SPRING EQUINOX

     Last week on March 20, was spring equinox. This is one of the two times of year when the rising and setting sun marks points on the horizon exactly between the furthest rise and set points south on the horizons (winter solstice) and the furthest rise and set points north (summer solstice), the opposite being true for the southern hemisphere. The other time this happens is autumn equinox. Equinox is also when the suns plane of our orbit cross the tilted earths equator, or as is said the sun crosses the equator. And it is also when day and night are even in amount of time. It’s half way between the cold part of the year and the hot part of the year. And it is the same equal time and placement for both hemispheres excepting that they are having the opposite equinoxes as to the season, being spring or autumn it ushers in. For these reasons both equinoxes have since ancient times been considered a time of balance. Autumn equinox comes at the same time as the Libra (scales) zodiac begins.

     

       Spring equinox was considered a time to return to moderation. As the weeks before had been bleak as far as food stores, and fasting and scrimping with food was necessary to make it through the last of the winter. And before then was Yule’s excessive feasting.  And the summer to come will once again be time for bounty and feasting. The spring equinox was a time for balance between fasting and feasting. Food was no longer scarce, and fresh things were becoming available, yet more work was to be done in the fields and with the flocks and herds to bring back the bounty needed for the coming year. A cake would be made with darker rye flour which was plentiful, as it is easily grown, and lighter wheat flour which was special and a portion of which would be saved from last years stores just for this cake. The cake would be made with one dark side and one light side. And the tradition was for everyone to eat a small piece from each side for their own balance. And it was eaten with milk, butter, and fresh yellow honey, all three being new foods to this time of year.

     Oddly enough eggs factor heavily into this time, and as I said balance does as well, and now is the time when one can supposedly balance an egg for very brief few minutes during the moment of equinox. I’ve heard it said that this is all just folk lore, and it may be for the reasons I just stated. And there seems to be a debate as to whether its true. Certainly at anytime you can balance an egg with a steady enough hand and waiting for the yolk to center into the bottom of the shell. I’ve even done it. And it also depends on the freshness of the egg and air pockets and runny whites of stale eggs would work better. But I will say that as a child I saw my uncle in a matter of seconds and without any effort stand six eggs on the top of his car. And in a minute or two they all fell at the same time in the same direction. However, damned if i know why, I always forget to try it at the moment of equinox, and remember it later, like now!.

                    As I said eggs are once again plentiful as the hens are laying again, and before domesticated hens, foraging and gathering for eggs among the brush of the quails, grouse, and wild chickens would be successful. In fact eggs are about the most important food symbol for this day of spring equinox. Think of how many foods are made with eggs, and how many ways you can prepare eggs. What a great blessing it would be to start getting eggs again when you had been going without for many weeks even possibly months. We all know the traditions surrounding Easter eggs. And it certainly comes from an association with the spring equinox, which it usually most falls very close to.  However, Easter this year is going to be very late. So I will write more on the legends and customs surrounding that next month when it indeed arrives. Suffice it to say now that as far as food goes, this was the time of the incredible edible prize of spring.

     

      

      As the year goes, this is a time where the land has been plowed and readied for planting, and where some things have already been planted or very soon will be. If we again give the earth, the land, a persona, you could say that the earth has become pregnant. The promise is visible now for the return of all the blessings to come in the summer which makes food for the coming year possible. 

     

     Grasses are greening, trees blossoming, lambs and rabbits are running about, some flowers peak out, and the weather is warming and sunny days with the bluest skies of the year are drawing everyone outside

    Life itself can’t help but bounce around in the sunshine. It’s why our biological clocks make us want to go outdoors, buy plants, and flowers for our yards, play, work or picnic out of doors. 

     And spring fever and the feelings of romance, are also part of our biology, as this is a fertile time when the smaller animals and birds are mating. Mad as a March hare, is the truth. The critters are out and bouncing about with mating dances and rituals.

             

 

      And as magic as nature is, almost all the hoofed, grazing animals… from cattle to sheep and goats to deer and horses, and others, no matter the difference in their gestation cycles, all mated at such a time last year as they predominately give birth in late winter early spring. If the young were born earlier they would die from cold or starvation. But with this schedule, it has them born at such a time that just about the time when mamas are kicking them away to wean them, the fresh new grasses have sprouted to nourish them plentifully. 

      

        So as well as small animals are there to snare for meat, the growing larger, calves and lambs are being selected even fattened, for a tradition of the first fresh meat on the hoof for celebrations. And most people of the ancient world had not eaten fresh meat of any quantity since last autumn. 

     And among all species of birds spring is obvious. Some birds are making mating calls so songs fill the trees. Big black male crows strut in circles with their tails flared, in their mating dances to attract the females. Baby chicks and ducklings are born. In some parts of the world the migration of water foul can be seen and heard overhead with far off the sound of the geese. I’ve been lucky in my life to have lived in places where these geese are usually a splendid display. 

     

       

       We also have here the endless bands of finches migrating, where you cannot see from one end to the other of the stream of birds, and they might be flying overhead like that for a few hours or more. And once I was blessed while hiking to wonder into migrating monarch butterflies, so plentiful as to where I could hear the sound of the many wings and feel them brushing past me. Alas it was before cell phones with built in cameras.

    The coming out of scurrying small rodents and animals brings out the birds of prey spying them from above. Usually this time of year they can be seen hunting in mating pairs, and the sounds of owls at night return in the spring as well.

    The spring rains wash everything fresh and new, and people would have cleaned out their food stores to make ready for the coming blessings. As well seed stores would be planted. Some cultures kept seeds in sealed pots to keep mice and such from getting them. In the spring the seed pot is broken open to get the seeds for planting. Out with the old and all is new. Fresh food is the fare. Fresh young greens are enjoyed.

        And as to foraging, morels, and other mushrooms are plentiful with the rains. Folks would forage fern fields for fiddleheads, unopened fronds which steam up nicely. As well people would forage for fresh wild herbs. Foods would be tasty again with new herbs. All manner of fresh salad and green leafy vegetables were starting to be enjoyed. Even some wild berries would soon be ready to eat. The last of the grain stores for making cakes. And eggs, milk, butter, and honey with all the goodies those things can combine to make. The last of the cured meats, if any were left, would be used with fresh meats for celebrations.

     Ancient peoples and the humanity of antiquity, had their mythologies that coincided with the spring equinox. It was not necessarily the point of springs beginning, as we see it. That was measured in the signs of nature which could vary as to timing each year, as in an early spring, or as this year for most of the USA, a late spring. Equinox was a pointer in the measured time of the year. It was one of the two days when the sun rose exactly east and set exactly west. And ancients would put up markers to show these points on the horizons. And all other measurements were based on these markers.

     

      As well as the sun being the conscious marker for the years time traveled, lunar cycles were considered to be, unconscious markers of mystery moved through. And the moon was usually associated with female deities in that it, like women, has a 28 day cycle. So the full moon closest to the spring equinox, usually the one after it, was the symbol of the spring goddess Oestre, and the visible signal that she was now with child, as was the land that had been planted.

                           

      Ostara was the festival to honor her. The pregnant Goddess of spring is what is often represented in what are called the Venus figures found through prehistory Eurasia. The spiral on the belly represents life eternal and being with child.

    And she in various cultures had other similar names and similar mythology to Oestre. She was also called Eostre, Cybele, Ceres, Ishtar, Inanna, Astara, and Astarte.  You can see where the words Easter, east, star, nanny, cycle and cereal come from these names. She was the earth mother, great mother, grain mother, the lunar cycle, eastern star, eastern light (dawn), she was enlightenment. And as spring returned life to the world, you have symbolic festivals, and mythologies of rebirth, emergence, and resurrection, the story of Persephone’s return for half a year! This is the second and major fertility celebration of the year. and it is time for two great fertility symbols the egg and the hare. Eggs return to the food supply now and eggs also carry young. Hares are mating now, and hares were also part of the meats which could be enjoyed again

     

         There is a legend of Oestre which is a lovely tale and explains an Easter question many have asked. It seems she came upon an exquisite white bird, but the bird was maimed on one wing and would surely die. She did not have the power to repair or heal the wing but she did have the power to shape shift creatures. So she turned the graceful bird into an animal that had no wings, a large white rabbit, or as female hares are called a doe. But the transformation was just a shape shift so the hare continued to lay eggs, and was then her companion and familiar,  following by her side. She was sometimes illustrated, as a pregnant goddess with a hare and eggs at her feet.

     Therein is the story of why we have the Easter bunny and why the Easter bunny is said to lay eggs and bring them around as offerings to humanity from the goddess of Spring. And I will give more on these tales and their bridge into other religious festivals next month for Passover and Easter.

     

     

 And so goes eggs as a spring food, but did you know that after Mayonnaise was invented. The freshness of spring eggs made what was considered the best mayonnaise of the year, and viola… deviled eggs and cold potato salad. Ham was since antiquity maybe the last of a cured meat store… the last prize ham sometimes was saved for after lent and eaten at Easter or spring equinox. Lamb chops, leg of lamb, and in some places veal were and are considered foods of this season, for reasons I mentioned above. Sweets made from fresh yellow honey, were the first “treats” of the new year, and evolved into Easter candy.

     

     In America the settlers were introduced to Maple syrup and sugar by the native tribes. Maple syrup is a big spring treat produced gathered and produced at this time. When its tapped from the trees with the little spigots and pails, the night temperatures need to fall below freezing while each day is above. This is because when the days get short and colder all deciduous (non evergreen) trees draw in their sap and send it to the trunk and root system. This is why leaves turn colors and fall off. They are not needed for photosynthesis anymore this year, there will be too little sun to support that, and sugars in the descending sap begin to turn into carbohydrates (which better withstand a freeze) pulled into the trunk and roots, which along with the trees bark, protects the tree from freezing, and dying,  and holds the life giving compounds down in the root system keeping the tree alive. In the spring as soon as the days start to get longer and start to get warmer the trees turn the carbs back into sugars, the sap thins, and comes up through the roots and is sent to the branches to hurry and make leaves to stretch out and catch the  ever increasing rays and make food by photosynthesis.

   

 The tapping of sugar maples is catching the sap on its way up and as it thins and begins to run through the tree. The trees are mainly tapped on the south (sunny) side. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to boil down into one gallon of syrup. Kind of reminds you of how bees fan the flower nectar they gather with their wings to dehydrate it and concentrate it into honey. Spring is a lovely season and with Maple syrup and honey nature ensures its sweet as well.

        This post is a week late I know, but a friend was visiting last week and we just could not stay indoors with the lovely spring days we were being graced with. So we were out and about like bouncing rabbits each day. I do hope your spring is with you or coming very soon. We have had such a hard winter all over this year. Hummm id be interested to see a statistic, I wonder how many years of cold winters and late springs also have very late Easters as in this year. Well do enjoy your eggs and asparagus, maple syrup, honey, greens, lamb chops, and even mayonnaise, but eat a “balanced” diet and revel in spring.

       

              

                     Blessings mes amis