Saturday, March 22, 2014

Spring Equinox at Porto Rafti


When is the first day of spring?  Traditionally, in the northern hemisphere, we celebrate the beginning of spring on March 21.

For astronomers and calendar makers spring starts one day earlier on March 20th when daytime and nighttime are approximately of equal duration.  The word for this day is Equinox, derived from the Latin aequus for equal and nox for night. 

When Julius Caesar established his calendar in 45 BC he set March 25 as the spring equinox.  Because the Julian calendar is slightly longer than actual, the dates drifted and by 1500 AD the spring equinox occurred on March 11.  Pope Gregory XIII created the modern calendar to restore the edicts of Nicaea’s Council regarding the date Easter is celebrated.  As a consequence the date of equinox was moved four days earlier.  Incidentally, the English word Easter comes from the celebration of Vernal (spring) by the Germanic tribes for the season that brings more daylight, increasing temperatures and the rebirth of animals and plants alike. The Spring Equinox is also referred to as Vernal Equinox.

Poets, photographers and romantics have found the reflection of moonlight on the waters irresistible.  Spring is the season humans regain, albeit briefly, the innocence of children and the season we fall in love.
The full moon occurred on March 16th this year.

1 comment:

  1. A touch of peace and serenity....how lovely it is....a place to think, a place to ponder an escape into a world of sweet wonder.

    Your photo inspires the poet in me:
    Spring
    BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
    Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
    When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
    Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
    Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
    The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
    The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
    The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
    With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

    What is all this juice and all this joy?
    A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
    In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,
    Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
    Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
    Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

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