OK - so my calendar says
today (September 22nd, 2016) is the Autumnal Equinox. That alone is
sort of ‘odd’ (pun and oxymoron most definitely intend) because my calendar is
printed in the USA, where we almost NEVER use that (base) word, ‘Autumn’. Here,
we stumble around (oops!) calling that period of year ‘Fall’. But, I digress - as frequent
readers know all too well. So, to return to the more germane word in the title,
‘Equinox’
My 1950s grammar-school Latin
classes (taught by Mr 'Doughy' Baker) suggest that I might expect an equal
measure of daylight and 'nightlight' today.
My schooling has also
mislead me on some other terminology - specifically ‘mid-day’. Yes, ‘mid-day’ is
always conventionally thought of as being at noon - you know, ‘when the big
hand points to 12 and so does the small hand’. For those who are clueless
regarding analog time-pieces, that’s when your digital device reads 12:00:00. Well,
today, (at least where I live), I’ll have to wait 55 minutes more – until 12:55:00
for ‘mid-day to occur - because my iPhone tells me that sunrise was at 6:51 am
and sunset will be at 6:59 pm. I wonder what time mid-day will be where YOU
live.
Oh well, had I 'googled'
it, I would have read that 'Equinox' is not exactly what I (and ‘Doughy’) had been
led to believe. I should have noted the section entitled ‘Why ‘Equinox’ in the
following revelation:
I note the reference to the
main Mayan temple at Chichen Itza, Mexico. I visited there once, a few years ago, but didn’t see
the snake – but then, I was NOT there on the equinox. Strangely, I HAVE been in
Ireland on an equinox, but also saw no snake there either – oh that’s right, St
Patrick didn’t build a Mayan temple there.
Perhaps I am suffering
from too much sun (it is forecast to be 90F / 32C later today) on this day in
which there should be only a half-measure of it.
