First day of spring 2023: Equinox welcomed with sunrise observance in Lehigh Valley (PHOTOS), It was a frigid start to the first day of spring. The air was cold and dry. The ground crunched underfoot as they gathered in the stone circle and faced the brightening sky.
As the rising sun peaked through the bare trees, the dozen people stood in quiet reflection. They contemplated the changing season, hours ahead of the vernal equinox, as the line of light illuminated the house and hillside behind them. Soon, birds were chirping. A woodpecker was busy off in the trees.
Spring was beginning with a promise of warmth. The land around Columcille Megalith Park was waking up.
The Celtic park with its stone circles and structures has hosted the dawn equinox observance before, among its other events. After a weak winter, the coming of spring may feel a little less notable — but that is how life really works, and all the more reason to celebrate.
“Normally the coming of springtime is after a long wait, a long, biting cold of winter with a hard-packed, frost-bitten soil,” said Emma Ackerman, a board member of Columcille Megalith Park who led Monday morning’s dawn observance. “It’s a time to welcome back the green and the growing, and celebrate the things that have been asleep in the snow — the flowers beginning to bud, the frost beginning to melt, the ice beginning to crack, and all of these things to give we for new life and new light after a long time in the dark.”
The 2022-23 winter didn’t really happen that way. There were long stretches of mild weather. Just a few small shots of snow.
“The winter’s felt a little bit more complicated this year,” Ackerman continued. “It’s easy for the coming of spring to feel a little bit less clear cut, a little bit less confident.
“But as we see the spring coming, as we see the sun beginning to rise, that’s the way it is sometimes — stuff not building naturally to a peak, but sneaking up on you a little, as it sometimes does.”
The sun rises on the first day of spring 2023 during a small observance at dawn at Columcille Megalith Park in Upper Mount Bethel Township on March 20, 2023, hours ahead of the vernal equinox.
Yes, in the predawn hours it felt like a withering winter was trying too late to hang on. But Monday already was beginning to warm in the early light. And soon the warmer days will be here to stay.
Welcome to Monday! Spring arrives at 5:24 PM today, and much warmer air will overspread our region this week. After a cold start though today, it will turn milder this afternoon and the air will remain very dry. Have a great day! #pawx #njwx #mdwx #dewx pic.twitter.com/LAQWicy9F2
— NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) March 20, 2023
