What the Heck is an Equinox?

With the autumnal equinox fast approaching - September 22nd - I thought I'd give you some Fun Friday Facts about equinoxes in general:

--An equinox is the moment when the Sun is positioned directly over the Earth's equator. The equinoxes represent the points where the direction of North and South poles are at a right angle to the Sun.

--On the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. This is true for both the fall and spring equinoxes. So on two days of the year you can find the exact cardinal directions of East and West by using the sun.

--An equinox or a solstice occurs on approximately the 21st day of the last month of every quarter of the calendar year. Equinox is the term used to describe the seasons of autumn and spring; solstice is the term to describe summer and winter.

--An equinox in astronomy is the moment in time (not a whole day) when the center of the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year.

--The fall equinox is also known by the following names: Alban Elfed, Autumn Equinox, Autumnal Equinox, Cornucopia, Feast of Avilon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Mabon, Night of the Hunter, Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, and Witch's Thanksgiving.

--The fall equinox occurs when the sun moves out of the astrological sign of Virgo into the astrological sign of Libra.

--On the day of the equinox, the Sun rises, for every place on Earth (except at the poles), at the same time in the morning as it sets in the evening local time (example, if it rises at 6:00 am, then it will set at 6:00 pm). But these times are not exact for several reasons - mainly the different time zones for different areas.

--The Christian churches calculate Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox.

--One effect of equinoctial periods is the temporary disruption of communications satellites. For all geostationary satellites, there are a few days near the equinox when the sun goes directly behind the satellite relative to Earth.

--During the autumn equinox the Wiccan Sabbat of Mabon is celebrated.

--The harvest festival in the United Kingdom is celebrated on the Sunday of the full moon closest to the September equinox.



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