2023 Vernal Equinox, Sun 0° Aries
The Northward, Vernal Equinox, Start of Spring, Aries Ingress.
For the ritually oriented and the curious, here are the 2023 Spring Equinox times
Monday, March 20, 2023
UTC
21:24:16
London - GMT
9:24:16 pm
New York - EDT
5:24:16 pm
Minneapolis - CDT
4:24:16 pm
Santa Fe - MDT
3:24:16 pm
Seattle - PDT
2:24:16 pm
Honolulu - HST
11:24:16 am
Kyiv, Ukraine - EET
11:24:16 pm
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Moscow, Russia - MSK
12:24:16 am
Tokyo - JST
6:24:16 am
March 20-21 brings the Vernal Equinox, also known as Ostara, Eostre, or Eastre, named for the Germanic Goddess of Spring and dawn. When the Sun's path along the Ecliptic crosses the Celestial Equator (the plane of Earth's Equator extended into space) from the South to the North, we have the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring, zero degrees of Aries. From this point, the length of daylight increases. The longer nights of the winter season are now in equal balance with daylight. It is the beginning point of the Zodiac that astrologers use for measuring.
All points in the eight-fold year (defined by the astronomical measure of solstices, equinoxes, and the midpoints between those) are marked by human celebrations, holidays, and holy days. Those coincidental celebrations are not accidental but knowingly or circumstantially correspond to the astronomical. There are holy days with the Jewish and Christian calendars (also with Chinese, Hindu, etc.) that combine New and Full Moons with solstices and equinoxes. For example, the Full Moon after the Spring Equinox is Passover. The Sunday following that Full Moon is Easter. For the Persians, the Equinox is New Year, Noruz.
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| National Weather Service |
In tropical astrology, degrees are measured from the always-receding Vernal Equinox; each year, the Vernal Equinox occurs 50.23 seconds of a degree EARLIER than the year before. This amounts to approximately 5 minutes of a degree every 6 years. Thus any point (a fixed star, for instance) that is, say, at 5 degrees and 10 minutes of tropical Aries in a given year, 6 years later will be at 5 degrees and 15 minutes of tropical Aries, BECAUSE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THAT POINT AND THE VERNAL EQUINOX HAS INCREASED, and tropical positions are always measured from the Vernal Equinox. This is why precession corrections are added, not subtracted, as time passes. -- Diana K Rosenberg writing in ISAR Email letter Volume 336, May 15, 2005
Happy Spring!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3lqVv0vCE
"The Mummers' Dance" is a single by Canadian Celtic singer Loreena McKennitt from the 1997 album "The Book of Secrets." The song refers to the seasonal Mummers Play performed by groups of actors, often as house-to-house visits.
When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair
When owls call the breathless Moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year
The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone
A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of our Lord's hand
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
(Equinox times correspond to Monday, March 20, 2023, at 11:24:16 am, Honolulu local time.)
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