![]() ![]() While we don’t usually sacrifice humans or animals to ensure the change of the season anymore, we often engage in ritual behavior associated with important holidays that fall on or near the solstices and equinox. Important changes, such as the solstices and equinoxes, required recognition and participation, often in the form of rituals and sacrifice. But without human help, the motion of the heavens could cease or change, causing ruin and death for all the beings on earth. The changes in the heavens caused the changes on earth: the end of winter, the coming of spring, the rebirth of nature. Unlike modern people, who see the celestial events as mechanical, predictable, and fairly unimportant, ancient people saw them as terribly important parts of their lives. The Maya E-group, a common architectural feature in Lowland Maya sites, is believed to mark both the solstice points and the equinoxes (See diagram). Stonehenge and many other circles of standing stones or wooden posts, like the woodhenge at Cahokia Mounds in the photo, are aligned to mark the solstice points. Many ancient structur es celebrate exactly this cycle. In the northern hemisphere, we will have the spring equinox around March 21, the summer solstice around June 21, the fall equinox around September 22, and the winter solstice around December 21. While the far points mark the solstices, the mid-points in these swings are the equinoxes (equi =same, nox = night), where the length of the day and night are the same. They’ve even provided blueprints for other communities that would like to build their own “henge.” The University of Massachusetts created a “Sunwheel” that marks the solstices, equinoxes, and moon cycles (diagram). Burlington, Vermont erected an “Earth Clock,” a modern answer to the ancient circles of stones. If you followed the sunsets each of these days, you’d find an equal swing from north to south and back again. If you keep following the sunrises, you’ll see a progression back along the same path on the horizon until it once again seems to stop. That moment when the sun seems to stop and change direction is a solstice (sol = sun, stice = stop), a sun-stop. Then one day you’ll see the rising sun stop its forward motion. If you keep track, you’ll see the rising sun location follows a certain path along the eastern horizon. As the days go by, you’ll see the spot where the sun rises change. If it’s a hill or a tree, note that position. If there is a building in the way, note where the sun rises in relation to the building. All you need to do is look at the rising run each day from a fixed point. Few people today care about this celestial event, but ancient people cared very deeply, so deeply they traced the exact moment it happened by marking it in stone. ![]() More specifically, the vernal equinox arrives (autumnal to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere). Up here in the Great Lakes region, spring arrives, at least according to the calendar, on March 20 this year. ![]()
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