One of the emails in my inbox this morning was from Momma Donna Henes, the City Shaman from Brooklyn. She was talking about the Spring Equinox, or Eggquinox, as she called it – and mentioned that on this day, eggs will stand on their ends. She had a YouTube video of a ceremony she had done several years ago, where people had formed a big circle on a public square – and many of them had indeed gotten their eggs to stand up.
I had heard that when I was a kid, though there was no mention of the Equinox, and had spent much time not achieving that goal.
Having eggs in the fridge at the moment, I took them out and let them come to room temperature. There were half a dozen, but one had gotten jostled and was slightly cracked – so I threw it out on to the compost heap. After about an hour of coming to room temperature, I got the eggs to stand up. Wow! An hour after that, one was leaning to the right, the rest were fine. When I got home this evening, that one was leaning more, and another was starting to tip. Now there’s general tipping, but all five are still upright more or less.
Here are two quotes from her article:
Clearly, the egg stands for spring. The egg, in fact, stands at spring. Actually
stands up on its end at the moment of the Vernal Equinox. Stands at
attention as the sun crosses the equator into the northern hemisphere.
Stands in salute to spring.
There is something extraordinarily powerful in the image, in the
experience, of an egg standing upright. Something incredibly moving that
elicits ancient and rarely accessed emotions. Stood at the first moment
of spring, the egg becomes the symbol of a new season, the birth of new
life.”
Which doesn’t really explain the phenomenon, but does explain the feelings. What fun. Excuse me while I go take a cell phone picture!