Pssst! You! Yeah, you... are a passenger on a planet... on a blue-green planet that's orbiting a golden star. And right now we're traveling through a passionate place in our yearly orbit. When you see why it's passionate, you'll also see how bunny rabbits and decorated eggs help us to celebrate this. And... you'll see what Easter and estrogen have in common.

Here in the northern hemisphere we notice the weather warming, new greenery emerging, flowers opening, bees buzzing and birds laying eggs. This is because our days are longer than our nights now, for the first time in six months. Our ancient ancestors in Europe, where winter is brutal, were so intoxicated with spring fever that they just had to party.

They celebrated at the full moon after the spring equinox. This is because they saw that a woman's menstrual cycle, a rabbit's gestational cycle and many other life cycles are synchronized with the moon's cycle. In fact, at the full moon after the spring equinox the resurrection of life is so rampant in northern Europe that it's almost riotous. Our Germanic ancestors called their spring festivity Eostara, in honor of Eostra, their lunar fertility goddess. Eostra is the root of our words estrogen, Easter and estrus. Of course, estrus is when a mammal is in heat - when she's hot to make more of her kind. Since rabbits are famous for making more of their kind, and since so many eggs are being laid in spring, the goddess Eostra's mascot was an egg-laying rabbit. And Easter, with its eggs and rabbits, is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

If you'd like to see what's behind this, just keep your eye on the sky. You'll notice sunrise is farther north now than it was in winter, when it was as far south as ever. So, we in the northern hemisphere are getting more light. This seasonal change is because our Earth is tilted to the plane of her yearly orbit. We tilt toward our sun during part of our year and we tilt away from it during the opposite part. Right now we're transitioning. So, the length of daylight changes ten times faster at the equinox than at the solstice. The point of sunrise travels along our horizon ten times faster at the equinox than at the solstice - so fast that it's racing. Yes, the sun at the spring equinox is far more passionate than it was at the solstice.

People who see the sky as God's calendar notice this. Folks in Europe used to say that the sun dances at the spring equinox, and they gathered on hilltops and on open plains to watch the dance. They rang bells and shot off canons at daybreak. In England and Ireland they placed pans of water in their east-facing windows to observe the reflection of the dancing sun. Even today, people celebrate Easter by facing east and watching the sun rise - reminding us what our words east and Easter have in common.

Whether we call her Mother Earth with her seasons or whether we call her Spaceship Earth with her tilted axis, her message now is about resurrection. And I hope you're enjoying it!

This is Harriet Witt, your guide for this little ride on our passenger planet.


If you have any questions, drop Harriet an email: harriet@passengerplanet.com


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