Illuminations why california

They believed the sun was dying and only its rebirth could ensure their survival. Mendoza has been researching illuminations for years. He saw his first one 11 years ago, and it moved him deeply.

The son of a Spanish-language radio announcer, he grew up in Fresno but fell in love with history on a fourth-grade field trip to San Juan Bautista. In California, Old World diseases devastated the Native Americans who lived and toiled at the missions. Native languages and cultures died as well.

Those great, vaulted, dark spaces also served as observatories, with astronomers focusing sunbeams through strategically carved openings to make a variety of calculations — from the date of Easter Sunday to the diameter of the sun. At San Juan Bautista, the science was focused on the solstice, according to Mendoza.

Over the last decade, Mendoza has seen other such moments. At Mission San Miguel, statues of saints are illuminated on a series of their feast days in October. In San Jose, the illumination occurs at sunset on the spring and fall equinoxes. Dear Friends, In an effort to continue to provide support to the most vulnerable homeless in our community during the COVID health crisis, Illumination Foundation has set up a telephone hotline.

Our multi-service center in Stanton will remain open as a resource to those in need on an appointment only basis beginning Wednesday, March 18, If you need assistance, please call our hotline number at from 9am to 5pm to speak with one of our staff members. Please know that we have put these procedures in place to keep our staff safe and healthy while continuing to deliver the highest quality of care to our homeless clients.

Please note that our Children's Resource Center, while closed to walk-in traffic, has a staff available to direct you to resources or to answer questions. Ruben G. Mendoza initially noticed this phenomenon at the Mission San Juan Bautista where the first morning light shines directly on the tabernacle on the altar on the winter solstice. He and his students have documented illuminations at 60 churches throughout the Americas and at 14 churches in California. Is this just happenstance or chance?

Most likely not, since the Franciscan friars had access to the 10 Books on Architecture by the Roman Vitruvius, an inspiration to builders for years. Additionally, Catholic Church documents have been found which stipulates this particular orientation.

What Dr. Mendoza has found in his Mission Solstice Survey is that " Mission San Miguel has the most complex array of solar geometries anywhere in the Americas". California Indians counted the phases of the moon and the dawning of both the equinox and solstice suns in order to anticipate seasonally available wild plants and animals. For agricultural peoples, counting days between the solstice and equinox was all-important to scheduling the planting and harvesting of crops.

In this way, the light of the sun was identified with plant growth, the creator and thereby the giver of life. I first witnessed an illumination in the church at Mission San Juan Bautista , which straddles the great San Andreas Fault and was founded in The mission is also located a half-hour drive from the high-tech machinations of San Jose and the Silicon Valley. Fittingly, visiting the Old Mission on a fourth grade field trip many years earlier sparked my interest in archaeology and the history and heritage of my American Indian forebears.

A group of pilgrims observing the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe had asked to be admitted to the church early that morning. When the pastor entered the sanctuary, he saw an intense shaft of light traversing the length of the church and illuminating the east half of the altar. After all, I thought, windows project light into the darkened sanctuaries of the church throughout the year. One year later, I returned to San Juan Bautista on the same day, again early in the morning.

An intensely brilliant shaft of light entered the church through a window at the center of the facade and reached to the altar, illuminating a banner depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe on her Feast Day in an unusual rectangle of light.

The Mutsun Indians of the mission had once revered and feared the dawning of the winter solstice sun.