Is Spring the Real New Year?
Aaron Eschenburg is an Ayahuascero and Astrotheologer. He is the Founder and creator of Ancestral Herbs, a natural plant medicine company, and MiTranscendance Entheo Religious Society.
Belief is a powerfully intoxicating drug. Anyone can believe anything they’d like, but it doesn’t make it a fact for all. They say April Fool’s Day originated when France shifted from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, and New Year’s Day was now celebrated on January 1st instead of April 1st. Those who were late to hear the news that continued the old tradition were considered April Fools.
Over the past several years, there has been a social-media rebellion and a debate around the idea that we are celebrating the New Year on the wrong day in the wrong season. The debate is between the validity of the Gregorian Calendar, which celebrates the New Year 10 days after the winter Solstice, and that of Pagans and many other cultures, which celebrate the New Year 10 days after the Spring Equinox, when the flowers begin to bloom, crops begin to bud, and the animals start to give birth.
Many question the authoritarian predecessors and wonder why we are celebrating the beginning of the “New Year” at the start of Winter when everything is “dead,” and all the plants and trees are hibernating? Doesn't it make more sense to celebrate a new year when things begin to blossom, and signs of new life emerge?
We all know that Earth and all the planets in our solar system orbit the Sun. This is called Heliocentric, Sun-centered. Someone observing the cosmos from Earth’s point of view, where we live, is called Geocentric, Earth-centered. From our perspective, the Sun, stars, and all of the planets seem to move around the Earth. Our observational reality is geocentric.
Observably, the Sun rises from the East and sets in the West each day. Each year, we watch the Sun descend for six months after the Summer solstice until it hits its lowest point in the sky at the Winter solstice, where it begins to rise for six months until the Summer solstice. Rinse and repeat. This is our geocentric observational reality, although we understand that the Sun isn’t rising and falling or moving East, West, North, or South, it’s Earth that is moving. So, for the sake of the devil’s advocates out there, I am writing this from a geocentric perspective from the Northern Hemisphere.
There is an invisible center line that runs vertically through the Earth, which we identify as the North and South Poles. The Earth rotates on these poles, East to West, giving us a 24-hour day. From Earth’s perspective, we observe the Sun rising in the sky for six months through Winter and Spring, then descending for six months during Summer and Autumn.
When the Sun reaches the highest point in its Northern journey on June 21st, we call it the Summer solstice. When the Sun reaches the lowest, Southernmost part of its journey on December 21st, we celebrate the Winter solstice.
Solstice is a Latin word that combines Sol (the Sun) and Sistere (to stand still), meaning the Sun stands still. The Sun stands still for approximately three days at both the Northernmost and Southernmost points of its journey, which gives us not a perfectly 360-degree circle, but our 365/366-day revolution around the Sun. This solstice, or the Sun observably standing still, only happens when the Sun reaches the top and bottom of the Northern and Southern turning points, not the Eastern and Western middle equinox points.
An equilibrium is the center point of two opposing forces that creates balance between them and doesn’t change over time. Earth’s equilibrium is its equator, the invisible center line between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The North will not drift away from nor mesh into the South, nor will the line move, it’s the middle point that runs horizontally East and West. The days of the equinox have equal light throughout the day and night. When the Sun passes North of the equator, we celebrate the Spring months, and when the Sun passes South of the equator, we celebrate three months of Autumn. Autumn is commonly referred to as “Fall” as this is when the Sun falls below the equator, daylight continues to shorten as nights get longer, food stops growing, and of course, all the leaves fall from the trees.
The four seasons can be observed by the Sun’s journey passing these four points: the Spring Equinox on March 21st. The Summer Solstice on June 21st. The Autumnal Equinox on September 21st, and the Winter Solstice on December 21st. When the Sun rises north of the Equator, it’s Spring.
When the Sun stops moving north and begins to descend, it’s Summer, where days start to get shorter. When the Sun descends South of the Equator, it’s Autumn. When the Sun stops moving south and starts to rise north again, it’s the beginning of Winter.
Many photographers have taken a time-lapse of the Sun’s movement while leaving a camera at the same spot and taking a picture at the same time each day for an entire year to capture the Northern and Southern trajectory in a single image. The compilation image of the Sun is called an Analemma, and looks like a figure 8 tilted in the sky. This image shows the arc and movement of the Sun in its relation to Earth and can often be seen on older globes when people knew the Earth was round.
Galileo documented moving shadows on the mountains of Venus through the lens of his telescope in 1615. He was the first person to challenge the Christian Church’s geocentric beliefs and proclaim the idea of Heliocentrism, the concept that Earth and the planets actually orbit the Sun. Only 421 years ago, people thought that the Earth was the center of the Universe. We simply didn’t have the technology, tools, or understanding to question it or think otherwise. From this perspective, it would be understandable to see why people would celebrate the New Year, or the beginning of the cycle in the springtime, when we begin to see plant growth.
Springtime is marked by the Sun passing over the equator. The equator is the equilibrium of the Earth. A human’s equilibrium would be our hips. It’s strange to call the hips the start of the body, as it’s the middle. Most would say the feet, maybe the head. Same with the Earth and the Sun’s journey, we are acknowledging a cycle from the bottom up and back down again, with spring and autumn being the middle.
With modern society’s understanding of our heliocentric orbit around the Sun, our species has pivoted its awareness and rituals around this knowledge as we follow the Sun to survive, and we recognize that the effects of Spring are caused by the Sun already rising North through the three Winter months. It’s the Sun’s pivotal turn North in Winter that allows the buds to grow in Spring. The current New Year celebration in Winter is honoring that the Sun is rising back North. This marks the beginning of longer days for six months and a new cycle of growth and hope ahead. Celebrate! A new Sun cycle has begun!
If we follow the Sun North and South at the Solstice points, Winter begins six months of increased light each day, while Summer begins six months of decreased light. Six months of growth and six months of death, North and South.
If we follow the Earth’s harvest pattern at the Eastern and Western Equinox points, Spring begins six months of blossoming while Autumn begins six months of decay. Six months of growth and six months of death, East and West.
Three months after the Sun’s journey North, the Earth starts to produce goods for six months. Three months after the Sun’s journey South, the Earth stops producing goods for six months.
If you live near the equator or in the southern hemisphere, flip the whole thing. Food grows all year round, there’s a rainy season and a dry season, and the longest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere is the longest day of the year in the Southern hemisphere.
How do we survive is the question. We survive by observing and understanding the nature and relationship between the cosmos and our planet, and how that relationship affects human life. Globally, 90% of the planet has agreed on a calendar system that corresponds to the Sun and seasons and chooses to acknowledge that 10 days after the Winter solstice, we party our faces off and celebrate the beginning of the risen Sun and a new calendar year, with new goals, new ambition, excitement for the possibilities of what is to come.
Personally, we should celebrate all four seasonal points. As humans, we should celebrate as much as possible. Whether you want to call the Sun moving North in Winter the New Year, or the Sun passing over the equator the New Year, what matters most is not being cynical around the holidays and finding every reason to celebrate this precious life!
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Aaron Eschenburg, Ayahuascero, Astrotheologer
Aaron Eschenburg is an Ayahuasca Shaman and creator of the natural plant medicine company Ancestral Herbs. Being hit by a drunk driver at 21 spiraled him into a journey of exploring alternative medicines to get away from the side effects of pharmaceuticals. Astrotheology and plant medicines then came into his life at the same time, creating a better understanding of humanity's relationship with our living planet solar system and the universe. He now dedicates his life to helping others explore the options of natural healing, entheogenic practices, and embracing the Aquarian Age.
