Equinox is the date (or moment) that some astronomical alignments in Ireland mark as auspicious. Not many, yes, but some, like the cairn in Loughcrew or the two passages of Knowth, a kind of super-alignment with fourfold significance. Although Knowth’s actual lineup is in dispute, it could be a lunar lineup or not a lineup at all. Let’s find out a little more about the equinox.
The Irish calendar
The equinox is an astronomical event much less obvious than the two solstices, celebrated in Ireland and also the subject of astronomical alignments. It’s like the equinox, which occurs between the winter solstice and the summer solstice, and vice versa, twice a year. However, it is only one event, as the spring and autumn equinox occur on different dates, but they are for all intents and purposes identical events.
Taking place around March 20 and September 22, the equinox is the moment when the plane of the Earth’s equator passes the center of the Sun. That is, it is when the Earth’s axis is at an exact angle of ninety. degrees with respect to an imaginary line between the centers of the Sun and the Earth. This happens twice a year when the Earth’s axis wavering reaches a neutral midpoint. Doctor Who might say it’s all a wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey thing …
This is the time when the tilt of the Earth’s axis does not move away from the Sun or tilt toward the Sun. Just for a moment, but generally speaking, we call the entire day this happens “equinox.” “Equinox” is a Latin word, which is literally translated as “equal night.” It indicates that day and night have approximately the same duration on this day.
Of course, we are talking about the cosmic scale here, so “roughly” is as good as it sounds and an exact description of the phenomenon would fill entire books with a lot of scientific material and mathematical additions. While cosmic works are incredibly accurate, the human ability to understand them is somewhat lacking.
Equinox explained
So for the layman: the equinox is the day when the Earth “stands upright”, everyone receives the same amount of sunlight and that period is as long as night. It happens twice a year.
In agricultural societies, the equinox would mark the seasons and would also frame certain activities and expectations.
Take chickens, for example. They (very broadly speaking) need twelve hours of daylight to seriously lay eggs. The main time to get eggs is, you guessed it, between the spring and fall equinox. And this could also explain why we have an Easter egg, as some people think that the Christian holiday of Easter is, after all, a version of the feast of the equinox. However, the same claims have been made for St. Patrick’s Day … although that’s much less likely (Easter was already well established on St. Patrick’s days after all).
Although the equinox is considered the astronomical beginning of spring and autumn, the celebrations of the same do not occur on the equinox in Ireland. Spring, for example, begins on Saint Bridget’s day, February 1, or Imbolc.
So was the equinox a big deal? Not really, it seems. It is more of a marker than one notices in passing, although there are several ancient festivals associated with the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox. The timing may, after all, be a coincidence (as in Patrick’s case).
