21 March 2017
Yesterday was the first day of spring this year, and it sure does feel like spring. Outdoor plants are swinging into full bloom rapidly, the weather is warming, and we can play disc golf until after seven in the evening now. It's great. I am reminded of the solar mythos found in the agrarian origins of Western culture. Their holidays were based on the solar calendar. The four most important holidays marked the turning of the seasons: the winter solstice, spring equinox, summer solstice, and the autumnal equinox. The winter and summer solstice are the shortest and longest days of the year, respectively, and the equinoxes mark days of equal sunlight and darkness. A quick etymological reference of the word "holiday" reveals its origin meaning "holy day."
from Old English haligdæg "holy day, consecrated day, religious anniversary; Sabbath," from halig "holy" + dæg "day"; in 14c. Etymonline.
For an agrarian society, these four days were most signficant because they directly related to food production and survival. They mark the four phases of a grow season: planting, fruiting, harvest, and the fallow fields. The nature of each of these holidays reflects the coming seasons, and each holiday embodied a set of psychological principles associated with the coming season. Thus is created a homology between the changing seasons and the seasons of the human spirit. Winter solstice takes place on the shortest day of the year in the harshest, most food-scarce time of year for an agrarian populace. But, like the birth of the Christ in Bethelem, this celestial event carries the promise of coming restoration. The day after winter solstice, we in the northern hemisphere are still tilted on earth's axis away from the sun, and so experience our harshest weather. But the days become longer all throughout winter. It is only a matter of time before the sun's full strength emerges to bring back life to the fields that lay fallow in winter. Spring equinox is the "rebirth" holiday, when last year's seed is buried and emerges from the ground with new bodies for this year's crop.
So it is with literal seed as well as actions, which the wisdom traditions tell us are the seed that grows food for the spirit of humanity. Let us make the most of this spring and plant seeds of good spiritual fruit. Peace be with us.
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