:: Autumnal Equinox :: Lunar New Years
I hope you've discovered Wikipedia, a sort of Every Man's, er, Every Person's.. Encyclopedia. While its creators and contributors might not agree, perhaps its greatest value is the immediacy of information. In a flash,
an article on the autumnal equinox is at hand. I would agree that Wikipedia's leap of imagination this: a collaborative self-balancing mechanism for information: outrageously biased or misinformed entries are challenged and edited, and depth is added where new discoveries refine older consensus.
equinox: the equinoxes are the two days each year when the center of the Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth
So if the Equinox is about the sun, how does the moon relate to the Autumnal Equinox? Calendar historians probably could answer this with far more accuracy, and precision. But the simple answer is that linking a great solar event with its nearest important lunar event is just a natural affinity. Moon/Sun, Sun/Moon, what's so complicated?
Friday marked Rosh ha-Shanah, the first day of the
seventh month, called Tishrei in the Jewish calendar, the new
year 5767 in the Jewish calendar. It is, according to the Talmud, the day man was created. It is the Day of Judgement, for which the faithful have prepared during the preceding month of Elul, the last month of the year. This first day of man's new year is a call to go within and clarify what is of genuine importance in life.
Islam too marks Rash Hasana, the first lunar day of the
ninth month in the Hijri (Islamic) calendar, better known as
Ramadan. A central event of Ramadan is fasting, "... said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm", per the Wikipedia entry. Here is a wonderful
collection of Ramadan inspired photos on flickr.
Christianity has, curiously, sidestepped this particular transformational time, having left St. Matthew as the lone guardian of 21 September, and instead making inner contemplation a focus during the Easter Tide, the Resurrection of Christ, both calendrically linked to the first Spring Moon (and Vernal Equinox). All Hallow's Eve seems to stand out as the most prominent autumnal festival.
I find a curious affinity with this Western ghostly period and that of a number of Eastern autumn festivals also centered around ghosts, the most prominent being O-Higan in Japan, celebrated at the first new moon near the Autumnal Equinox, and Ghost Month during the seventh lunar month in the Chinese tradition. Both share similar roots: the idea that the doors to the underworld are opened and ghosts wander the land, In Japan, this time is used to revere ancestors, while in China, much is made of
providing these ghosts food and lucre (
hell money).
In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition
O-Higan is a time of inner reflection on right-living, thereby coming full circle to the precepts of Rosh ha-Shanah and Ramadan. Right-Living is best represented by the
Six Paramitas"Paramita is a Sanskrit word, which means to cross over to the other shore. It implies crossing over from the Sea of suffering to the Shore of happiness, from the Samsara of birth and death to Nirvana and from ignorance to enlightenment."
Labels: attitude, history, moon
