Posts Tagged ‘Vernal Equinox’

Celebrate Nowruz, the Spring Festival

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Around 200 million people world wide celebrate Nowruz, the spring festival. Let us join them and celebrate the coming of spring into our homes. This blog post explains Nowruz in general terms and gives a check list of how you can celebrate Nowruz and starts improving your life.

What is Nowruz?

Nowruz is a festival to welcome the season of spring. Originally started in Persian traditions Nowruz is now celebrated by more than 200 million people globally. Earlier, Nowruz festivities commemorated the Sun moving from the Pisces constellation into the Aries constellation on the Vernal Equinox. However, in terms of astronomy today, Vernal Equinox or the movement of the Sun to the point of zero in celestial longitude and latitude is in the Pisces constellation and not in Aries constellation. This year the Vernal Equinox takes place at 17.32 UTC/GMT on Saturday 20 March 2010.

Generally known as the Persian New Year, Nowruz is celebrated in Persian and allied cultures for more than 5,000 years. Considering the fact that Nowruz is celebrated in more than 30 countries, United Nations has accorded its recognition to Nowruz as a holiday of cultural significance. Nowruz celebrations are seen primarily in Iran and countries in Central Asia such as Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Eastern Turkmenistan (Sinkiang) and Uzbekistan. In south Asia it is a noted festival in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir. Turks, Kurds and Armenians join together to make Nowruz a memorable and national day in Turkey even though the Turkish Government does not officially recognize it. Syria, Armenia, Crimea, Georgia and other parts of Caucasus do have various cultural activities lined up for this day. People in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia in the Balkans also take part in festivities connected with Nowruz. Moreover, diasporas from Armenia and Iran living elsewhere continue their traditions of Nowruz. Followers of Zoroastrar and Bahaullah world wide mark Nowruz as a day of great religious significance. Nowruz is also a day of remembrance for Shiaite sects such as Alawites and Albanian Takkes.

Nowruz is spelt something like 21 ways because of this ethnic and cultural diversity. In Turkey it is Nevruz, Uighurs call it Noruz while Kurds call it Nuroj. Starting from the Vernal Equinox, festivities continue for 12 days and on the thirteenth day people go outdoors to complete the cycle of this annual event.

How can you take part in Nowruz?

The following are few recommendations for you to take part in celebrating the spring festival:

1. Generally you can spruce op your home by cleaning, clearing and arranging and may be giving a face lift. This sprucing is called as “spring cleaning “in the west; this is the time to bring zing into your lifestyle

2. You can buy new clothes for you and your family

3. Flowers and bouquets containing hyacinth and tulip are brought home at the beginning to enhance positive cosmics and for improving your life and that of your family

4. You can light bonfire in your front yard; traditionally this bonfire is lit on the Wednesday preceding the Vernal Equinox day

5. As Vernal Equinox arrives you can lay a table known as “Haft Sin”. Thereafter you can decorate the table with beautiful clothes spread over it and keep few items over the table. Originally there were seven items coinciding with the seven planets; later two more were added. You can select either seven items or nine items as you please; I have given the entire nine items along with the traditional Persian Nowruz names against each one in brackets:

5.1 Wheat or Barley sprouts in a dish, clay or metal pot (Sabzeh) – for rejuvenation;

5.2 Dried fruits of oleaster, or fig or similar tree (Senjed) – for love

5.3 Sweet pudding made form wheat or oats (Samanu) – for affluence

5.4 Few coins (Sekkeh) – for wealth

5.5 Apples (Sib) – for beauty and health

5.6 Garlic (Sir) – for medicine

5.7 Hyacinth plant (Sonbol) for growth and equanimity

5.8 Sumac or multi colour berries (Somaq) – for rainbow and sunrise

5.9 A bottle of Vinegar (Serkeh) – for age, maturity and patience

6. You can keep a fish bowl with golden or colourful fish within to give zest and variety. This bowl can be placed on the table or nearby it

7. Keep few watermelons as nothing is complete in this heated ambience until you have water melons and lot of these with you. We enact the Zoroastrian custom and practice of eating the reddish inner chunks of this great fruit

8. The festivities last for 12 days and end with an outing on the thirteenth day. The following are few items on the agenda:

8.1 On the first part of six days look outward by visiting elders and relations in your neighbourhoods; exchange gifts and presents with them; invite them to visit you and get the cosmics from the table you have laid for Nowruz. It is also worthy to note that the sixth day is the birthday of Zarathushthra known in the west as Zoroaster

8.2 On the second part of six days look inwards by concentrating on improving your life and lifestyle; Young un-married girls should tie grass in knots and tie it on the right wrist to get good husbands; young un-married men could keep honey or candy overnight to be collected on the following day to get beautiful wives. Businessmen could tie coins in a red cloth and hang it to foster business; hyacinth also helps to do the same

8.3 The ending of Nowruz is scheduled on the thirteenth days when your entire family can go out door to enjoy both inward and outward looking. Known as “Sizdah Bedar” meaning "thirteen outdoors” this outing arises from the ancient Persian tradition of twelve zodiacal constellations controlling 12 months in a calendar and anything outside could be calamitous or could bring bad luck; in order to avoid such eventualities you move away from your home. Therefore the entire family goes outdoors to fairly a distant place and spends the thirteenth day there

9. Throughout the 12 days you light an oil lamp at the time of sun down each day; the element of fire is ranked first in the seven elements ancient Persians believed in: fire, air, water, earth, plants, animals and humans.

Muthu Ashraff

Cosmic Adviser

Mobile : +94 777 265677

E-mail : cosmicgems@gmail.com

Web : http://www.cosmicgemslanka.com

Blog : http://cosmicgemslanka.com/blog/

Vernal Equinox 2010

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

 

This year Vernal Equinox arrives on Saturday March 20 chiming with bells of alarm. Dogs of war are chasing some countries; unrest is raising its head elsewhere. For men and women it brings confusion and misjudgement. This blog post explains why you should take care on the basis of astronomy and cosmics relating to the Vernal Equinox.

Astronomy

This year the Vernal Equinox takes place at 17.32 UTC/GMT on Saturday 20 March 2010. You have to trace your local time in reference to this.

The Sun

On this date the Sun touches the celestial equator at 00.00 degree both in longitude and latitude, as it journeys from south to northward direction. Put it the other way, the Sun is on zero point in terms of Right Ascension (Celestial Longitude) and Declination (Celestial Latitude). The word vernal means spring whereas the word equinox means equal day and night as most parts of the globe experience almost similar length of night and day time. Spring is observed in the northern hemisphere while in the southern hemisphere it is fall or autumn. The Vernal Equinox point is now in the Pisces constellation. The Sun is in Pisces constellation along with planets Venus, Mercury and Uranus during this equinox.

The Star: Omega Piscium

On the north of the Sun is the star “Vernalis” whose Latin title means “Star of the spring”. Astronomically, this star is called as Omega Piscium; the alphabet Omega is the 24 th and the last one in Greek alphabet. It is technically the last star in the Globe of 24 hours with the highest Right Ascension (RA) of 23 hours 59 minutes 50 seconds, just about 10 seconds to the Vernal Equilibrium of Zero point of RA. Vernalis is a solitary, dwarf, sub-giant of yellowish – white hue with moderate brightness at 4.0 magnitude. It belongs to the spectral type of “F5IV “. Located some 106 light years away and with a surface temperature of 6,600 Kelvin it is about 20 times luminous as our Sun and about 1.75 of it size. There are three important characteristics of this star:

1. Its location makes Omega Piscium the first star to be seen as one steers toward the east from the famous Circlet of the Fish Asterism in the Pisces constellation

2. It is the last star to be noted before we reach the Vernal Equinox point of zero in the Celestial Longitude and Celestial Latitude

3. Due to the precession of the Earth, by the time of Vernal Equinox of 2013, Omega Piscium would reach the zero pint in Right Ascension and Declination and would be precisely overhead to the Sun; a remarkable event eagerly looked for by all of us.

The Moon

At this moment the Moon has just entered Taurus constellation and has arrived at the third lunar mansion (Arabic Al-Manzil al- Qamar) of “Al-Thurayya” (The Many Little Ones). This lunar mansion is of mixed nature out of the 28 lunar mansions. Whenever the Moon is in this mansion it generates both positive and negative vibrations in equal proportions.

Mars

The way Mars behaves at this time raises eye-brow. Whenever Mars gets beyond the Earth’s tilt it is considered as an “Out of Bound” planet. The current tilt of the Earth is computed as 23 degrees and 29 minutes. Though all six planets theoretically can go out of bound in the celestial latitude known as “ Declination” it is Mars and the Moon that do it often and give rise to tension and head-aches to many.

According to Jeffrey Brock Mars is out of bound from the Earth’s axial degree of 23 degrees and 29 minutes for the period February 13 to March 15. During this period Mars as the God of War reached the maximum of 23 degree and 50 minutes. Please note that March 15 is denoted as “Ides of March”. On the day of Vernal Equinox, Mars has come within the axial degree and is known as “In bound” planet. At this moment its declination is at 8 degree 15 minutes and 29 seconds.

But the danger has not abated yet. Mars is dangerously poised in direct line of sight where it sees to the south west Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) also known as the “Lttle Dog” and Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) dubbed as the Dog Star. On the opposite side Mars is almost in direct line cutting the star Regulus and the sprawling planet Saturn on the south-east direction.

Accidental war could break out or extreme international tension would prevail for the period from the Vernal Equinox date till about the time of the arrival of New Moon on April 14.

Cosmics

Having analysed the position of the planets the following are highlights of cosmics given under two broad classifications: positive and negative cosmics:

Positive Cosmics: Lot of energy generated within you, even though much of it is dissipated due to extreme hot and dry condition in the ambience. Implementation of plans shall take place during this period. You observe a sense of going ahead and getting things done. You experience increasing tempo within business that commensurate with rising level of business demand; same thing prevails in the family tallying with several family engagements

Negative Cosmics: Fiery nature together with hastiness might mar your progress both in business and family undertakings; Health is medium; stormy mind and restless nature could sap more cosmic energy

Improving Your Life

The following are brief recommendations to help you tide over the situation:

1. Bring more patience into your lifestyle

2. Take it cool; do not let your angst and anger spill over to others; keep yourself out of trouble spots

3. Do lot of breathing exercise; you will be out of breath most of the times

4. Understand how to relax yourself; may be you should take few days off from your busy schedule; may be you should do lot more gardening, mixing earth with water; plant new saplings; uproot dried and dead ones, weeding & spurning etc. For out door activity select visiting mountains or sauntering in fruit orchards or slumbering in woods that bud early flowers

5. Use combination of colours including white, blue, red, yellow along with little black shade in your dress and clothes

6. Take care when you are making judgement, as the chance of negligent judgement is high; a state of confusion, quarrel and disputes is observed; this applies to both in your office and in the home front

7. Busy time for farmers and agriculturists and good time too

8. For those in politics, tendency to take decision on the spur of the moment is shown; for those in higher administration in public and private sectors, avoiding hasty decision is better option

9. Boon time for brokers, intermediaries, agents and those who travel to make a living

10. For women and senior citizen more onion and garlic would be required

11. Relish lot of sweets and sweet fruits; take more radish and eggplant when it comes to vegetables

12. Fruit essence for men is blueberry; for women it is Cherry. Follow the instructions on the bottle; use two to three bottles consecutively

Muthu Ashraff

Cosmic Adviser

Mobile : +94 777 265677

E-mail : cosmicgems@gmail.com

Web : http://www.cosmicgemslanka.com

Blog : http://cosmicgemslanka.com/blog/