Having Fun with the Sun

On Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine, 700 people last week stood in a semicircle atop 1,532-ft. Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place in the continental U.S. to be struck each morning by the rays of the rising sun. They stamped their feet and clapped their hands to the music of a fiddler and two accordionists to keep warm in the predawn, 35DEG F. chill. Then, at approximately 5:15 a.m., they intoned, "Wah taho, wah taho, wah taho" (arise, arise, arise), a Zuni Indian incantation. The sky lightened a bit in the east, but the sun stayed hidden behind a thick bank of clouds. No matter. The morning light had still inaugurated America's first Sun Day.

As the sunrise moved westward, similar fetes were staged by thousands of celebrants across the country. The festivities were organized by Washington-based Solar Action, Inc., a group of activists dedicated to "showing the world that the best energy source on earth may not be on earth at all but 93 million miles above it." At last week's rallies, they castigated the Carter Administration for not spending more money on solar energy. The sun now seems an unlikely answer to all the nation's energy problems, at least in the immediate future. But the President's Council on Environmental Quality claims that the sun could theoretically provide 25% of U.S. energy needs by the year 2000.

For most of the enthusiasts, Sun Day was also an occasion for celebrating spring. In Washington, D.C., 20,000 people spent a day reveling en masse in the sun at the Washington Monument, which acted as a gigantic sundial. They threw Frisbees, jogged in a "sun run" around the mall, sang folk songs and listened to blue-grass music.

Thousands of Bostonians strolled on the Common among a ten-man jazz band, clowns and belly dancers. In New York City, where the celebration was organized by Robert Redford's wife Lola, about 500 people at the United Nations Plaza droned an appropriate mantra at dawn: "Sun-nun-nun-nua ..." In Greenwich Village, eighth-grade students from St. Luke's School cooked chocolate-chip cookies and hot dogs on solar grills; at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Omega Liturgical Dance Company re-enacted a Renaissance ceremony in which a ball symbolizing the sun is passed between priests and dancers.

Some of the nation's festivities attempted to demonstrate practical applications of the sun's luminous powers. Two dozen students from the University of Miami strung five miles of clothesline along the causeway to Key Biscayne and hung up clothes to dry in the sun. Actor Eddie Albert arrived at Detroit's Cadillac Square in a car powered by gascohol, a mixture of gasoline and alcohol, which can be made from any plants that grow in the sun.

Some parts of the country had rain, even snow, but the Sun Day celebration still went on. At U.C.L.A., plans to cook popcorn on a solar-powered device were rained out, but 600 Sun Day sundaes--vanilla ice cream, orange slices, strawberries, raisins and nuts--were given away. Los Angeles' Museum of Science and Industry exhibited three sun-powered cars and beanies with solar-powered propellers. By the time the sun had set over the Pacific at 8:23 p.m., Sun Day had boosters coast to coast. Said Maggie Hardy, a coordinator in Los Angeles whose spirits stayed high despite the lack of sunshine: "Next time we have a Sun Day, we're going to find a sunny day and hold it impromptu."

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