Mike Teacher
09-22-2003, 12:12 AM
For astronomers it's the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator from North to South.
For Humanity, it's when, irrespective of location on the earth, day and night are of equal length.
Historically, in the North, It is the Second Harvest. Before the advent of many of the simplest of technologies, this time was keenly noted, and measured. It signaled the time for the beginning of the coming darkness of winter, and its importance was significant for the very survival of humans for 10s of 1000s of years. The earth has been marked by its inhabitants that they could measure the year, and the seasons. The sacredness of the food we take for granted in the kitchen was Strong, the August Harvest was done and this, the second and final, signaled a completion of this part of the harvest/growing cycle. For the Poets, Time for Mother Earth to sleep through Winter until the New Life of Spring. And to avoid ethnocentrism; just the opposite in the southern hemisphere.
If one can extend At A Distance to the Temporal, we might know this in our bodies. For hundreds of generations of humanity; across the globe, and across the millennia, this was a day of great significance. Great attention was given to it. Its measurement was crucial. It was and is celebrated by many societies, some of which built enormous, still-working elaborate structures to measure its arrival, and the arrival of its counterpart, the Spring Equinox.
The moment is Tuesday 23 Sep 2003 at 6:47 AM NY/DC time EDST [Eastern Daylight Savings Time]
1047 Zulu [Greenwich] Time aka 1047UT [Universal Time]
More Blogged Blathering: (http://www.miketheteacher.com)
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For Humanity, it's when, irrespective of location on the earth, day and night are of equal length.
Historically, in the North, It is the Second Harvest. Before the advent of many of the simplest of technologies, this time was keenly noted, and measured. It signaled the time for the beginning of the coming darkness of winter, and its importance was significant for the very survival of humans for 10s of 1000s of years. The earth has been marked by its inhabitants that they could measure the year, and the seasons. The sacredness of the food we take for granted in the kitchen was Strong, the August Harvest was done and this, the second and final, signaled a completion of this part of the harvest/growing cycle. For the Poets, Time for Mother Earth to sleep through Winter until the New Life of Spring. And to avoid ethnocentrism; just the opposite in the southern hemisphere.
If one can extend At A Distance to the Temporal, we might know this in our bodies. For hundreds of generations of humanity; across the globe, and across the millennia, this was a day of great significance. Great attention was given to it. Its measurement was crucial. It was and is celebrated by many societies, some of which built enormous, still-working elaborate structures to measure its arrival, and the arrival of its counterpart, the Spring Equinox.
The moment is Tuesday 23 Sep 2003 at 6:47 AM NY/DC time EDST [Eastern Daylight Savings Time]
1047 Zulu [Greenwich] Time aka 1047UT [Universal Time]
More Blogged Blathering: (http://www.miketheteacher.com)
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