Tag Archives: Equinox

Grief and Gardening: A Dissetling Spring

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“The Return of Persephone“, Frederic Leighton, 1896 (four years before his death)

The March Equinox – Spring or Vernal, in the Northern Hemisphere – occurs at 11:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time this evening. It’s the earliest it’s occurred in over a century. It seems fitting, given the warm, nearly snowless winter, and the quickened pace of everything else.


We are in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The disease is COVID: Corona Virus Disease. The virus that causes it is known as SARS-CoV2. At this time, New York state has 1/3 to 1/2 of all cases in the United States. That ratio has been increasing quickly over the past couple of days; it was 1/4 just a few days ago. As one would expect, New York City alone has most of those; 1/4 of all confirmed cases in the U.S. are in NYC at this moment.

Once again in my life, I am in the epicenter of an epidemic.

The changes to our daily routines have been rapid.

  • I have been working from home for just over a week, enforced by my employer. At first it was just to the end of this week. Now it’s to the end of the month. I’m expecting it to last at least into the fall: at least 6 months.
  • I have been going down to New Jersey every other week to help my sister take care of our elderly disabled mother. I had to call and cancel that indefinitely. Everyone in NYC must assume they have been exposed, if not infected. Any visit from me would be a risk to her life.
  • My husband and I enjoyed brunch just last Saturday at our favorite place. All restaurants and bars are now closed.
  • Theaters, museums, zoos, all closed.

Because of rapid changes such as these, it doesn’t feel early in all of this, but it is. The social marketing of social distancing – reducing contact, even indirectly, with others – has been somewhat effective. The streets are quiet. Mass transit ridership is down 40-90%.

Somewhat effective, but not enough. We are still in the exponential expansion of the disease. The number of cases is nearly doubling every two days. Humans’ brains don’t work well with exponentials. If there are 2,500 confirmed cases in NYC today, by this time next week, we should expect over 20,000; in 2 weeks, 170,000. The lack of testing compounds this. We are running blind, because we cannot stop. We must balance ignorance and risk.

This is unique in my lifetime. Yet there are touchpoints with other disasters and atrocities we’ve survived: 9/11, Sandy, AIDS. As bad as all those were, the worst of it was caused by people. I fear – I expect – the same to happen here. Only now, it’s a disease affecting everyone, not a dispensible, disposable community. And it’s everywhere, not just NYC, not just this country.

We are all about to undergo endurance trauma. This is not a singular event. It’s a marathon. It’s going to last through the summer, into the fall. Depending on how effective or ineffective we are at managing ourselves, this could extend into next summer.

Those who profit from fear want to divide us. What I am also seeing is mutual support, resiliency in community. After 9/11, people in NYC were kind to each other. That was when I changed my standard greeting of separation or departure, whether from a loved one or a bus driver, to “take care”. It remains always appropriate, and especially apt during times such as these.

Birds sing outside my porch. The succession of blooming trees has already begun. Life around us goes on without us. It is the only glimmer I can perceive this Spring of Persephone’s promise.

The Borrowed View: overlooking my backyard

Related Content

Equinox
Grief

Equinox

https://journeynorth.org/sunlight-seasons/news/spring-2020/03192020-tonight-spring-equinox

COVID-19

Social Distancing
https://medium.com/@ariadnelabs/social-distancing-this-is-not-a-snow-day-ac21d7fa78b4
https://socialdistancegame.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/

New York City
https://projects.thecity.nyc/2020_03_covid-19-tracker/

New York State
https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/county-county-breakdown-positive-cases

United States
A live, continually updated version of the map above.
http://www.61n150w.com/COVID19Map.png

The data for the map comes from here:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

For “reasons”, there’s little trustworthy federal information available. The CDC is still the official source of stats.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

Global
Global, and you can select a country, and drill-down to more local figures, e.g.: states for the U.S.
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

This site has visualizations world-wide and by country, and you can download the data for your own analysis:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

Also allows you to drill down to country level.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Fall Back, 2010

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Persephone with her pomegranate. Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Proserpine (Oil on canvas, 1874) – Tate Gallery, London

This year’s autumnal or September equinox occurs at 03:09 Universal Time (UTC) on September 23. In my local time, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), it’s 23:09, 11:09 PM, on September 22.

The Earth’s seasons are caused by the rotation axis of the Earth not being perpendicular to its orbital plane. The Earth’s axis is tilted at an angle of approximately 23.44° from the orbital plane; this tilt is called the axial tilt. As a consequence, for half of the year (i.e. from around March 20 to around September 22), the northern hemisphere tips toward the Sun, with the maximum around June 21, while for the other half of the year, the southern hemisphere has this honor, with the maximum around December 21. The two instants when the Sun is directly overhead at the Equator are the equinoxes.
– Wikipedia: Equinox

This image shows the orientation of the Earth from the perspective of the Sun at the March/Vernal Equinox: North is to the upper right, and Earth orbits to the left. At the September/Autumnal Equinox, the only difference is that North would appear to the upper left from the same perspective. Illustration: Dennis Nilsson

Bas-relief in Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid), Parseh, also known as Persepolis. On the day of an equinox, the power of an eternally fighting bull (personifying the Earth) and that of a lion (personifying the Sun) are equal. The September equinox marks the first day of Mehr or Libra in the Persian calendar. Photo: Anatoly Terentiev

So, what’s with the chick with the fruit at the top of this post? Persephone/Proserpina was the daughter of Demeter/Ceres and Zeus/Jupiter. Demeter hid her daughter from the other gods, but Hades/Pluto abducted her:

She was innocently picking flowers with some nymphs — Athena, and Artemis, the Homeric hymn says — or Leucippe, or Oceanids — in a field in Enna when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Later, the nymphs were changed by Demeter into the Sirens for not having interfered. Life came to a standstill as the devastated Demeter, goddess of the Earth, searched everywhere for her lost daughter. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened.

Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds, which forced her to return to the underworld for the winter each year.
– Wikipedia: Persephone

But it’s not Persephone’s return to the underworld that brings on Winter. Demeter was the goddess of the harvest, agriculture, forests, and the earth. It’s Demeter’s grief for her daughter that that cools the nights, shortens the days, triggers the harvest, and brings on the “sleep” of the earth.

Related Content

Equinox

Links

U.S. Naval Observatory: The Seasons and Earth’s Orbit
Wikipedia: Equinox, Persephone

Finally, Spring!

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View from South Cove, Battery Park City
View from South Cove Park

The March equinox (vernal in the northern hemisphere, autumnal in the southern hemisphere) occurred this morning at 1:32 PM Eastern Time (UTC-04:00, since it’s now Eastern Daylight Time). Yesterday, I walked along the Esplanade of Battery Park City on the Hudson River. With a week of warm weather, and highs 20F degrees above normal for this time of year, the pace of bloom has been accelerated and compressed. I found:

  • Crocus tommasinianus and other Crocus 
  • Eranthis hyemalis, Winter Aconite
  • Galanthus nivalis, Snowdrops 
  • Helleborus orientalis, Lenten Rose
  • Iris reticulata
  • even an early Narcissus, Daffodil

While the Daffodil was surprising, the others are all early bloomers. I’m just not used to seeing them all blooming at the same time.

Galanthus, Crocus, Hyemalis

Iris reticulata, South Cove Park

Eranthis hyemalis, Winter Aconite

Crocus tommasinianus

Narcissus, Daffodil

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.
The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

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
Illumination of the Earth by the Sun on the day of an equinox

Related Posts

Happy Spring , 2009
Persephone Rises, 2008
Happy Vernal Equinox, 2007

Links

Wikipedia:Equinox

Happy September Equinox 2009

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Bas-relief in Persepolis. On the day of an equinox, the power of an eternally fighting bull (personifying the Earth) and that of a lion (personifying the Sun) are equal. The September equinox marks the first day of Mehr or Libra in the Persian calendar. Photo: Anatoly Terentiev

The September equinox (autumnal in the northern hemisphere, vernal in the southern) occurs today, September 22, at 21:18 UTC. Daylight Savings Time puts me at UTC-4, so 17:18, or 5:18pm, local time.

Illumination of the Earth by the Sun on the day of an equinox
Illumination of the Earth by the Sun on the day of an equinox
Persephone with her pomegranate. Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Proserpine (Oil on canvas, 1874) – Tate Gallery, London

Related Posts

Equinox
Solstice

Persephone Rises, 2009-03-19

Links

Wikipedia:Equinox

Happy Spring

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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.
The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

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
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

Persephone Rises

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The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)
The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

The vernal equinox of 2008 occurs at 05:48 UTC on March 20, or 01:48/1:48am my time, after midnight tonight. And a blogging neighbor wishes everyone a Happy New Year 1387.

I used the same image above for last year’s Vernal Equinox post. Not that I want to just phone it in. I think the painting is gorgeous. And I like the story of Demeter and Persephone. In comments on last year’s post, Blackswamp Girl (Kim of A Study in Contrasts) expressed discomfort with the story. I responded:

The way I keep the story in my mind, 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.

Related Posts

Happy Vernal Equinox, 2007

Links

Wikipedia:Equinox

Fall Approaches

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Fall Colors around Lake Superior, September 23, 2007. Credit: NASA Terra–MODIS (Satellite-Sensor)

The autumnal equinox of 2007 occurred at 09:51 UTC on Sunday, September 23, or 05:51 Eastern Time. “Autumnal” instead of “Fall” because:

  1. It’s okay to use for both hemispheres.
  2. Also, you could use this term on any other planets on which you should find yourself.

In northeastern North America, we measure fall by the changes in foliage. And it’s on its way south from Canada.

The calendar may have set September 23 as the first day of autumn in 2007, but the forests that line the eastern shore of Lake Superior had already started to mark the turning of the season. By September 23, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this photo-like image, the forests of northern Michigan and southern Ontario flamed orange as the first trees of the season—maples—began to display their brilliant red and orange fall colors. Veins of green run through the sea of orange where the deciduous forest gives way to deep green pine trees.

The most vivid color is concentrated in Canada’s Ontario Province. Located farther south, Michigan’s trees show only a hint of color. …

The large image provides an unusually cloud-free view of all of the Great Lakes. Similar spots of color stretch across southern Canada and parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The northern plains of the United States have started to turn yellow as grasses ripen, but the eastern forests in Pennsylvania and New York remain deep green.

– Fall Colors around Lake Superior, NASA Earth Observatory

New York State operates its own fall foliage watch. You can track the progress of the changes on the map provided on their Web site. They were predicting “vibrant, near-peak autumn color” this past weekend for the Adirondacks, the peachy area in northern New York state on the map below.

Here in NYC, we’re still in the green, but I’ve been watching the subtle changes. Individual trees in my neighborhood, including the cherry tree in my backyard, are already picking up shades of yellow and orange.

Vernal equinox and autumnal equinox. These names are direct derivatives of Latin (ver = spring, autumnus = autumn), and as such more apt to be found in writings. Although in principle they are subject to the same problem as the spring/autumn names, their use over the centuries has fixed them to the viewpoint of the northern hemisphere. As such the vernal equinox is the equinox where the Sun passes from south to north [across the equator], and is a zeropoint in some celestial coordinate systems. The name of the other equinox is used less often.
– Wikipedia:Equinox:Names

Links

Wikipedia: Equinox
I Love NY (State) Fall Foliage Report

Related Posts

The Return of Persephone

Happy Vernal Equinox

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The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)
The Return of Persephone (1891), by Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

The vernal equinox of 2007 occurs at 00:07 UTC on March 21, or 20:07/8:07pm my time this evening.

“Vernal” instead of “Spring” because:

  1. It’s okay to use for both hemispheres.
  2. Also, you could use this term on any other planets on which you should find yourself.

Vernal equinox and autumnal equinox. These names are direct derivatives of Latin (ver = spring, autumnus = autumn), and as such more apt to be found in writings. Although in principle they are subject to the same problem as the spring/autumn names, their use over the centuries has fixed them to the viewpoint of the northern hemisphere. As such the vernal equinox is the equinox where the Sun passes from south to north [across the equator], and is a zeropoint in some celestial coordinate systems. The name of the other equinox is used less often.
– Wikipedia:Equinox:Names