In Celebration of the Vernal Equinox

Happy Spring Everyone!!!

Finally – it’s here – Spring – the vernal equinox.  I know many of you in the East and Midwest are looking out your windows at a winter scene and wondering “Where?”.  Nevertheless – We’ve hit March 20 and Spring has sprung.

In honor of this day, I am sharing some facts and myths about the vernal equinox – enjoy!

•This year, the vernal equinox takes place exactly at 13:57pm EDT in America. In India it will take place at 10:27pm

•This day is also the UN-declared International Day of Happiness

• The sun shines on the directly on the equator only twice a year – March 20/21 and September 22/23.

• Though day and night are nearly exactly the same length on equinoxes, it is not entirely true because equinoxes don’t have exactly 12 hours of daylight.

• One of the most famous ancient Spring equinox celebrations was the Mayan sacrificial ritual by the main pyramid in Chichen Itza, Mexico.

• The myths that you are able to balance an egg or a broomstick on their ends on the equinoxes are just that…… myths.

And now, a favorite spring poem: 

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 


by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud


That floats on high o'er vales and hills,


When all at once I saw a crowd,


A host, of golden daffodils;


Beside the lake, beneath the trees,


Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine


And twinkle on the milky way,


They stretched in never-ending line


Along the margin of a bay:


Ten thousand saw I at a glance,


Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they


Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;


A poet could not be but gay,


In such a jocund company!


I gazed-and gazed-but little thought


What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie


In vacant or in pensive mood,


They flash upon that inward eye


Which is the bliss of solitude;


And then my heart with pleasure fills,


And dances with the daffodils.