve been working through some technical issues here at DLP HQ. When you think “hey, maybe I ought to back up my work” you should probably actually do it! I lost about three months of work, possibly more! Some of my better spring photos were on my old laptop, I’m not sure where they are now. Hopefully, I’ll find them soon and won’t have to rely on free use images.