March – May 2020
Mardi Gras = Fat Tuesday
A brief history of Mardi Gras…
133-31 B.C.
Some think Mardi Gras may be linked[2] with the ancient Roman pagan celebrations of spring and fertility such as Saturnalia, which dates back to 133–31 B.C. This celebration honored the god of agriculture, Saturn. It was observed in mid-December, before the sowing of winter crops. It was a week-long festival when work and business came to a halt. Schools and courts of law closed, and the normal social patterns were suspended.
On the Julian calendar, which the Romans used at the time, the winter solstice fell on December 25. Hence, the celebration gradually became associated with Christmas.
4 B.C. Onward
The festival is more commonly associated with Christian tradition. In the Gospel of Matthew the biblical Magi (also called the ‘Three Wise Men’ or ‘Three Kings’) visited Jesus with gifts containing gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So on the twelfth day of Christmas, Christians celebrate the feast of Epiphany, a celebration of Jesus coming for more than just the Jews, as even Gentile magi were allowed to see him. This begins the Carnival celebration which continues until the day before Ash Wednesday. The culmination of this celebration overlapped with the beginning of Lent. Early Christians believed that during the Lenten season (the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, not including Sundays), Christians should deprive themselves of anything (especially foods) that brought joy so that they might understand better the trials that Jesus faced leading up to his death on Good Friday. Thus, on the Tuesday before Lent and the last day of Epiphany, Christians would celebrate with a feast of their favorite foods to tide them over the coming weeks.
These feasts, which first were only meant for Christians, were expanded so that Christians would celebrate with their neighbors and friends. Slowly, feasts like Shrove Tuesday became public celebrations and adapted many names and traditions as they spread.
Source: wikipedia.com
Science: Earth and Space
Have You Ever Wondered…?
- What is the vernal equinox?
- Is the vernal equinox on the same day in the northern and southern hemispheres?
- Can you really balance an egg on end during the vernal equinox?
As Earth revolves around the Sun, there are two moments each year when the Sun is exactly above the equator. These moments — called equinoxes — occur around March 20 or 21 and September 22 or 23. Equinoxliterally means “equal night,” since the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world during the equinoxes.
The March equinox marks when the Northern Hemisphere starts to tilttoward the sun, which means longer, sunnier days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the March equinox is called the vernal equinox, because it signals the beginning of spring (vernal means fresh or new like the spring). The September equinox is called the autumnal equinox, because it marks the first day of fall (autumn).
When the Northern Hemisphere starts to tilt toward the sun in spring, the Southern Hemisphere starts to tilt away from the sun, signaling the start of fall. Thus, in the Southern Hemisphere, the March equinox is called the autumnal equinox, and the September equinox is called the vernalequinox.
People have celebrated the vernal equinox for centuries. For ancient cultures, the vernal equinox signaled that their food supplies would soon return. Early Egyptians even built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox. In Christianity, the vernal equinox is significant, because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
If you keep your eyes and ears open around the time of the vernal equinox, you’re likely to hear or see people talking about a magical phenomenonthat only occurs on that day. According to legend, the special astronomicalproperties of the vernal equinox make it possible to balance eggs on end.
So is there any truth to this popular legend? Nope! It’s actually possible to balance eggs on end on any day of the year. It just takes a lot of patienceand determination. There’s nothing magical about the vernal equinox that makes it any easier to balance an egg on end.
You might be wondering how such an interesting and widespread legend got started. No one knows for sure, but some believe the Chinese may have started the practice of balancing eggs on end during the vernal equinox. Given that day and night are balanced at the time of the vernal equinox, it’s possible that the Chinese chose a balanced egg as a symbolicrepresentation of this astronomical phenomenon.
Try It Out
Spring forward to find a few friends you can always fall back on! Ask them to help you explore one or more of the following fun activities:
- If you’re more fascinated by the thought of balancing eggs on end, give it a try. Make sure you get your parents’ permission before giving egg-balancing a whirl on your kitchen counters. It’s not as easy as it looks. Take it slow and you’ll do fine! How many eggs can you balance? If you’re feeling eggs-tra inspired, try one of these egg-ceptional craft ideas:
- Up for a challenge? Let’s say you just hit the lottery. You have a gazillion dollars in your bank account and you can do what you want, when you want, where you want. You want to never see Old Man Winter again. You don’t mind spring and you love summer. Your goal is to always be living, visiting or staying in a place where it’s spring or summer. Find a map of the world and plot out the places you’d go and when you’d go there, keeping in mind the dates of the equinoxes and what seasons these dates signal in different hemispheres. Have fun dreaming of the never-ending summer!
- Does it feel like spring in your part of the world right now? Even if Old Man Winter is still hanging around, you can still get excited about the warmer weather to come with these crafts inspired by spring flowers:
Source: https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-is-the-vernal-equinox
What is the Beltane Festival and how is it connected to May Day?
The Beltane festival is a living, dynamic reinterpretation and modernisation of an ancient Iron Age Celtic ritual and is the largest of its kind. Having been resurrected as a practice in 1988 it has become a central focus for our community, bringing many many people together to acknowledge and revel in the birth of the Summer and the fertility of the land. It is important to note that the purpose of our festival is not to recreate ancient practices but to continue in the spirit of our ancient forebears and create our own connection to the cycles of nature.
For more details, visit here: https://beltane.org/about/about-beltane/
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