Defining the Vernal Equinox

As we pass through the threshold of Winter and Spring this changing of seasons inundates us with images of the earth thawing, snow melting, warmer days bringing nurturing rain, and the world blooming with new life and teeming with possibility.

The Spring is a potent archetype of renewal. A universally recognized experience of new beginnings that has humanity felt for ages. Thus, the Spring has become part of the collective human experience we all share.

Some of the most ancient man-made structures in the world were built to align with the Sun on the equinoxes and solstices — the turning points of the four seasons- because of the wealth of meaning found at each of these four cornerstones.

The Vernal Equinox, which signifies the beginning of Spring, occurs when the Sun aligns with the earth’s equator, producing an equal balance of day and night.

Usually occurring on March 20th, the Vernal Equinox is the astrological new year, as it welcomes both the return of the Sun and the lengthening of days, but also the beginning of Aries season, the first sign of the zodiac.

After the Equinox, we will observe the days grow ever-longer until reaching their climax on the Summer Solstice, June 21st, marking the beginning of Summer.

Now, as we pass through this threshold between seasons ourselves, let’s take the time to explore how humans have honored the Spring as an archetypal renewal for ages, along with the myths, and deities centered around this universal experience, so that we may remember just how sacred a time of year Spring truly is.

Edifices of the Equinox

All across the northern hemisphere, ancient civilizations built monuments to honor the Equinox. These massive structures were of no small feat as they required precise planning and an immense amount of physical labor.

The care and effort taken to erect monuments that aligned perfectly with the Sun on this specific day meant that ancient people considered it important, and perhaps even sacred.

As the sun rises on the day of the equinox, its light passes through a small stone window that illuminates the five thousand year old petroglyph filled tombs of the Loughscrew Cairns in Ireland.

Sunlight floods the lower Temple of Mnajdra in Malta; a prehistoric stone temple constructed around 3000 BC to align with the solstices and equinoxes, which archeologists believe was likely used for astronomical observation and ritual ceremony.

As the Sun reaches its peak in the sky, it aligns perfectly with the tip of the Pyramid of Giza in Cairo, Egypt. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world and tomb to the Pharaoh Khufu.

The shadow of the Intihuatana Stone at Machu Picchu, thought by some archeologists to be an ancient solar calendar, completely disappears under the Equinox Sun.

As it sets, it illuminates the carving of Kukulkan, a massive snake god slithering down the length of the Chichen-Itza pyramid in Yucatan, Mexico.

Finally, it descends behind the head of the Great Sphinx of Egypt, resting briefly on the shoulder of the mythical half-man, half-lion before disappearing beneath the horizon.

Each of these monuments were significant undertakings, especially for early humans to have completed with such precision and at such a large scale.

Why build them if they didn’t mean something? — If they didn’t hold a universally recognized importance?

Honoring the Ancient New Year

The New Year has always been a time to envision our future, to set our goals and resolutions, and to have the chance at a fresh start in life. However, the New Year as we know it, January 1st, is a relatively modern concept, as is the calendar system we use today.

More ancient cultures, such as the Mesopotamians, have considered the Vernal Equinox as the dawn of the new year for much longer than our modern calendar has even existed.

Whether celebrated by some formal festivities and traditions, or not, thinking of the Spring as the beginning of a new cycle of life had a very important implication for our ancestors:

“New Year’s Day in the United States of America has been celebrated for over two hundred years, but the history of New Year’s Day goes back thousands of years. In 2000 B.C., Mesopotamians celebrated the vernal equinox as the beginning of a new year. This practice continued through the Middle Ages, with many countries of the world celebrating the New Year on March 20th...
For ancient people, celebrating the vernal equinox as the New Year was very logical. People were moving away from darkness into the light. Agrarian people rely on the power of the sun in growing crops. For the ancients, the vernal equinox was a time to celebrate birth, sunlight, and fertility.” - John De Gree (Source)

It is ancient Rome that officially ushered the transformation from their own ancient lunar based agrarian calendar into the modern solar based calendar we know and use today.

In 713 BC Roman King Numa Pompilius amended what was, at the time, a 10 month calendar that began with March 1st, leaving the winter as simply ‘unassigned’.

Wanting to create uniformity among his growing empire, Pompilius added two months to the calendar: January- named after Janus, the god of beginnings, endings, and thresholds, and Februarius, named after the Februa, an ancient roman spring purification festival.

Scholars debate at which point in time the majority of the Roman populace began celebrating the New Years at the beginning of January, but it was the rule of Julius Caesar in 45 BC that formalized January as the New Year in honor of Janus, as the god of all beginnings.

The Gregorian calendar created in 1582 by Pope Gregory the XIII took the changes made by Pompilius and Caesar, added the leap year, and became concretized as the calendar we all know today.

Despite having moved the celebration of the new year from March to January, the significance it still holds in our lives as a time of fresh starts, resolutions, and new beginnings remains an artifact of our ancestors.

An Allegory of Spring with Cupid, Hans Zatzka