This Sunday marks the beginning of the spring equinox

Published March 20th, 2022

This Sunday, at 3:33 p.m., the vernal equinox will enter Mexico, an astronomical event that takes place once a year and serves as a transition between winter and spring.

This episode is explained by the fact that the angle of the sun faces the Equator and allows all parts of the Earth to receive the same amount of light and darkness during a day, which means that day and night have the same duration.

The equinox sets the tone in the northern hemisphere for the arrival of spring, while in the southern hemisphere it gives way to summer and autumn. It is also on this date that the Sun passes through its zenith at precisely twelve o’clock on the Equator.

IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

The spring equinox has served as a phenomenon so that, in different places of the planet, the entrance to the new season is celebrated with different festivities, and in Mexico, it is popular for the archaeological sites of Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza.

In Teotihuacan, thousands of people gather each year at the Pyramid of the Sun to commemorate the passing from one season to another. Visitors are usually dressed in white and some climb the 360 steps of the pyramid. There they perform rituals of purification and energy renewal, which consist of raising their arms towards the sun.

In Chichen Itza, there is a spectacle of lights and shadows in the temple of Kukulkan during the spring equinox, since the pyramid was built in such a way that, during the equinox, the sun casts its shadow on the edges of the stairs resembling the body of a snake. This fact symbolizes the descent of the god Kukulcan, the Mayan serpent deity.

And in Guanajuato, this Sunday, starting at 12:00 noon there will be special programs in the archaeological zones of El Cóporo in Ocampo and Arroyo Seco Victoria, where there will be cultural activities and gastronomic samples, organized by the authorities of both municipalities on the occasion of the entrance of the spring equinox.

In addition, the other 3 archeological sites in Guanajuato will be open on Monday, a day when they are normally closed. These areas are: Cañada de la Virgen in San Miguel de Allende, Plazuelas, in Pénjamo and Peralta, in Abasolo.

It should be noted that there are also special programs in places such as: Cuicuilco (CDMX), Tenango del Valle and Malinalco (Edo. de México), Tula and Huizingo (Hidalgo), Xochicalco, Teopanzolco and Tepoztlán (Morelia), Monte-Albán (Oaxaca) and Alta Vista (Zacatecas).