by Valerie Williams

Created on: March 08, 2009   Last Updated: March 11, 2009

Semiramis. Astarte. Ishtar. Eostre. Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Queen of Heaven. Lady Day. Easter. This is just a sampling of some of the names the Spring Equinox is also known by. The Spring Equinox, as is the Winter Solstice, is a very important day among many religious and pagan followers around the world. One religious holiday in particular, Easter, and several pagan rituals are directly linked in some fashion to the Spring, or Vernal Equinox. But what exactly is the Spring Equinox and why have so many religious groups patterned their holidays and religious festivals after this particular time of the year? Why are there so many different names attached to the Spring Equinox? Does this have any particular meaning?

To understand pagan rituals attached to the Spring Equinox, we should have a quick discussion about what the Spring Equinox is. Basically, the Spring Equinox is the time of year when the sun, in its movement along the ecliptic, crosses the celestial equator, making night and day of equal lengths in all parts of the earth. one of only two times in the year when day is twelve hours and night is twelve hours. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Vernal Equinox occurs about March 21, and this marks the beginning of spring.

The beginning of spring was, and still is, a very important time of the year for pagans. In ancient times, pagans believed that when the days grew shorter in early winter, it was because their sun-god was leaving them. Therefore, since the Spring Equinox chronicled the return of the sun, rituals and celebrations abounded during this time of the year. In one of the oldest civilizations in recorded history, the Babylonian or Chaldean culture, one can find the veneration of the fertility goddess, Ashtaroth. From this, the Phoenicians derived Astarte, the Assyrians called her Ishtar, the Greeks called her Aphrodite. The origins of sun worship also has its roots, as well, in the Babylonian empire. Nimrod, the first ruler of this civilized nation, king of Babylon, ruled his empire with an iron fist. He founded many mysterious and mystical religions during his reign as king. After his death, his wife Semiramis (legend says that Semiramis was also Nimrod's mother) deified him as the sun-god, and as the "father of creation". She claimed her son, Tammuz, who was born after Nimrod died, was the reincarnation of Nimrod. Legend also says that Tammuz, who was killed by a wild boar, was resurrected after his mother wept for forty

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