Spring Equinox: in Minnesota, maybe just the first word of this phrase is enough to quicken the pulse, to allow us to relax shoulders long hunched against the cold. Spring Equinox, coming just days after the deeply clover-centric St Patrick’s Day, is a promise of greenery to come; buds, leaves, flowers will soon heed its call. Every year, we are awestruck to realize once again that our frozen white-and-brown world has within itself to erupt into a chorus of cacophonous color. Spring Equinox is a declaration: life withstands the bleak, to reliably renew the world again.
Spring Equinox has always been a time when people’s thoughts turned to life, growth, fertility, rebirth. Eggs have been long-recognized symbols of this crucial cycle: the promise of life, soon to burst forth. Cultures around the world have associated the appearance of birds’ eggs in the spring with the world’s return to life after a long season of dormancy. While our modern culture has transformed this concept into a focus on baskets filled with candy, even this echo of ancient understandings can remind us: the world is a gift, life is a gift, to be appreciated and treasured and celebrated.
We know there are worlds in our cosmic neighborhood that are silent, lifeless. When short days of winter seem lifeless here, it is tempting to descend into despair. Spring Equinox validates the tenacious hope we have insistently nurtured in the preceding darkness that light, and life, will return. It is time for us all to break open our shells and burst forth into life, to remember the warm joys of this glorious world.
Our Spring Equinox celebration will take place during Sunday Assembly at 10:30am CDT on March 24, 2024. The intergenerational program will include reflections on spring, a fun skit, and music by The Eclectics. After the Assembly, please join us for a delightful Spring Brunch and mimosas! This is not a ticketed event, but suggested donations to help cover costs are $10 for adults and $7 for kids, with a family maximum of $30.