Spring is just a few hours away.
Here in eastern Pennsylvania, we've had more than our usual amount of snow this winter, but we fell just a couple of inches short of setting a record. All that snow shoveling was pointless. No record, no glory.
Spring needs no records to justify its existence. It's a time of renewal and growth. The vernal equinox reaches us at 12:57 p.m. Thursday (Eastern Time). It's too bad we don't celebrate the occasion like some other cultures do.
The first day of spring is a public holiday in Japan. Imagine that--a day off! It had been a Shinto observance until shortly after World War II. The United States military reoriented the holiday from a faith-based imperial celebration to an observance more in keeping with a new secular democracy.
The Iranian New Year, Nowruz, takes place around the time of the vernal equinox, in accordance with the Persian astronomical calendar. The holiday is rooted in the Zoroastrianism tradition of 3000 B.C. The holiday is observed elsewhere in central Asia, including Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and, inexplicably, Zanzibar, the island portion of Tanzania.
The United States ought to have some sort of celebration of the spring equinox (perhaps it will take commercialization first). The best idea thus far comes from Annapolis, Maryland: The Burning of the Socks Festival. As the tale goes, the event originated in the mid 1980s. Each winter the manager of the yacht harbor worked on boats. Toward the end of the season, he had an accumulation of socks tainted with dirt, dried varnish and fiberglass waste. One day, which happened to be on the day of the spring equinox, he burned the socks on the pier. The holiday doesn't attract a big crowd, but it's at least a start.
That said, I'm posting the final winter photos of the season. And I wish everyone a beautiful spring.
0 comments:
Post a Comment