The season of rebirth

The Vernal (Spring) Equinox occurred this past week.  It is one of only two days in the year when every single point on the Earth has the opportunity to see the Sun (assuming clear skies).  Here in Japan, it is a National Holiday, called 春分の日 (pronounced: shoon-boon no hee). 

Cultures all over the northern hemisphere tend to view this as a season of rebirth.  And, for good reason.  From this day for the next six months, daylight hours will be more numerous than darkness hours in the northern hemisphere.  In Persian, Arabic, and Turkish countries, Nowruz is celebrated.  Though associated with Biblical and historical events, the Jewish feast of Passover (celebrating the rebirth of the nation of Israel as they emerged from Egypt), and the Christian feast of Easter (celebrating the resurrection of Jesus after death by crucifixion) are located in this season of rebirth.   

An early-blooming cherry tree near Shinjuku

The Roman calendar year originally began with March (note that October, the eighth -- octo -- month, is the tenth month in the modern calendar, but is the eighth month following March).  The fiscal year of the United Kingdom retains this memory.  For a time, the Christian world celebrated the opening of the new year on 25 March.  Those doing the math in your head will recognize that this is precisely nine months before the date traditionally chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus; in fact the Church celebrates the Annunciation on this date (today, as it turns out).  In other words, the year began when Jesus was conceived in the womb.  Today, the UK fiscal year begins on 6 April because in the 16th Century, Pope Gregory and the Catholic Church recognized by studying the positions of the Sun and the stars that the year was not exactly 365 days long as Julius Caesar had decreed, and added 12 days to the calendar, and changed the rules for the leap year so that 29 February would no longer exist in century-ending years such as 1700, 1800, 1900, that are not divisible by 400.

Here in Japan, the start of Spring truly is a rebirth.  For the last several weeks, many flowers have been beginning to bloom, and some trees.  But the true showcase of Japan is the sakura (桜), the cherry blossom.  When they open up, the entire country, it seems, embarks on a trek to find the perfect cherry blossom.  Just this week, on Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency declared sakura season open; 24 hours later, the cherry tree on the JAXA/ISAS Sagamihara campus displayed its first blooms.  Many colleagues will be arriving for meetings in the next two weeks (I wonder why so many foreigners were invited to Japan at this particular time of the year 😄); I hope that the sakura survive long enough to show off for the visitors!