On March 20 at 11:44 a.m. (GMT), the sun was directly over the equator on its annual journey northward.
Here’s a question. This equinox is properly:
a. the spring equinox
b. the autumn equinox
c. the first day of spring
d. the first day of autumn
e. the midpoint of spring
f. the midpoint of autumn
g. both a and c
h. both a and e
i. both b and d
j. both b and f
k. all of the above
Before I give the answer, let’s talk about the two conflicts here: spring vs. autumn, and “first day” vs. “midpoint.”
For those of us in the northern hemisphere (Europeans, North Americans, most Asians) the sun is coming toward us, making this spring. So we might go for a, c, e, or some combination of those.
But Australians, and most Africans and Latin Americans, are watching the sun move away. For them, this is autumn.
That much is easy to picture.
But what about “the first day”? We in the northern hemisphere are used to hearing that the March equinox is “the first day of spring.” But the ancient people (and I agree) held that spring began around the start of February.
Let’s back up to winter. Somewhere around December 21 is the shortest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere), as the sun is at its furthest point south. So the days just before and after that date are the second shortest days; the next day before and after are the third shortest; and so on. (This would be easier with a whiteboard!)
So it makes sense to say that the 12 or 13 weeks’ worth of “shortest days” is winter.
This, not surprisingly, starts around Oct. 31. Yes, Halloween was in ancient times the first day of winter, the season of the dead.
What would have been the first day of summer? May Day, with its dancing around the Maypole and other fertility rites. And spring began around February 1, celebrated on the 2nd in America as “Groundhog’s Day.”
So, the answer to my quiz is “k: all of the above.”
It’s both spring and autumn, depending on where you’re standing (as the sage Paul Simon sang, “One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor”).
And this is the first day of the season, according to modern sources like Wikipedia, which says the season of spring runs from the equinox to the solstice.
But even Wikipedia notes that “According to the Celtic tradition … spring [in the northern hemisphere] begins in early February … and continues until early May...” Those are the traditional dates.
So happy equinox. And I hope you’ve been enjoying the past six weeks of spring. Or autumn. Or not.
I don't think anyone realized just how impressed the Disney people were by Lila when we visited the Anaheim park in January of this year...
And today is, apparently, the start of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. So to all my Zang friends, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I'm nearing the end of The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho (more on that later), and he's just told the story of King Midas. It's a cautionary tale: Midas was given one wish by the god Dionysus, and in his greed he asked that everything he touch turn to gold. The end is well-known: even his food and drink are turned to gold and, in Coelho's version, he dies of hunger and thirst in a week. (In some versions he learns his lesson and Dionysus restores him to normalcy).
From this story, we get the expression "the Midas touch," which is commonly considered a good thing. One of my favorite resources, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (at Amazon), says that, "A person who is very successful or easily acquires riches is sometimes said to have a "Midas touch.'"
Over on eduFire a member asked: "If you were giving your last lecture, what would you say?"
At long last, I'm posting the third and last part of my series on A Virtue List: Honesty, Veracity, and--now--Equanimity.
Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi commented:
One cannot think of the story of The Two Birds without thinking of Lord Krishna's instructions to Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita. In fact, many have drawn this parallel: The first bird is Arjuna, who participates in the struggles of the world. The second, then, is Krishna, who observes.
Humility <--> Desire
My list isn't so "neat." Still, I find it a powerful motivator.
All my life I have been fascinated by what I call "Virtue Lists."
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