Reasons to celebrate New Year on March 20

by K. R. Abhayasingha

According to the Gregorian calendar, 2016 commenced on first day of January. Most of us celebrated the occasion from mid night of 31 December 2015 and many extended the celebratory events towards their work places with New Year wishes, parties and religious activities.

If one kept accounts of the cost of the celebrations of New Year's Eve, it could run into many millions of rupees.

Two weeks after the celebration of the dawn of 2016, Tamil nationals celebrated another New Year like occasion on January 15, Thai Pongal, with a number of religious and cultural activities, and with plenty of eating and drinking. After Thai Pongal, there are two more days of celebrations of a different sort - Mahasivarathi Day (March 7) and Good Friday (March 25). Even though those two occasions are more or less religious, people do celebrate them.

Now the people are eagerly waiting with many hopes and expectations to celebrate the Sinhala and Hindu New Year on April 14. It will be celebrated, as usual, with range of functions that lasts a whole week and ends on a sad note for the monetary assets of some people.

Colours washing of houses, purchasing new cloths, preparing all kinds of sweetmeats and visiting relations are some of the April New Year events. Most workers from both private and public sectors go on leave to find time for the celebratory activities because the length of two public holidays, 13 and 14 of April 2016, will be inadequate for all New Year activities, which are scheduled according to auspicious times.

Celebration

Everyone celebrates the various festivals without questioning or verifying whether the day chosen for a particular celebration has been based on some accepted fact or scientific reason. If you were to question yourself as to whether there is any reason the dawn for the New Year to be celebrated on the first day of January, what answer would you have?

January 1 is only the first date of the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced as a refinement of the Julian calendar in 1582, after a series of amendments and corrections and is today in worldwide use as the calendar for secular purposes.

The starting day of the Gregorian calendar has been selected arbitrarily. There are a number of calendars vastly different to each other used by people in various parts of the world for various purposes!

Those who celebrate the Sinhala / Hindu New Year on April 14 this year never question whether the Sun's transition from Pisces (Meena) to Aries (Mesha) in the Zodiac is acceptable as an important astronomical event for celebration. Nor do they question whether it is all right to consider only 12 constellations of the galaxy, while there are more than 80 visible to earth?

Have you ever questioned whether it is all right to assume that the visible stars in the sky are spread over a two dimensional layer, while in reality they are widespread in a three dimensional universe with different distances from the earth?

People are used to following traditions which are all based on meaningless concepts. Their beliefs and expectations lead them to perform many rituals that have been added by someone or some people a long time ago, without any realistic base.

Understanding

Therefore, in the present day, with man's understanding of the environment, universe and interior of living bodies, there is an acknowledgement that many traditional celebrations are merely events resulting in wastage of man power, health and wealth.

Meantime, one should decide whether there are any instances or days worthy of celebration based on environmental facts and select one or several such occasions, if the nation really need to have a celebration. Let us discuss this in brief.

Motion

As the whole world is now aware, planet earth makes one vibration around its axis in 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds (not in a 24-hour period as many believe) while it moves along an elliptical orbit around the Sun with the least distance of 147 million kilometre and largest distance of 152 million kilometres from the pole of the ellipse where the Sun is located.

The period of one journey of the Earth around the Sun is 365.242 days (not in a 365-day period as many people believe).

Since the axis of the earth is inclined to the normal direction of the plate of motion through an angle of 23.5 degrees, the point, or place, on the earth surface above which the sun rises is not fixed but varies throughout the year.

This point is named Sub Solar Point (SSP) in Astronomy and Meteorology. The SSP lies on different latitudes in one hemisphere through a period of six months and on different latitudes through next six months in the other hemisphere. The location of the SSP changes from one hemisphere to the other every six months.

As the position on the earth surface where the sun rises or the position of the SSP, is a very important data in Astronomy and in the fields of Meteorology and also in Geography, there are global astronomical centres where the annual schedule of SSP is computed and the information made available to all responsible centres like Meteorological institutes over the world.

The information can also be obtained from the relevant websites.

According to information, obtained either from websites or from the Meteorological institutes, the Sun will rise over the equator, the line dividing the globe into two hemispheres, at 10.00 hours Sri Lanka time on March 20 2016 on its northward movement.

After this date, the SSP will gradually fluctuate northward and sun will rise over Sri Lanka's landmass between April 4 (Southern tip) and April 14 (Northern tip) this year.

Intensity

The day the Sun rises overhead over the equator, March 20, 2016 (one of the solar equinoxes), is a very important parameter, because the intensity of incoming solar radiation over the hemisphere (Sri Lanka is in the Northern Hemisphere) will begin to increase gradually from this date, allowing changes of the surface and atmospheric conditions to develop into a suitable level for the formation of seasonal weather parameters over the Northern hemisphere.

As far is Sri Lanka is concerned, weather parameters in the First inter-monsoon (March -April) and the Southwest Monsoon (May - September) are formed based on the solar radiation received by the land masses and the oceans. Hence the day, on which the Sun crosses the equator towards our hemisphere, March 20, 2016, is very important as far as all the countries in the Northern hemisphere, including Sri Lanka, are concerned. This day has realistic characteristics to be selected as a day of celebration. If one thinks March 20, 2016 is too early for a celebration, there will be some more important days in coming April. The Meteorological Department provides the nation the Astronomical information including the Sun's overhead positions in April, particularly during April 4-14, 2016 during which, the Sun rises over Sri Lanka.

One can name the most historically important area or city of Sri Lanka and the Meteorological Department will provide the day on which the Sun rises overhead to that area or city. The selected day is also suitable for celebrations.

(The writer is a Visiting lecturer, Post Graduate Institute of Science (PGIS), University of Peradeniya and Retired Director of Meteorology)