Easter Cake, Astronomy and Latitude

In Naples, people prepare an Easter cake called pastiera .

There are strict rules. On top of the cake, there are seven stripes.

Three in on direction and four in the other. 7 planets, 3×4= zodiacal signs, quadruplicities (fixed, cardinal, common) and 4 triplicities ( air, water, earth, and fire).

Admittedly, this could all still be a coincidence… But the three stripes are to remember the three decumane of ancient Naples. These are roads that cut through the city in a precise East-West direction, which, of course, made me think about the celestial equator, a celestial stripe that runs through the celestial East and West.

But why were there three decumane?

There is the major decumana in the center and one minor to the left and another minor to the right, in perfect parallels. Each road is precisely 5,92 m large. This makes a total width of the three decumane of 17.76 m.

If we transform this number into degrees, we come up with 17°45. If we divide this number by 2 we come up with 8°52′ which corresponds to Venus max. latitude from the ecliptic, not the equator.

But on the equinoxes, the ecliptic intersects the equator due East. And Venus max. latitude has always been used to define the boundaries of the ecliptic.

So the three stripes on the pastiera cake could point to the ecliptic on the day of the vernal equinox. But there are four more stripes. It’s rather common knowledge in Naples that these 4 stripes represent the cardinal directions.

But there is more. Story goes that Naples was originally founded by one of Pythagoras’ disciples. Whether true or not, as most ancient cities, the town’s master-plan carefully followed the cardinal directions.

The entire city was divided into four principal quarters and each quarter subdivided in three fraternities. One of them was dedicated to Hermes, others were dedicated to divinities such as Artemisia or Diana.

What caught my attention was the association of the quarter “Porto” (harbour) with Orion.

It so happens that Porto is in the south of the old town, just where Orion was at the moment of the summer solstice.

His symbol is easily recognizable, usually he holds a maze in the hand while elevating his arm, but in this building is looks more like a spear.

This is stuff for many more posts, but the point here is to remember, that when you come to Naples and get the chance to try a slice of pastiera, you basically eat a piece of latitude. Buon appetito.