Spring is here! On Wednesday, March 20 at 3:58 p.m., spring arrived. That is the date of spring equinox. We always hear about the equinox, but what is it, exactly?
We have two equinoxes each year, in March and in September. At these times, day and night are equally divided through the entire earth. Imagine that! The day will be approximately twelve hours long, and so will the night. After the March equinox, the days will get longer in the northern hemisphere, eventually bringing our summer season. Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere, the days will get shorter, bringing the lands down under their winter season.
Then, with the fall equinox, the same thing happens again over the world, but in reverse.
It’s a very amazing thing!
I was reading about weather folklore, and found one phrase that said the first three days of any season determine the weather for that season. So let’s make a note in our garden journals about the first three days of spring and see what happens!
You may remember a wonderful show called “Wingfield” that used to be on CBC. An absolutely amazing actor named Rod Beattie played the character of Walt Wingfield, a Toronto stockbroker who decided to leave the big city behind and buy a farm in rural Ontario. He knew nothing about farming, and the show was about his adventures as he learned about country life. The show had several characters, all played by Mr. Beattie. One of them was his neighbor’s sister, Maggie, who had much practical wisdom about life on the farm. In one episode she told Walt that the weather on the first day of spring determined the weather for the next forty days.
In another episode, Maggie also predicted that a storm was coming because “the moon had a watery eye”. There is some basis for this observation: I read that when there is a ring around the moon, the moon’s light is being reflected on ice crystals that are in the air. When these crystals are swirling up in the air like that, there is a system churning around and will likely bring unsettled weather.
I also read that much of long-ago weather folklore came from the belief people had about all things in nature being in balance. The best example of this was that if March came in like a lion, it would go out like a lamb. People were superstitious and afraid of doing anything that would throw off the forces in the universe, so that is why they noted the clouds, the colors of the sky, the way the leaves turned, and many other things, and adjusted their weather ideas accordingly. Some folklore was based on observations and coincidence. One expression that I found said that if a cow drinks from a stream near a house, it will rain. Obviously, the day Bessie got thirsty and had a sip of water from the stream near her house had nothing to do with any weather phenomenon, but was simply two events that happened, were observed and remembered, and got bound together as a weather prediction.
And yet… we all have heard of weather signs that seem to bear no scientific reason, but are still accurate! That’s the beauty and mystery of nature!
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