The Vernal Equinox at Sunrise Barrow

My Connecticut-based friend Donna did something different this year.  Last Wednesday, March 20th, was the first day of Spring, or the Vernal Equinox.

She celebrated by traveling to Sunrise Barrow, a Native American calendar structure located in Hopkinton, Rhode Island.

It looks awfully cold to me!

This is the group who came to see the sun rise.  In this photo, it's coming up right behind them.
Donna is second from the left in Blue.

My friend writes:

Myself and a couple of friends encountered this big rock pile while we were exploring the west pasture of my ancestor John Porter's homestead property.  It points East, so Tom, the fellow in the orange cap (below), kept going back to see if it had some calendrical significance and decided that it must mark the Equinox.  He invited a few of us to come and witness that this is the case.

Tom set up reflectors to calculate various angles

 Donna shares that she really doesn't understand how all of Tom's reflectors are supposed to function or what they all mean.  However, the large orange reflector at the front of the rock pile is over the Pointer rock on the front.

The sun is just peeking up over the horizon.

Above, you can see the Pointer Rock at the bottom of the picture pretty much in line with the sun as it was rising on the Vernal Equinox.  It may be primitive, but it works!

I wonder if the barrow was erected to commemorate some big event, bury someone, or just help mark the seasons?

The American Indians that are native to this area are the Tomaquag Indians.  There is a memorial museum dedicated to the Tomaquag people in the town of Hopkinton.  Perhaps the Tomaquag Indians built the barrow?

Read more about these indigenous people here: Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum

Here in my neck of the woods Spring is in full gear and all the trees are in bloom.  These pictures were a sobering reminder that much of the world is still experiencing winter-like conditions.

I still have to say, Happy Spring!