Springtime in Assisi

In real terms, the equinox is the only real moment when our planet knows true equality and thereby the possibility of peace.

Think about it. At the equinox, the northern and southern hemispheres experience roughly equal amounts of time during day and night. There is equality and parity. Presumably, there is also the potential for peace in that moment – one whole day – because a world without unfairness would surely be one without envy, disharmony and conflict.

Each equinox – spring and autumn – is just one day. It doesn’t last but serves as a glorious moment of possibility. The ancient world – Greeks, Romans, Mayans, Egyptians – knew and recognised this, marking the moment through architecture, art and ritual. In the religion of ancient Rome, the Quinquatria or Quinquatrus was a festival sacred to the Goddess Minerva and celebrated from March 19 to 23 with fertility rites and others that suggested new growth, a world remade.

In the 21st century, many are thinking of new equinox rituals that link the hemispheres’ fleeting time-parity with the larger aspiration of peace.

One such this spring equinox was the Enacting Peace initiative, high in the hills of Umbria, not far from Assisi.

The picturesque town of Assisi is, of course, known for the Catholic preacher who believed fiercely in evangelical poverty and ecological fraternity. Saint Francis of Assisi called all God’s creatures “brothers” and “sisters” and preached to the birds. He lived and died by the philosophy of owning nothing but his own amicable feelings of love towards others. In 1979, Pope John Paul II recognised Francis of Assisi the patron saint of ecology.

Leaving Rome for Assisi 130 km away, the road signs call out the markers of the landscape if that’s where you want to head: Terni, Spoleto, Narni…

We didn’t, being bound for the Ananda centre in Nocera Umbra, high above Assisi.

There, the Enacting Peace initiative, together with the World Upshift Movement, brought together individuals, institutions and entities with good intentions from around the world to make a substantive or symbolic gesture of peace on the equinox. Some were physically present; others online and still others in spirit.

The energy of the moment was caught and held.

But it wasn’t peace on Earth…yet.