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Sayuri’s note for 3/16/24
Happy Spring and Vernal Equinox Day!
March 16th happens to be when calculating sunrise and sunset time, the amount of day and night are almost equal (the day is 12 hours and thirty-three seconds) in Dahlonega. According to the calendar, the vernal equinox is on March 19th this year. Many people, including me, believe that the equinox is when there is an equal amount of day and night when the sun rises due east over the equator sets due west. The theory is correct. So, why is the daytime a little bit longer during the equinox? When I looked into it, I found that by observing sunrise and sunset at the upper part of the sun (not center point) and by refracting sunlight in the atmosphere at sunrise and sunset, the daylight hours become slightly longer. Anyway, people, plants, and seeds are happy during this time!
We visited our family graves in Japan last November.
We have a national holiday on both equinox days in Japan. A lot of people in Japan go to visit their family graves on those days. Vernal (or Autumn) equinox is the middle day of the equinoctial week called Higan. Higan is a Buddhist word and it means the other side of the river, which flows between this world and the other world. Buddhists believe that when day and night are of equal length, it has been seen as the day when the other world and this world connect, so the spirits of ancestors come to see their families and descendants during Higan. I remembered my Grandma went to clean graves before the week and we visited our family graves and prayed for them on the day of the equinox. It would be nice to see my ancestors over the Etowah river because I can't go back to Japan this week. I could invite them to the garden dinner here and they would enjoy seeing y’all too!
It has been warm and our peach flowers have been blooming, even cherry blossoms and red buds this year. We usually see Red buds blooming in early April so we are surprised at seeing them.
We were shocked that one of our cherry blossom trees was chewed by a beaver from the river a couple weeks ago. I totally forgot about beaver in the river and now I put a fence around the tree. Hope the tree will survive.
When Sayuri was born, her parents and grandparents bought these Hina-dolls.
Speaking of peach trees and blossoms, on March 3rd or April 3rd (depending on the region in Japan), we have a holiday called Hinamasturi (also known as Girl’s Day or Doll’s Day). In some places it’s called Momo no Sekku, “a festival of peach blossoms”. When the peach tree was introduced to Japan, it was used to ward off evil spirits and the Hina dolls are believed to protect the young girls of the family from illnesses and misfortunes. Usually, parents or grandparents buy a set of dolls for a new-born baby girl. Centuries before that, people used the dolls for women's health too. So we display the dolls here today for the health and happiness of women of all ages!
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salad
salad
Spring salad (baby lettuce, garden fresh kale, and daikon) with homemade miso ginger dressing
main
main
Garden tomato, chicken (or chickpeas), tahini stew with roasted broccoli
red onion, garden garlic, garden potatoes, cremini mushroom, Ethiopian spice
Brown rice with wild onions (new crop organic short grain brown rice “Koshihikari” )
dessert
dessert
Basque cheesecake with garden raspberry sauce and mint
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