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Q: What is the Spring Equinox?

A: Since spring officially started yesterday, what better way to celebrate the "Return of the Sun" as spring is often called than with the meaning of the vernal equinox? According to Web site Wikipedia, an equinox in astronomy is the event when the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and Sept. 23 each year. More technically, the equinox happens when the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator and ecliptic intersect. In a wider sense, the equinoxes are the two days each year when the center of the Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth. The word equinox derives from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night).

In practice, at the equinox the day is longer than the night. Commonly the day is defined as the period that sunlight reaches the ground in the absence of local obstacles. The sun is a disc and not a single point of light, so when the center of the sun is below the horizon, the upper edge is visible. Furthermore, the atmosphere refracts light, so even when the upper limb of the Sun is below the horizon, its rays reach over the horizon to the ground. In sunrise/sunset tables, the assumed semidiameter is 16 minutes of arc (minutes referring to parts of a degree, not minutes of daylight) and the assumed refraction is 34 minutes of arc. On average, their combination means that when the upper limb of Sun is on the visible horizon its center is 50 minutes of arc below the geometric horizon, which is the intersection with the celestial sphere of a horizontal plane through the eye of the observer. These effects together make the day about 14 minutes longer than the night at the equator, and longer still at sites toward the poles. The real equality of day and night happens a few days toward the winter side of each equinox.

This version of the spring equinox comes from Silken Crescent West, a Gardenian coven and member of the Chamisa Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess in New Mexico:

Ostara, the first day of spring, is a pagan Sabbat celebrating the Spring Equinox, a day of equal light and dark that heralds the return of growth and fertility. The goddess represented by the newly green earth and budding plants, has returned from a cold winter retreat; and the warmth of the sun, the god, who fertilizes and provides the energy for everything to grow. Ostara is a solar festival, celebrating the start of the reign of lightness over dark, and at cross quarters with Samhain, the time of death. This zymology of renewed life is commonly represented by the egg, a popular symbol that is associated with spring worldwide. Eggs have long been associated with the Goddess, Eostre, whose name itself means "moving around the waxing sun" and for whom the Christian holiday of Easter is named.

Legend tells of a hungry hare that came upon a single egg on the first day of spring and was torn between the decision to eat the egg or to offer it to the goddess "Eostre." The hare decided to give this gift and pondered on how make the egg a fit offering to the goddess. He went home and decorated it with the colors of spring and symbols sacred to the goddess, and when he presented it to Eostre she was so pleased she wanted to share the tradition with mankind. It is said the ancestors of that hare still carry on the tradition, they are called Eostre's bunnies - or more commonly known as the Easter Bunny.

Decorating eggs for the Spring Equinox has origins and traditions that date back thousands of years. The egg symbolizes rebirth, the yolk as the sun god and the white shell the goddess, their union together to create life.

Other rites of spring include blessing seeds for planting, decorating with daffodils and other spring flowers, starting projects to be completed by the fall, balancing and centering yourself, and celebrating with friends and family with egg decorating, dancing, and feasting.

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