[Ansteorra] The Equinox

[gail young]

Thank you for posting this.  I'd actually love to hear about Easter.  I argue mundanely with people all the time about why the date is so crazy.gwyneth
 > Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:36:57 -0400
> From: galen.of.ockham at gmail.com
> To: ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Ansteorra] The Equinox
> 
>    Your calendar most likely has the 'beginning of spring' or 'equinox'
>    annotated on the 19th or 20th of March, but your medieval calendar
>    should have it permanently inked in on the 21st.
> 
> 
>    The equinoxes are the two points of the year when the Sun is halfway
>    between its furthest north point (the summer solstice in June), and its
>    furthest south travel (winter solstice in December). It's commonly said
>    that these days have equal hours of light and darkness, but that's not
>    strictly true. The time between sunrise and sunset are very close to 12
>    hours on the equinoxes at all points on the globe, but since we still
>    get some light refracted through the atmosphere before sunrise and
>    after sunset the hours of light are somewhat longer than 12 hours.
> 
> 
>    Astronomically, the equinox is the moment when the Sun crosses the
>    plane of the Earth's equator. The Vernal (spring) Equinox occurred this
>    year at 1:13 AM on Tuesday March 20 on the east coast of the US, or
>    10:13 pm Monday March 19 Pacific time. The Council of Nicaea (325 AD)
>    fixed the date of the equinox as March 21 for the calculation of the
>    date of Easter (based on ancient Babylonian measurements). The exact
>    time and date of the equinox drifts slowly due to an effect called
>    precession. Easter was eventually defined as the first Sunday following
>    the first full moon after the Equinox. (However, like the Equinox, the
>    full moon is also a calculated phenomenon that doesn't necessarily
>    match the actual date.) Using this formula, Easter can occur anywhere
>    between March 22 and April 25. This year it occurs on April 8.
> 
> 
>    Being able to accurately determine the date of Easter was a very strong
>    driving force behind the study of Astronomy in medieval times. Many
>    controversies of the early Church were over the date of Easter. Perhaps
>    I'll discuss the Quartodeciman controversy as we get closer to Easter.
> 
>    --
> 
>    Magister Galenus Ockhamnesis
>    Friar Galen of Ockham, OP
>    A Study in Natural Philosophy: [1]http://medievalscience.org
>    Chirurgeon's Point: [2]http://chirurgeon.org
> 
>    xb
> 
> References
> 
>    1. http://medievalscience.org/
>    2. http://chirurgeon.org/
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