Now Nature hangs her mantle green
On every blooming tree,
And spreads her sheets o’daisies white
Out o’er the grassy lea. – Robert Burns
The apparent path of the sun crossed the celestial equator northbound at 11:02 UTC today, making today the first day of astronomical spring for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and astronomical autumn for those in the Southern. So if you were wondering why this posted an hour late today, now you have your reason; I couldn’t resist posting at the moment of the equinox. Spring is my second favorite of seasons, surpassed in my estimation only by autumn; as I age I watch them go buy more and more quickly, flashing by in a rapid succession of days and weeks until they give way all too soon to the extremes of summer or winter…which in turn flash by and give way to the seasons I love, each in its turn, one after another as they have since long before the arrival of Man (and as they will no doubt continue until long after his departure).
The old Germanic name for the holiday, Ostara, is of course the origin for Easter; other Christian festivals adapted from pagan ones share the day but not the name, but in this case it’s the name but not the day! This is because the Christian rationale for the holiday is tied to the Jewish Passover, and so is calculated in the same way (from the first full moon of spring); in fact, in most European languages the words for Easter and Passover are the same. I’m glad we retained the older name in English; Ostara was a spring goddess whose name descends from that of the ancient Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess Hausos, of whom the Greek Eos, the Roman Aurora and the Vedic Ushas are all later forms (spring is, after all, the dawn of the year). There’s a beauty in that continuity: the timeless celebration of the return of life after winter, with the name of a goddess who has been worshipped in one form or another since many of the most widely-spoken languages in the world were one.
Blessed Be!
It was about 5F here last night, we’ve still about two feet of snow on the ground, and there’s still ice in the river…
But I do know spring is here. Thanks!
I hate summer SO much that I’ve always had a hard time being happy when spring rolls around, but it does have its nice bits. Cold, snowy springs are my favorite!
Summer is my least favorite season, but it’s much less oppressive here than in New Orleans. The mercury climbs much higher here, but the humidity is so much lower it actually feels cooler.
I grew up working fields and building in ground swimming pools in the Southern Mississippi heat. Summers remind of those times – and they weren’t bad ones for me. Feels like living to me!
I hate cold weather – take that from a guy who has worked in the Arctic quite often. It’s beautiful there – but if you’re not careful you’ll freeze to death under the right circumstances. Even if you are careful – your fingers are numb … your feet are numb … your face is windblown and red – it’s just not comfortable and sometimes you can’t find a place to warm up.
My dream job would be a highway construction job – yeah those guys – somewhere in the deep South. Too bad that job doesn’t pay anything or I’d be on it!! Of course – I’d only be working in the summer though!
We just got a small snowfall on the first day of Spring; temperatures are still hovering around -10C here. Personally, I think I prefer Winter and Fall; we’re right on the harbor here and it gets ridiculously humid in the Summer despite only routinely reaching ~30C.
Maggie–you are so good. Love reading your stuff.
I was told that the name of Easter derived from Ester, itself derived from Ishtar (yes, a Book of the Bible is named after a Babylonian Goddess).
I didn’t hide eggs this year, but I did color some.