Equinox - Higan

Thursday, March twenty second, two thousand and seven

In Japan, there's a famous saying related to this week(equinoctial week) - "暑さ寒さも彼岸まで(Atsusa Samusa mo Higan made)". That probably means "Hot weathers and cold weathers will continue until equinoxes" in English. In fact, it was relatively warm today, so I couldn't help but break a lot of sweat when I was working in my factory. However, I was able to work so hard thanks to the huge amount of meat I had yesterday. :) Anyway, I think this year's cold season has just ended and cherry trees will be in bloom soon.

Talking of "Higan", many Japanese people visit their ancestors' graves in equinoctial weeks. In the weeks, the daytime and nighttime lengths are almost the same as you know. In Buddhism, it's thought that daytime is kinda this world and nighttime is another world for dead people and that dead people can get across the river between the two world in Higans. Therefore, we might be able to have reunions with our ancestors during the week. That's why we visit our ancestors' graves in the periods.


"quoted from LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English"
equinox [countable noun]: one of the two times in a year when night and day are of equal length