Since it is April 1, many folks will think there is a spoof attached to this blog post, but the joke is on you. In true Black Sustainability fashion, you should know that traditionally the New Year in the Northern Hemisphere was celebrated on the Spring Equinox so March 25 would actually be the most appropriate date to celebrate. Spiritually equinoxes represent the balance of life, between day and night, winter and summer, dark and light...and there is a great power associated with a time such as this.
When you think about it, our most essential workers - farmers/growers are celebrating through active communion with mother earth during this time. The last frost should have passed, and a plethora of indigenous celebrations around new life are in full swing this spring.
If you weren't aware, the term "April Fools" came from the fact that most people around the world celebrated the New Year on the Spring Equinox (March 25 - April 1 - springtime) as the start of the year...our planet is tilting closer to the sun and brings forth new budding life and blooms from plants, bird, hibernating animals that spent their time snuggling and making babies to pass the cold months, hardened ice melting and flowing into outr streams...Water is considered the blood of Mother Earth; her veins are the lakes, rivers and inlets. Like Mother Earth, humans are mostly made up of water, whatever affects the water affects us and vice versa – everything is connected.... Makes sense right?
Why has our natural New Year been tossed? Arguably, it is because we were "made" into April fools...
In 1580's the Pope changed the calendar from Julian to Gregorian for five countries; Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and most of France. In true Euro-centric fashion and worldview, they opted for mass ridicule of anyone who didn't adopt the new calendar, calling them April Fools. Sane people who still celebrated the new year with the spring equinox, were considered foolish and slow and they were made the butt of jokes and called...April fools. This included the British, and their American colonies, who did not like the idea of having their dates dictated by the Catholic Church and stuck with the previous calendar, by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C. until 1752. The fact that the number names — September through December — do not line up with their number month probably reflects the fact that the official Roman year started in March. >>More on calendar history.
SMH...and yet here we are...the fools, celebrating a new year during ice cold snow. Winter is a time to be still, rest, focus on yourself.
But it wasn't those who resisted who were the fools, it was those who thought they knew better than the majority of those on the planet. The plants and return of many animals affirm it is a new year in the spring, a rise in new life. When you go against natural law, you will suffer its consequences. The Spring Equinox aka as the Vernal Equinox, marks the first astronomical day of Spring for the Northern Hemisphere (in the Southern Hemisphere, it is known as the Autumnal Equinox.)
For many Native cultures, equinoxes traditionally marked migration periods when tribes moved north or south, where herds of animals for hunting might be, and what plants might be dormant. Knowing what the seasons represented and how they impacted lands at any given time was essential to survival. Celebrations varied and ranged for various tribes.
People across the Middle East and Central Asia, including Iran, Turkey, and Kyrgyzstan, have been celebrating Nowruz since ancient times. The term Nowruz means “new day,” and marks the first day of spring and the new year, as well as a time of hope and renewal.
And most powerfully, in mid-late September, the new year goes off with a bang in Ethiopia (September 11) and this year Sept. 23 across Africa! How do our people celebrate in the motherland? The importance of the Autumn Equinox in the African Calendar can be found HERE
To those who have not forgotten the power of moving in alignment with nature, or to those who are reclaiming our power of realigning with nature, let us not miss the signs mother earth shares daily. Before you pull a prank or call someone an April fool, brush up on recent studies that show our earth is warming and January may not be as cold as it used to be...
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