Spring Equinox

Today, March 21th, is the Vernal Equinox, the day on which, anywhere you are on earth, day and night have the same duration.

It is also the first day of the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox (in Mandarin, chūnfēn) solar term.

春分

 

Not much to say about this solar term's name, really... Pretty matter-of-fact. Interesting that the charcter for equinox is the same that is used for minute (the 60th part of an hour), and for the 100th part of a yuan, the currency unit. These are all ideas associated with division, so maybe "divided part" is the core meaning of this character. It works well as a pictogram - the bottom part is the radical meaning knife (you can almost make out the picture of a cleaver), and the top part represents the thing being divided.

Insects Awakening II

Today, I went to see a friend, and outside his house was this little guy:

 

I know, technically it is not an insect!

 

In the afternoon, the sun came out, and I finally got around to cleaning up after the wood cutting I had done in midwinter. In the heap of cut wood, this maple twig was budding.

 

 

It is a very moving thing to see plants that have been cut and removed from their environment and yet try to bud. Last week, some garlic cloves in the refrigerator, and even a red cabbage head that had been cut in half, had done just that. It is not surprising that the ancients thought of Spring as a goddess - it is not just the longer days and the milder temperatures that plants respond to, if they germinate in the dark, inside of a refrigerator.

The neighborhood cats have also been quite active. All of a sudden, there seem to be more of them out, and when you see one, there are always a few other nearby. As I picked up my firewood, I found that earthworms are seeking out each other, too. There are four of them in this picture, all tangled u with each other.

You will be relieved to know that I made sure they were safe back on the ground, and covered them up with some dirt. I am not one of those people who pass judgement on others' sexual costumes.

Insect Awakening

Yesterday, March 6th, was the first day of the "Insects Awakening" (in Mandarin, jīngzhé, literally, "awake the hibernating") solar term.

惊蛰 (驚蟄)

The left two signs are Simplified Cinese, the left two are Traditional. In both versions, the second sign contains the insect radical (it is the bottom part of the character). However, there is no specific mention of insects in the Chinese name. Those who awaken from the winter sleep could just as well be frogs or lizards.