Despite this morning’s snow flurries, the March equinox (vernal in the northern hemisphere, autumnal in the southern hemisphere) occurred this morning at 7:44 AM Eastern Time (UTC-04:00, since it’s now Eastern Daylight Time). By convention, this marks the “official” start of Spring, though we’ve been tracking signs of Spring closely for a few weeks now.
The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896). Leighton depicts Hermes helping Persephone to return to her mother Demeter after Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone.
For the third year, I’m using the image above to illustrate this post. I like the story of Demeter and Persephone. Winter doesn’t occur because Hades is evil/dark/etc. Persephone was not the keeper of the earth. The earth didn’t miss her, Demeter did. Demeter grieved for her loss, and neglected her gardening duties, and that’s why Winter occurs. Demeter rejoices at the return of Persephone, which restores her interest in the world, and that’s when we get Spring.
Illumination of the Earth by the Sun on the day of an equinox
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Related Posts
Persephone Rises, 2008
Happy Vernal Equinox, 2007
Links
Wikipedia:Equinox
That picture shows exactly how I feel when the air warms up and stuff starts seriously growing–esp. Persephone sort of floating! The myth is an interesting meditation on the interrelation of gardening/not gardening and depression/grief/joy, isn’t it? Thanks for posting this!