For this group of indigenous people living in the New York area, this was the start of the “good seasons” of warmer months; when they moved from their winter homes back the island of Mannahatta (Manhattan). And increasingly, I now also pay close attention to this turning point, plus the other three. In fact, I feel more and more aligned with the natural flow of the days as our planet moves through its four seasons with its terminal or transitional points.
From whales to weeds, all earthly organisms—including us puny humans— are affected by this grand, surrounding-solar movement and by these key turning points each and every year. You can see it; you can feel it. I know I do.
Technically, the Spring (“Vernal”) Equinox (and its opposing Fall Equinox) is the moment when the sun crosses the equator with the earth’s axis of spin tilted neither toward nor away from the sun. When there are equal hours of sun and non-sun (“equinox” means “equal night”) no matter where you are on the planet. In theory. Actually, there are slight differences in the hours of day/night depending on your latitude.
Here’s a short clip from NASA showing the swing of the four seasons, viewed from earth orbit:
So I’m celebrating this halfway point on the annual march to the summer solstice. Are you?
Harald, I tracked you down from your comments over at KillZoneBlog. Very nice first page submission! We do have college swimming in common, so I was very curious to see how the boy survived the fall into the cold water. (I went on to be a swim coach, by the way. Awesome, rewarding job!) I’ll wait until your book comes out to understand how your protagonist’s rope plays out.
As far as the balance of days goes, I feel blessed to live in central Virginia. It’s an area that experiences all four seasons. It’s nice to be able to see all the different colors and textures in nature throughout the year.
Hi Priscilla. Thanks for stopping by, and for the kind words. All will be revealed about swimming with the rope when the new book comes out. Subscribe here and you’ll get an alert about that.
We’re now in the time of the Sprouting Grass Moon and on our way toward the Solstice!
Harald, I, absolutely, am looking forward to the release date of your book. Kudos to you!
I have always lived in countries that experienced the four seasons. To the extent of my childhood spent listening to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, as it was my mother’s favorite.
Until I became a mother, I wasn’t particularly aware of the change of seasons. Well, besides having to buy new clothes.
But, the seasons took on a definitive rhythm when seen through the eyes of my child.
Autumn, with its changing of the leaves, heralded the beginning of a new school year.
Congregating at the bus stop, twice a day, was one of my favorite beats of the rhythm of the day. Winter meant sledding, snowball fights, and muddy kitchen floors. I, personally, didn’t enjoy the Winter’s cold, but I took great joy in watching my son reveling in its piles of snow . The coming of Spring meant the flinging open of windows, and listening to my son’s laughter filling our world. Thank goodness, that he was a child before the permeation of the electronic age! With the kids in our neighborhood, he played outside all afternoon. Summer meant the end of school and the beginning of having fun all the time. Baseball games, water balloon fights, days at the beach, and a simple, but grande, vacation.
I held on to this rhythm through my son’s college years.
But after college, that beat began to slip through my fingers.
My son got married this last October. Now, Autumn has a few weeks of leaves turning colors, but then they have to be dealt with on the ground.
I don’t want any part of the Winter’s cold. My knees ache, and any snow makes getting around progressively perilous. Spring takes forever to blossom. Only Summer, still maintains its glory. It still offers me endless hours at the beach, and the escape of a vacation.
It would be a good time, now, to move, and live right on the equator.
Thank you so much for the kind words, Barbara. And for your interesting, personal story relating to the seasons. I think that many of us gather closer to nature’s rhythms as we age. And hope that this latest snow is the last one of this season!
Antonio Vivaldi experienced those seasons on the opposite side of the world. A sympathetic vibration? 😎
Hey, Joe! Did you know that Vivaldi wrote Le Quattro Stagioni while in Mantua, Italy? And Mantua is roughly at the 45th Parallel (Latitude). And New York City (the setting for my novelistic saga) is at the 41st. So folks in both places were having roughly the same day/night experience, only six hours apart.
From the Sonnets (Spring):
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are
softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar,
casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence,
and the birds take up their charming songs once more.