(Mmmm, thawing dirt)Today is the first day of spring, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. The word "equinox" is a combination of Latin words: aequus (equal) and nox (night). But it's sort of a misnomer, ever since our blasphemous discovery that the earth is not flat. The occurrence of an equal day and night totally depends on your latitude on this big sphere. That 24-hour period is called the equilux, when sunrise and sunset are basically 12 hours apart.
Even so, I get a little psycho-spiritual jolt on the calendar's equinoxes. Especially the vernal one, ever since growing vegetables completely took over my life. In recent years, the atumnal equinox really bums me out. It feels like I'm doomed to 5 or 6 months' worth of Mondays.
I celebrated my vernal equinox by scraping off some dirt from the semi-permafrosted pile that's been on my porch for 5 months, and prepping a little box for some early spring lettuce. I'll scrape off a little more every other day, so the sun will melt it faster. As I go, I'll plop the dirt in another box and sprinkle in some more seeds. And patiently wait for the only miracle I know of.
So, how did you celebrate the equinox?
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