Solstice vs equinox definition full#

Modern Paganism: Modern pagans celebrate a feast called Mabon on the autumnal equinox. The French followed this calendar from 1793 until Napoleon Bonaparte abolished it in 1806. In the revolutionary attempt to rid the calendar of religious or royalist influence, each month was named after a natural element. These tradition festivals, once celebrated around the equinox, formed the basis of American Thanksgiving, which we now celebrate in November.įrench Republican Calendar: During the French Revolution, the French government designed and implemented a new yearly calendar.Įach new year would start at midnight on the day of the autumnal equinox. Harvest festivals traditionally were held on the Sunday nearest the Harvest Moon.Įarly English settlers took the harvest festival tradition with them to America. Harvest Festivals In Great Britain: The people of the British Isles have given thanks at fall harvest festivals since pagan times. Higan means “from the other shore of the Sanzu River.” In Buddhist tradition, crossing the mythical Sanzu River meant passing into the afterlife. It takes place twice a year, during the fall and spring equinoxes.ĭuring Higan, Japanese Buddhists will return to their hometowns to pay respects to their ancestors. Japanese Higan: Higan is a holiday celebrated by some Japanese Buddhists. Round pastries, called mooncakes, are often enjoyed at this time. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, lanterns adorn streets and family and friends gather to give thanks, share food and watch the moon. Ancient Chinese celebrated the successful harvest of rice and wheat and made offerings to the moon.Įthnic Chinese and Vietnamese people still celebrate the Harvest Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival. The Chinese began celebrating the fall harvest at the Harvest Moon centuries ago, during the Shang dynasty.

Solstice vs equinox definition full#

Greek Mythology: To the ancient Greeks, the September equinox marks the return of the goddess Persephone to the darkness of the underworld, where she is reunited with her husband Hades.Ĭhinese Harvest Moon Festival: The full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox is sometimes called the Harvest Moon. Some of these sites include Stonehenge and Newgrange in the UK and the Majorville Medicine Wheel in Alberta, Canada. The two days of the year when the sun rose exactly due east and set exactly due west marked the equinoxes.Īrchaeologists believe a number of prehistoric sites were used by ancient peoples to track the position of the sun and predict equinoxes and solstices. The sun’s southernmost point marked the winter solstice, or shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the North Pole was tilted the farthest from the sun.

The summer solstice would occur when the sun reached its northernmost point, marking the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

People observed that the sun’s rising and setting points moved slightly each day of the year. Ancient CulturesĪncient cultures didn’t have clocks to calculate minutes of daytime and nighttime, but they could measure the sun’s position geometrically. The reverse is true in the Southern Hemisphere where the September equinox signals the first day of spring. In the Northern Hemisphere, the September equinox marks the first day of fall. The equinox marks the point of the year where this transition occurs, and on the equinox the part of Earth closest to the sun is the equator, rather than places north or south. Then, as the Earth continues to move around the sun at its fixed angle, the North Pole is tilted slightly away from the sun. For half the year, the North Pole is tilted slightly toward the sun, bringing longer days to the Northern Hemisphere, while the South Pole is tilted slightly away from the sun, bringing fewer hours of sunlight to the Southern Hemisphere. On the equinox, day and night are of nearly equal length across the planet.Īs the Earth orbits the sun, it is tilted at a fixed angle. Equinox comes from the Latin words “aequi,” which means equal, and “nox,” or night.