Spring Equinox

The spring equinox is either today or tomorrow. No one seems quite sure this year, apparently because the astrological moment of the equinox is just a few minutes past midnight Greenwich Standard time, leaving the world straddling the two days.

Oh well, doesn't bother me much. We'll just spread the celebrating out over a couple of days. I don't have much planned. I want to color eggs tonight. If I'm lucky hubby will stop reading articles about sports cars online and William will decide it won't mar his teenage cynicism long enough to join in. I think they will, but it's not the same in a small family as it was when we had a house full of kids.

We used to do the whole colored eggs, bunny baskets thing on Easter, along with most of the U.S. population. We'd started out in that tradition and although it's been decades since we've celebrated Easter as a religious event, I continued with the spring traditions on that date as it meant it was lined up with community egg hunts and school holidays for the kids.

A lot of Pagan holidays are spot on the same date as Christian ones, since the Christians often co-opted the pre-existing celebrations. But for some reason, I can't remember why - maybe it was so it didn't look as obviously co-opted or maybe it simply conflicted with the Pope's regular golf date - in any case, it was decided the resurrection would be tied to the vernal equinox but not on the equinox. Instead it would be two weeks after the first full moon nearest the equinox if it landed on a Sunday and the groundhog hadn't seen his shadow or wasn't still too hung over or exhausted from driving all the non-existent snakes out of Ireland. Something like that. You can Google it if you want. Oh, and while you're at it, I was trying to find a photo to go with this post, something to show the day and night in balance. I decided not to borrow anything online, but I thought this painting of the sun and moon was really beautiful.

So this year I realized there was no longer any reason not to celebrate on the equinox. So today and tomorrow it is. We'll do the egg thing tonight. I still have to go get some chocolate rabbits and treats so tomorrow morning they'll magically appear in baskets we will leave out for the bunny. I'll make an effort to do something celebratory in the kitchen - a nice dinner or a big fancy breakfast or maybe just make some Hot Cross Buns.

Mostly what I want to do to celebrate the return of spring is spend the first full day out in the garden cleaning up mulch and planting the earliest seeds. Peas and greens for sure. I can tell you right now that my family is NOT going to share my enthusiasm for this idea. They will point out that WORK isn't what people do on holidays. That is, after they argue that it's not really a holiday. Which will work well for me because then I can say "In that case, since it's not really a holiday, you can both help." And if all the guaranteed grumbling doesn't get me down, I plan to have a great time playing, not working, in the dirt. It's all a matter of perspective. Or maybe it's a matter of balance. After all, it is the equinox.