BS: Equinox Greetings

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 02:13 PM

It's equinox time, whether North or South:
happens either late Friday or on Saturday,
depending on your time zone.
Have a happy one.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 03:24 PM

This year ours will be a scorcher, but the shorter days are a promise of a lovely autumn ahead.

I think for the occasion I should bake something festive. I'll look through my bread recipes and see what looks tempting. Or I could make a pie. I believe I have a lot of frozen pumpkin to use, and pumpkin pies aren't just for Thanksgiving. (Since I don't load all of my food and drinks with pumpkin pie spice flavoring, the occasional actual pie with the spices is a treat.)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Sep 23 - 03:02 AM

Downward slope to the winter solstice now! Well, as farcas daylight is concerned anyway :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 06:54 PM

Last week was our Pride fest, and Pride goeth before a Fall, how timely.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 06:53 PM

I was having a pot-luck -almost 25 people signed up!- but it had to be canceled for rain, luckily before I'd really started shopping...

All dishes were to be equal shares of things, for equinoctial celebration!

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Sep 23 - 03:02 AM

Downward slope to the winter solstice now! Well, as farcas daylight is concerned anyway :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 06:54 PM

Last week was our Pride fest, and Pride goeth before a Fall, how timely.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 06:53 PM

I was having a pot-luck -almost 25 people signed up!- but it had to be canceled for rain, luckily before I'd really started shopping...

All dishes were to be equal shares of things, for equinoctial celebration!

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 03:24 PM

This year ours will be a scorcher, but the shorter days are a promise of a lovely autumn ahead.

I think for the occasion I should bake something festive. I'll look through my bread recipes and see what looks tempting. Or I could make a pie. I believe I have a lot of frozen pumpkin to use, and pumpkin pies aren't just for Thanksgiving. (Since I don't load all of my food and drinks with pumpkin pie spice flavoring, the occasional actual pie with the spices is a treat.)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 02:13 PM

It's equinox time, whether North or South:
happens either late Friday or on Saturday,
depending on your time zone.
Have a happy one.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Sep 22 - 10:34 AM

Also I include not-party songs. Deportees is a harvest song, as is Pastures of Plenty.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Sep 22 - 09:26 PM

Cats. Cats are made of other things. And maybe penguins...

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Sep 22 - 05:51 PM

... what animals are NOT made of meat? Insects?

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Sep 22 - 03:46 PM

Equinox playlist: songs that mention

Harvest, reaping, fall
Time passing, wheels turning
Animals made of meat
Many plants
Feasting, parties, dancing...

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Sep 22 - 07:35 AM

Lovely day here in Yorkshire. Chilly but warm when in the sun. Going to make some shelves for the woodstore when the sun gets round the back later. I hope I make them all of equal length...

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: JennieG
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 10:51 PM

Spring equinox today, and lots of floods.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 08:26 PM

Woot!

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 06:57 PM

02.03am on the 23rd in the UK. I'll be in the land of nod. We have a very appropriate cold front after a long hot summer. I might buy a new car tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Sep 22 - 06:36 PM

...whichever equinox you are celebrating.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Raedwulf
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 09:04 AM

Ah. I think I may be compelled to contribute here...

Rayleigh scattering is named for Lord Rayleigh, a 19thC British physicist who first published papers describing the phenomenon. “Red sky at...” - sunrises, the glowing, setting sun, moons tinted in increasing shades of orange & red (this happens when they are relatively low to the horizon, as with sunrise & sunset). Even the everyday (alright, in Britain most, alright, some days!) blue of the sky. It's all down to Rayleigh scattering. Not being a scientist, I'm not absolutely certain, but if you do see a genuinely blue moon, my understanding is that it's due to particulate scattering (smoke, dust), which is not the same thing. If you want to get more technical than that, something for you to investigate for yourselves.

Then there's phases of the moon...

There are actually several “months”. The two primary ones are the sidereal & synodic. The sidereal (“pertaining to the stars”, mid 17thC from Latin; possibly from a PIE root meaning “to shine”) is the actual time it takes the moon to complete one orbit; it's (roughly) 27.3 days.

The synodic is 29.5 days. It's the “visible to the naked eye” cycle, the time it takes for an Earth-bound observer to see the same phase of the moon recur. All down to the vagaries of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Simply, by the time the Moon completes its sidereal orbit, the Earth has moved about 27° around the Sun. Therefore, it takes that extra 2.2 days to appear in the same phase.

As for 'Harvest' & 'Hunter's' moons...

There has long been a tradition, in American almanacs, of giving the full moon of each month a name, these being ascribed to the First Peoples i.e. Native Americans Some of those names may or may not genuinely be from their traditions, but two of them are known in Britain from the first decade of the 18thC at the latest & were likely taken over there by settlers from here.

You will find the counter-claim out there, most likely from an American source. I find this most unlikely. The second of these names is specifically mentioned in 1710 as “The Country People call this...”, which implies it had been in use for several generations. The first colony, Virginia, was scarcely a century old then, and the foundation was fraught with difficulties & hostility with the native population. How, then, and why would our “country people” be adopting terms from a colony few probably even knew existed in such a short space of time? And the claims that I've seen that we adopted it from the US offer no evidence at all.

“Harvest” & “Hunter's” are consecutive moons in autumn. The Harvest moon is the full moon nearest the autumn equinox. Since it can be 2 weeks either way, it usually falls in September, sometimes in October. Equally, the Hunter's moon is usually in October, sometimes in November.

Why should either moon be so called? The same theory covers both, but it seems one of those “because everyone says” reasons that is offered without thought, let alone evidence. It amounts to - a full moon is really bright which gives you light to work by.

I suggest this can be discounted for the Harvest moon. Whether, ultimately, the seasonal name derives from the activity or vice versa, you can only gather in your crops, sown or wild, when they are ready, and then you must before they spoil. The days are still long (most of it, if not all, will be done by the equinox at the latest) and the work is hard enough in daylight. In extremis, you might be compelled to work by moonlight, but ordinarily?

I suggest that the Harvest moon is so named not from any moonlit labouring, but simply because that was the principal work of the day for most folk at that time of year (remembering that in centuries past, farming absorbed a far greater part of labour than now). The light of a full moon would certainly assist a hunter but, again, I suggest the origin of the name is rather more prosaic.

Your crops are gathered, the demands that the land makes on your time is at a much lower ebb now. Wild animals have gorged themselves on summer's bounty, and are as fat & fit as they will be at any point in the year. If you are free to do so & have the opportunity, then post-harvest is the time to fill the larder with game, whether you do so at dawn, dusk, or somewhere in between!

I hope these thoughts are of some interest to you folkies! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 07:39 AM

Yes, I turned on bold text and it's marmalised my proofreading! I've just turned it off again...

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 06:55 AM

Oh dear Steve,I read that as 'biltong', and imagined you walking around in shorts made of slices of dried beef!

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 05:48 AM

Harvest moon.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 06:33 PM

Because my shorts are a bitlong and I want my upper thighs to be as tanned as the rest of my manly personage. Down, girls..

Next question...

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 05:54 PM

Why roll up shorts?

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 08:39 AM

Oh come round ours Steve and mow our lawns as well!
My sister up in Scotland finds the ever-shortening days depressing. When the clocks go back she'll have very few hours of sunlight.
I tell her she shouldn't live 'up there', but she actually likes it.
I'm a September baby, so I suppose the Autumn should be my favourite season. But no, I love boiling hot weather with endless sunshine, 'loik wot they hev in that there Africker'

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 08:06 AM

Equinox as seen from space

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 07:35 AM

It's a bit of a conundrum that, on the day on which the equinox occurs, most places on Earth get more than 12 hours' sunlight. The extra minutes get more as you move closer to the poles, as much as 15 minutes or more extra in the Arctic, for example. It's to do with the fact that, at sunrise and sunset, the sun's light is diffracted (bent) by the atmosphere, meaning that we actually see the sun "above the horizon" a little while before astronomical sunrise and a little while after sunset. The lower the angle at which the sun rises or sets, which is what happens the further from the equator you go, the greater the effect. At the equator, the sun on this day plunges vertically down below the horizon at sunset, so there's little or no discernible effect. Here in Cornwall, at 50 degrees north, today's sun reaches a maximum of just 40 degrees above the horizon, and at sunset it will slide gently down at a low angle, making the diffraction effect last longer. Etcetera!

It's another lovely day here, by the way. The shirt is off, the shorts are rolled up and I'll be cutting the grass this afternoon.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 06:55 AM

It was a full moon last night, Sen. The Harvest moon - Nearest full moon to the equinox. It's waning gibbous today. My favourite is just before full moon when it is waxing gibbons :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 06:43 AM

There was a beautiful nearly-full moon rising above the village at about 8pm last night. Bright orange.
And today it's sunny and warm. Husband off to clean the High School until 9pm, poor chap. But his Wednesday Covid test was negative (as usual) thank the Lord.
I suppose I'd better 'get my arse into gear' and do a bit of weeding and window-cleaning. Not very festive, but I shall feel quite virtuous.
Later I'll sit on The Bench and chat to passing villagers and their dogs in the warm sunshine.
Looks like being a really nice Equinox! :)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 05:38 AM

Good opportunity to play Mr Fox's Equinox

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 04:38 AM

Well this year so far in Cornwall, September has been a rock-solid summer month. It's a bit of a cool, misty start on this equinoctial day but we're expecting sun and a temperature in excess of 20C again. The equinox is a point in time. In the UK today it occurs at 8.21pm.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 04:00 AM

Heard on QI from Stephen Fry who could not tell a lie, on the subject of AI (genuine eg) inventing jokes:

Q What do you get if you crossed a washing machine with September?

A an Autumnmatic

OK,OK, I'm only the messenger

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 03:21 AM

It's today BTW

Ecstatic Equinox Everyone

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 05:55 PM

They do, but do one-legged ducks swim in circles?

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 05:03 PM

Do they shit in the woods?

And isn't equinox the proper name for laughing gas?

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 01:52 PM

It's just that bears don't hibernate, that's all. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Charmion
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 12:40 PM

An equinoctial gale is blowing through Stratford, wrenching leaves off the trees and tossing everything about. Rain will follow, fer sure.

After a long night at the District Returning Office and an early morning Zoom meeting about the choir’s annual general meeting on Friday, I’m going back to bed. A tornado might disturb me, but nothing milder is likely to catch my attention.

The slamming door you heard yesterday was Summer leaving the building. Welcome to Autumn, everyone, or Spring if that’s your orientation.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 08:46 AM

The sky puts on a show here at equinox. The harvest moon also seems more spectacular.
To make this season/year a happier space for all I have learned to customize mudcat.org and no longer will allow Steve Shaw to impinge upon my consciousness. His posts will no longer appear on my page except in archive.
I can easily keep an open mind without framing all my ideas with Steve posts claiming antithetical nonsense. My Shel Silverstienesque works will not be distracted by narcisistic critiques. Naturally I will see honest community feedback.

Keeping a simplicity in the midst of complexities is my goal and is best served by my own filter. Like a dog barking at the moon, the moon will not hear it or care. Only the dog's neighbors can be annoyed or overjoyed, its their choice.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 07:50 AM

Ooh, equinox butter, a new tradition!

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 06:51 AM

Bears go into a sort of semi-torpor during the winter months, and can rouse themselves if necessary, to get food or defend their dens. (This sounds exactly like me!)
Happy Equinox to everyone. Celebratory crumpets all round I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 04:15 AM

Bears don't hibernate. Just sayin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Sep 21 - 08:37 PM

Along with all the turtles that will fall asleep and bears hibernate and we get up later and later annyoying our dogs and cats.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Sep 21 - 08:34 PM

It's autumn equinox time in the Northern Hemisphere,
and Canada has a federal election going,
and Iceland has volcanoes waking up,
... the joint is jumpin' ?

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 11:47 PM

Merry Equinox! Time to start tucking in the seeds as the leaves begin fall from the trees at least up here in the North. the same greetings to you all down under. May we all look forward to a bountiful year as the quiet dark time falls upon the earth. I still have flowers blooming here so it won't come so quickly, but I shall know this winter that underneath the snow the beautiful little plants are just waiting planning their bursting forth in the spring time when the dark time is done.

Love y'allkat

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: open mike
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 11:08 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AqiINcLcuI

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: open mike
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 10:23 PM

http://www.wikihow.com/Balance-an-Egg
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006042824071

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 09:52 PM

Consider it done, Rags.

I will message you later or tomorrow to get the e-mail addresses sorted out.

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: ragdall
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 09:44 PM

Equinox Greetings.
Happy Fall! or
Happy Spring!
Whichever applies to you.

999? Next time you write to the PM, could you please ask him to do something about this freakin' rain? Surely there is a drought somewhere in the world to which Canada could redirect the weather that has plagued British Columbia all "summer"?

Thanks,
rags

Subject: RE: BS: Equinox Greetings
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 09:15 PM

Glad someone is on the case and we got the right guy on it...

B~