Fall Delayed

Pagan peoples who lived as pastoralists knew this fact from observable empircal evidence. Which is why when astrology developed as a science it gave a variance for the Equinox of two to three days, as well as for each of the sun signs, called cusps.

And why certain later pagan holidays and celebrations occur on or around the Exquinoxes and Solstices. Once again showing that 'primitive' traditions are not based on 'faith' but empirical observation.

Gee just like science.

The Equinox Error: The Fallacy of Fall's Arrival

Many people know that on the equinox, every location on Earth is supposed to get 12 hours of daylight. In fact, the term "equinox" means "equal night," signifying that the period of night should equal the period of daytime, and since the day is 24 hours long, we should have 12 hours of each.

This year, the September equinox occurs at exactly at 10:03 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time today (Sept. 22). At that moment, autumn (or fall) begins for the Earth's Northern Hemisphere.

So it might be expected that Sept. 22 would have exactly (or almost) 12 hours of possible sunshine and 12 hours of night. But it doesn't.

So the equinox occurs on the 22nd, but the days with 12 hours of sunshine come 3 or 4 days later. In the spring, the opposite effect occurs. As days get longer, the observed equinox comes a few days before the official equinox.


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TODAY
This year, the equinox will occur on March 19, which means the earliest first day of spring in more than 100 years.

Thursday marks the first day of spring, and the new season will be ushered in with the biannual phenomenon known as an equinox.

The spring equinox is one of two that occur each year, with the other ushering in autumn. During each of the equinoxes, there are nearly equal parts of daylight and night, and this year the spring equinox is occurring earlier than it has in more than a century, according to the Farmer's Almanac.

The last time spring arrived this early was in 1896, and for the most part, the equinox has occurred on March 20 or 21. This year, it is set to take place on Friday at 3:50 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). That's equivalent to 11:50 p.m. on Thursday for New York City.

During an equinox, the Earth's axis isn't tilted toward or away from the sun, so the sun shines directly over the equator, according to the NWS. This is why day and night appear equal in time.

For the Northern Hemisphere, the equinox means earlier sunrises and later sunsets because that hemisphere tilts toward the sun. The opposite is true for the Southern Hemisphere, where the autumnal equinox is occurring, which means shorter days.

A day-old lamb explores new surroundings on the first day
 of spring, March 20, 2019, at Coombes Farm in Lancing, 
England. ANDREW HASSON/GETTY

To celebrate the biannual occurrence, people gather at Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument in England. It's unclear if the celebration will happen this year, given the coronavirus outbreak. Newsweek reached out to the English Heritage Society, which manages the monument, but did not receive a response before publication.

Equinox Partners launches website with aim to improve board governance in gold mining

Staff Writer | November 3, 2022

Image by Jo Johnston from Pixabay.

Equinox Partners, a long-term value investor, announced Thursday the launch of “Directors Without Stock” to amplify its investment stewardship policy.


The New York-based hedge fund, with over $700 million in total assets under management with more than half in gold and silver junior miners, announced its new investment stewardship policy toward directors of public companies last month. Equinox Partners will vote against directors who have served for two or more years but hold less than two years of director’s fees in the company’s stock.

It sets “a clear, lower-bound for director share ownership,” according to chief investment officer Sean Fieler.

The website lists directors of gold and silver mining companies in the MVIS Global Junior Miners Index (GDXJ) who fail the firm’s stewardship policy and includes the director’s photo, name, company, total shares owned, value of shares owned, annual compensation, ratio of value of shares to compensation, and years on board, Equinox said in a news release.

Key results on the website include:

• Of the 95 gold and silver mining companies in the index with readily available public filings, there were 590 directors, of which 125, or 21%, that failed the Equinox Partners stewardship policy;

• Of those 125 that failed, 37 owned no stock at all;

• Of those 37 that owned no stock, the average board tenure was 8 years; and

• By eliminating the two-year minimum tenure constraint, 311 directors, or 53%, would fail the Equinox Partners policy.

By adopting a clear, lower-bound for director share ownership, Equinox Partners said it is pushing back on the growing indifference of boards to non-executive director stock ownership and the decision of some companies to prohibit non-executive directors from owning stock all together.

Equinox said it believes financially aligned directors are more likely to prioritize returns on and of owners’ capital. In comparison, the Canadian E&P industry is an example of a similar capital-intensive industry that has incentivized more insider ownership and prioritized disciplined capital allocation.

“Directors who lack any meaningful financial alignment with shareholders are going to tend to things that aren’t in the financial best interest of shareholders,” Fieler said in a statement.

“Insider ownership amongst the gold miners is worsening, as passive investors push board turnover that does not always align with the interest of shareholders. We hope our policy and this new site can be a step in a different direction.”

Happy March Equinox, Earthlings!

By LANCE D. DAVIS, NASA MARCH 19, 2022

An illustration of the March (spring) and September (fall or autumn) equinoxes. During the equinoxes, both hemispheres receive nearly equal amounts of daylight. (Image not to scale.) Credit: NASA/GSFC/Genna Duberstein

March Equinox Welcomes ‘Astronomical’ Spring

Did you know our planet has two types of seasons? They are meteorological and astronomical. What’s the difference?

“Meteorological seasons” follow the changing of the calendar, month to month, and are based on the annual temperature cycle – seasonal temperature variations modified by fluctuations in the amount of solar radiation received by Earth’s surface over the course of a year. For instance, the meteorological season of spring begins each year on March 1 and will end on May 31.

However, “astronomical” seasons happen because of the tilt of Earth’s axis (with respect to the Sun-Earth plane), and our planet’s position during its orbit around the Sun.

The March equinox – also called the vernal equinox – is the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere. Seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere where it will be autumn, also known as fall. These simultaneous seasons will occur March 20, 2022, at 15:33 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) or 10:33 a.m. CDT (Central Daylight Time).

Credit: NASA/Space Place

The Sun will pass directly above the equator, bringing nearly equal amounts of day and night on all parts of Earth. At the equator, an equinox results in about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night.

Equinoxes and solstices are caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and the ceaseless motion it has while orbiting the Sun. Think of them like events happening as our planet make its journey around the Sun.

North of the equator, the March equinox will also bring us earlier sunrises, later sunsets, softer winds, and budding plants. With the reversed season, those south of the equator will experience later sunrises, earlier sunsets, chillier winds, and dry, falling leaves.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, watch the Sun as it sets just a bit farther north on the horizon each evening until the June solstice – when the Sun reverses directions, moving back to the south. Also, get outside to enjoy the warmer weather and extended daylight!

Happy March equinox, Earthlings!

 

Full September harvest moon 

to shine as first day of fall looms

Published: Sep. 18, 2021

The full moon of September, known as the "harvest moon," will soon be shining in the night sky this week. It's the same week autumn officially starts.Shutterstock

By Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The full moon of September 2021 will be shining in the night sky this week, just in time for the official start of fall as the autumn equinox arrives.

Better known as the “harvest moon,” the September moon will officially reach its fullest phase at 7:54 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 20. But it will look big and bright for a few days.

The moon will be 98% full on Sunday, 100% full Monday and Tuesday, and 98% full on Wednesday, Sept. 22 — the first official day of fall, known as the autumn equinox or autumnal equinox.

ALSO: Fall foliage forecast is looking ‘vibrant’ in parts of eastern U.S.

The equinox occurs when the sun rises directly over the equator, bringing an almost equal amount of daylight and darkness hours in the northern and southern hemispheres on that calendar day.

The full moon of September, known as the harvest moon, will be biggest and brightest on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. It also will be 100% full on Tuesday, Sept. 21.Shutterstock

When to see the full moon rise

The best time to see the September harvest moon will be when it begins to rise in the eastern sky at about 7:15 p.m. Eastern time Monday, 20 minutes after the sun sets, and as it starts to rise at 7:36 p.m. on Tuesday.

The near-full moon will be rising Sunday at 6:48 p.m. and Wednesday at 7:59 p.m.

Nicknames for the September full moon

September’s full moon has a nickname related to the growing season. During most years, it is called the “harvest moon,” but sometimes that nickname is reserved for the October full moon.

It all depends on which of those two full moons appears closest to date of the autumn equinox.

Because this year’s full moon will appear on the night of Sept. 20, two days before autumn arrives, it will be called a harvest moon.

Last year, the September full moon appeared on Sept. 1, followed by another full moon on Oct. 1. “Because October 1 was closer to the equinox, October’s full moon was called the harvest moon and September’s full moon took on its traditional name: the corn moon,” the Old Farmer’s Almanac noted.

In addition to those nicknames, some native American tribes call the September full moon the barley moon, “because it is the time to harvest and thresh the ripened barley,” the Old Farmer’s Almanac says.

Space.com says the September full moon was known as the “falling leaves moon” among the Ojibwe tribe in the Great Lakes region, while the Cree of Ontario referred to this moon as the “rutting moon” because September was the time when many animals, particularly deer, started their mating.

The September harvest moon will officially reach its full phase on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. It also will be 100% full on Tuesday, Sept. 21.SL

When is the October full moon?

Last year, because of the lunar cycle’s timing, we had a special treat during the Halloween season — two full moons in October, including one on Oct. 31.

But this year, things will return to normal, with just one full moon in October. The so-called “hunter’s moon” will be shining at its fullest phase at 10:56 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2021.

The final full moons of 2021 will be shining in the sky on Nov. 19 and Dec. 18.

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX / MERRY MABON

 MABON

 

https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/the-origins-and-practices-of-mabon

The Origins and Practices of Mabon | Boston Public Library 

Sep 20, 2019 ... Mabon is a pagan holiday, and one of the eight Wiccan sabbats celebrated during the year. Mabon celebrates the autumnal equinox.

https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/mabon

Mabon | The Goddess and the Greenman 

Mabon/Autumn Equinox September 21st-22nd ... This festival is now named after the the God of Welsh mythology, Mabon. He is the Child of Light and the son of the ...

https://www.mabonhouse.co/mabon

How to Celebrate Mabon 2022 

Named after the ancient Welsh hero named Mabon ap Modron, which means Son of Mother, Mabon is the second of three harvest festivals that take place in the Wheel ...

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a37051456/how-to-celebrate-mabon

How to Celebrate Mabon - Cosmopolitan 

Jul 25, 2022 ... Mabon is essentially a harvest festival. Ancient Celts and pagans used this day to give thanks to nature for a good harvest and to pray to ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabon

Mabon - Wikipedia 

Religion and mythologyEdit · Mabon, the Autumnal equinox in some versions of the Pagan Wheel of the Year · Mabon ap Modron, a figure in Welsh Arthurian legend .....

https://people.howstuffworks.com/mabon.htm

Even Non-Wiccans Can Celebrate Mabon, the 'Pagan Thanksgiving' 

3 days ago ... Mabon, also known as "Pagan Thanksgiving," is a harvest celebration that falls around the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22-23, 2022.

https://www.outdoorapothecary.com/celebrating-mabon

Celebrating Mabon With Herbs & Ancient Traditions 

Sep 14, 2021 ... Mabon was an excellent hunter, possessing a nimble horse and a magnificent hound. When he was three nights old, he was kidnapped from his mother ...

London luxury gyms in crisis as Equinox plunges to £18 million loss

Simon Hunt
Fri, 25 August 2023

Kensington Equinox

There are growing signs London’s luxury fitness market is in crisis after high-end gym club Equinox posted an £18 million loss and warned on its future in the UK.

The firm, which has three sites in Kensington, Bishopsgate and St James’s and is popular with celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Khloe Kardashian, warned that there was ‘material uncertainty’ as to its status as a going concern and it was reliant on funds from its larger US parent to continue trading.

Equinox, which charges as much as £350 per month for a membership, turned over revenues of less than £15 million in 2022 as losses widened and it shed hundreds of members compared to pre-pandemic levels.


The firm’s plans to open a fourth site in Shoreditch, which it first announced in 2016, have never materialised, while a cycling studio group it owns, SoulCycle, was taken to court by Cadogan Estates earlier this year for failing to pay rent on a site in Chelsea which it never managed to open after three years. A Cadogan spokesperson yesterday told the Standard the firm reached a settlement with SoulCycle shortly before the court case was set to begin.

The Standard also found that:

Luxury gym club 1 Rebel, which has 11 sites including in Angel and St John’s Wood and charges up to £240 per month for a membership, warned in accounts filed in March it had millions of pounds of debt maturing this year that could bring down the company if it were not refinanced.


Another luxury gym, KX Life in Chelsea, warned in accounts filed in March its future was uncertain as it needed to find an extra £400,000 in funding before the end of 2023 or risk defaulting on loans owed to Metro Bank, after it posted a £2.7 million loss.


GymBox, which has sites in Bank and Farringdon and charges up to £153 for a monthly membership, in January said it had taken out a £2.5 million loan to finance operations after it made a loss of £8.8 million.


Body Machine, a high-end fitness studio set up in 2019 to serve the residents of Kensington, entered insolvency in September last year.

It comes as premium cycle machine firm Peloton saw its shares tank 22% yesterday after it posted a loss of $242 million as sales slipped.

The difficulties facing the luxury fitness market stand in stark contrast to more affordable gyms, which have seen their membership numbers creep up over the same period.

PureGym yesterday posted a 17% jump in sales and cheered membership growth in new gyms performing ahead of plan.

An analysis shared by PureGym suggested that as many as 40,000 members of premium UK gyms traded down to low-cost alternatives between 2022 and 2023. That would equate to a £100 million drop in trade for the luxury gym market, assuming an average membership fee of around £200.

One market analyst told the Standard: “People trade down from premium to low-cost memberships because the majority of activity that takes place in gyms is actually using the gym equipment.

“People in premium gyms who only use that equipment, who are subsidising say a swimming pool they don’t use, find that the low-cost clubs actually have more gym equipment, while the money saved from the high membership fee could be better spent on a personal trainer.”

Damn Accurate

Gee them groundhogs sure are accurate, or damn close. They predict that Spring will be in six weeks. Gosh that just so happens to be March 16.

Thus spring will be early, since it is only five days prior to the official first day of Spring March 21st the Vernal Equinox.

Shows that the pagan tradition of popular prestidigitation by pests is almost as accurate as science.

Groundhog Day or Groundhog's Day is a traditional festival celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. It is a cross-quarter day, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox.



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The Hunter's Moon rises: How lunar phases impact deer movement, breeding

Oak Duke

Fri, September 15, 2023 

One of the most popular celestial events, the Harvest Moon, will occur in late September, on the 29th this year as a Super Moon, rising full one week after the Autumnal Equinox on Sept. 23, 2023.

A Super Moon is when the moon is closest to the earth when full in its monthly trip around the earth. Since the moon’s orbit is elliptical, sometimes it is further away and appears slightly smaller.

This year the moon will appear larger and therefore brighter as it hangs in the evening sky, rising just past sunset.

Whitetail deer and other animals, what researchers term "short day breeders" such as sheep and elk, and even chickens, turkeys and sea turtles, along with fish such as the Grunion, are all especially sensitive to changes in daylight.

Scientists call this phenomena photoperiodism.

Poets, songwriters, astrologers, dreamers, mystics, and lovers … not to mention scary story tellers down through the ages have waxed eloquent about the magical qualities of moonlight, calling light from the moon moonbeams, or light from the silvery moon.

Even the words lunacy or loony (comes from luna, meaning moon) are derived from perceived effects of basking in moonlight.

But science shows us that moonlight is simply reflected light from the sun as the moon acts like an immense mirror. The moon does not generate any light of its own.

The length of days determines the amount of light any specific location on the earth receives augmented by moonlight (reflected sunlight) at any given time.

Bachelor bucks, still in velvet, in early September.

Certain species of animals have their biorhythms more greatly affected by photoperiodism and more easily measured than others.

The Harvest Moon is particularly significant because it is always named as the Full Moon that is closest to the Autumn Equinox, one of two days each year when daylight and the darkness of nighttime are of equal length. The other is the Vernal Equinox, which occurs in the spring, in March.

The Harvest Moon acts like a "set trigger" on a gun, especially priming whitetails in the Northeast and the Midwest for the upcoming peak of the rut, or breeding time, about one month away.

This year, the rut is timed for its first major flurry just prior to Halloween, under the next Full Moon, Oct. 28 2023.

More: Here's when deer hunters can take advantage of the first rut this fall

Sheep breeders and deer farmers are very aware of the effect of melatonin on the timing of the breeding cycle of their respective animals.

For instance, in order to have all their ewes drop their lambs in the spring at the same time, melatonin implants are marketed and used as a manmade "set trigger" like the Harvest Moon is to wild deer.

Melatonin is a very complex hormone found in many animals and plants. It helps set the circadian rhythms, or life cycle responses such as reproduction, sleep, and blood flow. A small gland in the brain behind the optic nerve called the pineal gland generates melatonin which actually represses the breeding impulse in short-day breeders like deer and sheep.

When deer or sheep farmers withdraw the previously placed melatonin implants, the hormone dissipates from the ewe, or in the case of farm raised deer, doe.

Breeding can and then does take place.

The bright Harvest Moon acts in an analogous way as the melatonin implants or CIDRs (Controlled Internal Drug Release) used by the deer and sheep farmers, as light stimulates melatonin flow.

But as the moon begins to quickly wane, the short days and ever-increasing darkness help the dissipation of melatonin in wild whitetails, whose eyes have been shown by researchers to be 1,000 times more sensitive to light than ours.

A buck diligently digging up a scrape under August's Full Moon.

Much research is being done on another tiny but important hormone regulatory gland, the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (perfectly positioned on the Optic nerve chiasm) that through the influence of light it governs the flow of melatonin created in the pineal gland.

Whitetails, to some degree, have their biological clocks set by this conjunction of the Harvest Moon and the Autumn equinox.

And one month later, the annual whitetail rut will kick into gear with the onset of the Hunter’s Moon.

Is it any wonder that the October full moon, just before Halloween this year, is called "The Hunter's Moon?"

— Oak Duke writes a weekly column.

This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Lunar phases impact deer movement, breeding. What to expect this fall