Celebrating the vernal equinox and spring’s return

The official, astronomical start to spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, most often referred to as the vernal equinox or the spring equinox, occurs, this year on March 20 at 6:24 p.m. AST (6:54 p.m. NT).

It can vary year to year between Mar. 20-22.

An equinox occurs when the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 0 degrees solar declination, the latitude of Earth where the sun is directly overhead at noon and the subsolar point is directly over the Earth’s equator.

The subsolar point is the area where the sun’s rays shine perpendicular to the Earth’s surface. Although the term equinox — from the Latin aequinoctium, from aequis (equal) and nox (night) — implies an equality of daytime and nighttime for both hemispheres, this, in fact, is not exactly true. The actual hours of daytime versus nighttime vary slightly due to atmospheric refraction (the manner in which sunlight bends as its passes through the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of atmospheric density) and the latitude of the observer.

The vernal equinox — as well as the autumnal or fall equinox — was a very important and often sacred occurence for many ancient cultures around the world, as it marked an approximate end to the cold winter weather and brought the promise of warmer spring weather to come. It is not surprising then that this event became ritualized and celebrated around the world.

Many of these ancient vernal equinox rituals, ceremonies and traditions have survived into modern times, as people in various countries in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate winter’s end (if only on the calendar) and the approach of spring-like weather. Although only a few countries around the world actually celebrate the vernal equinox event itself, there are numerous festivals and celebrations in honour of spring’s return.

HOW IT’S CELEBRATED

Bulgarians mark their spring season on March 1, with Baba Marta (Grandmother March) Day. Tradition holds that Baba Marta, who symbolizes spring, comes each year to chase away her brothers, January and February, who drank all her wine during their wintry stay. The day is marked by the wearing of woven Barba Marta bracelets (martenitis) of red (for life or birth) and white (for newness or cleansing) yarn, presented to friends and family members, and later hung in flowering trees.

In Valencia, Spain, the Festival of Las Fallas is held from March 15-19 to celebrate the return of spring. The festivities actually begin on March 1, when loud fireworks are set off in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. On the 15th, huge, human-shaped, wooden monuments (called fallas) are erected and judged, with the best one, the ninot induldat, being spared from public incineration, the fate that awaits the other fallas on Mar. 19. This festival has been declared a UNESCO heritage festival and draws thousands of visitors each year.

Also celebrating the return of spring on March 1, the townspeople of Lanark, Scotland hold what is called Whuppity Scoorie (only the Scots could come up with a name like that!). Although its actual origin is unknown, it is believed to have started in ancient times when the Scots marked the onset of warmer weather and increased daylight or, perhaps, merely as a way to chase away evil spirits. During the Whuppity Scoorie celebrations, the town’s children race round around the local church three times swinging paper balls on strings over their heads and screaming loudly as the church bells are rung. On the third trip around, the adults toss coins for the children to collect. The week-long festivities continue with arts workshops, feasting, and visiting friends.

One of the world’s most colourful spring-welcoming festivals takes place each year between March 17-18. The Holi festival (sometimes referred to as the festival of love or festival of colours) is celebrated throughout much of India and Nepal, when people gather in the streets to toss water and then multi-coloured powders (called gulal) or smear coloured wet or dry paint on each other.

The colourful public celebrations also include the burning of huge bonfires (symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and of spring over winter) and much singing, dancing and feasting.

There are only a handful of celebrations that occur on the actual day of the vernal equinox. Perhaps the most well-known is that which takes place at Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain, near Wiltshire, England. Every year, on the date of the vernal equinox (as well as on the summer solstice, autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice), this huge, prehistoric complex of standing monolithic stones is visited by hundreds of people, including New Age druids and pagans, who gather to watch the sun rise and set over the stones.

A similar ceremony occurs each year at the Cahokia Woodhenge just outside Collinsville, Ill., when visitors gather to watch the sun rise over the wooden pillars of this prehistoric complex on the morning of the vernal equinox.

The site includes a number of huge earthen mounds with a series of erect timber circles believed to have been built as a solar calendar between 1100-900 CE.

On the southern coast of the island of Malta, people can visit the Mnajdra Temples (built specifically to align with the equinoxes and solstices) and watch sunlight enter the central corridor of the complex’s Southern Temple at sunrise on the morning of the vernal equinox.

Likewise, the 400-acre Angkor Wat Temple complex in Cambodia, built to align with the spring equinox, sees hundreds of visitors each year who, standing at a specific spot on the complex’s southern causeway, are greeted by the sun’s first light as it clears the temple’s central tower on the morning of the vernal equinox.

The people of Bosnia celebrate the vernal equinox with Cimburijada, the Festival of Scrambled Eggs. The first day of spring is welcomed by a huge public meal of scrambled eggs (eggs being an almost universal symbol of rebirth and springtime), followed by traditional music and songs.

The Japanese celebrate Vernal Equinox Day, known as Shunbun no hi, which officially became a public holiday in 1948. This seven-day celebration sees the Japanese, in addition to giving their homes a thorough cleaning and making new resolutions to improve their wellbeing in the coming year, visit the graves of their ancestors and place flowers on the tombs.

In China and eastern Asia, the vernal equinox is marked by Chunfen, a celebration of seasonal games and traditions, praying, and visiting with friends and family.

Mexico celebrates the arrival of spring at a number of sites throughout the country. On the date of the vernal equinox, hundreds of people gather at the the Kukulkan Pyramid, near the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza (now a UNESCO Heritage Site), to watch the late afternoon sunlight create the shadowy illusion of the huge Mayan serpent god Kululkan (symbolic of the union between the heavens, Earth, and the underworld) creeping down the pyramid’s northern staircase.

Also in Mexico, at the holy Aztec city of Teotihuacan, crowds of people, dressed completely in white, gather on the morning of the vernal equinox each year to raise their arms to the light of the rising sun, as it breaks over the Apan Mountains or, if so inclined, to climb the 360 steps of the city’s famous Pyramid of the Sun in order to greet the sun a bit earlier. Ancient Aztecs celebrated the spring equinox as a day of religion and symbolism; a tradition carried on at El Templo Mayor (The Great Temple) in Mexico City, where, on the vernal equinox, people can greet the sun’s first light as it streams through the temple’s two towers.

NOT ALL ON THE SAME DAY

Many spring-welcoming celebrations occur after the actual date of the vernal equinox. The Japanese Buddhist festival of Higan (meaning to arrive at the other side) begins on the vernal equinox and is a week-long period of reflection on one’s efforts towards Nirvana (the Buddhist heaven or the other side) and a time to honour one’s ancestors.

In Iran, Nowruz (meaning new day) marks the beginning of spring, as well as the first day of the Persian New Year, a religious holiday among the Zoroastians of central Asia and the Middle East. In the weeks leading up to the vernal equinox, seeds are planted in pots. The day before the vernal equinox, the sprouted plants are placed on a white tablecloth on the homeowner’s table and surrounded with various objects (a mirror, incense burner, live goldfish and painted boiled eggs, etc.) and a copy of the Zoroastrian sacred text. The Nowruz celebrations continue with public festivals of traditional singing, dancing, and leaping over bonfires.

China also marks the return of spring with the Qing Ming or Pure Brightness Festival between Apr. 4-6 each year. It is celebrated as a time to recognize the changing of the seasons and to honour their ancestors (ancestral tombs are decorated with food and flowers). The festival also involves the planting of trees, the flying of kites and, at night, the launching of candle-lit paper lanterns.

Christian communities around the world celebrate the return of spring in the Northern Hemisphere during the days preceding and following the observance of Easter, a shifting date marked by the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox (this year on April 9). Easter is central to the Christian doctrine of the rebirth and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many of the Easter traditions have been borrowed from other cultures’ customs related to fertility and rebirth, most notably the coloured eggs. The President of the United States hosts an annual Easter Egg Roll celebration at the White House in Washington, DC, where children decorate eggs and cookies, while their parents stroll among the tulip-studded gardens.

Other spring festivals, such as Japan’s Cherry Blossom Festival (late March to midapril); the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., (Mar. 20 to Apr. 16); the Songkran Water Festival in Thailand (Apr. 13-15); the Bloemencorso Flower Parade of the Bollenstreek in Holland (Apr. 23); and the Sechselauten Festival in Zurich, Switzerland (Apr. 25) all celebrate the return of the spring season with flowerfilled parades and festivities filled with singing, dancing and feasting.

The Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Mich., held May 7-15, honours the rebirth of the spring season with carnivals, dances, walking tours, tall ships, marathons and art exhibits. Likewise, the Canadian Tulip Festival held in Ottawa, May 13-23, hosts walking tours of the tulip gardens in the Commissioners Park, outdoor movies, art displays and public fireworks in celebration of spring’s return.

As demonstrated above, the vernal equinox and, more significantly, the return of the spring season, with its warmer weather, continues to be an important event, worthy of tradition, ceremony and ritual, in the lives of people around the globe. Perhaps it is this innate belief that spring, with its symbolic newness and rebirth, may hold better days ahead for each of us, whether simply from the cold of winter, or from the hardship and misfortune of our daily lives, and that this renewed hope is what brings us out so readily to dance and sing in celebration of its return. Happy spring!

IN THE SKY THIS WEEK

Venus (mag. -4.0) and Jupiter (mag. -2.1), both in Pisces — the Fish, appear together above the western horizon, at 25 degrees and 10 degrees respectively, around 7:40 p.m., with Jupiter dropping towards the horizon and setting by about 8:45 p.m. and bright Venus lingering above the western horizon until around 10:25 p.m. By the 26th, Jupiter will no longer be readily visible in the western evening sky, sitting a mere six degrees above the horizon at dusk. Look for Venus sitting almost directly below the thin, waxing crescent moon on the evening of March 24.

The waxing crescent of the moon will sit immediately to the lower left of the Pleiades (The Seven Sisters) open star cluster on the following evening (a great photo op!). Mars (mag. +0.7, in Taurus — the Bull) is visible shortly after 8 p.m., 66 degrees above the southwest horizon, remaining visible until it sinks towards the horizon and sets at around 3:10 a.m.

Until next week, clear skies.