It happens every March 20 or 21 and signals the return of sunshine, warmer temperatures, blooming flowers and birds, bees and butterflies in the Northern Hemisphere. Or, for those Down Under, it heralds the arrival of fall. But what exactly is the spring equinox?
Is it an astronomical event? A vacation ever marked by the ancients? Actually, it is both. And don’t let the name fool you – just because those above the equator are calling it the spring equinox doesn’t mean it’s dragging along with the meteorological start to the season. The latter is not based on celestial events, but instead the annual temperature cycle and the 12-month calendar. This year it fell on March 1.
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Because our planet is tilted on an axis, while orbiting the sun, the hemispheres essentially alternate between periods when they receive sunlight and heat most directly. The Spring Equinox, which is taking place this year March 20 at 5:37 a.m. EDT marks the time when the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator as it moves north. Both hemispheres share the sun’s rays equally during the equinox, and day and night are roughly the same length. In fact, the term equinox originated from Equal, the Latin word meaning equal, and nox, the word for night.
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Along with the September equinox, known to those in the Northern Hemisphere as the autumn equinox, the solstices also mark the beginning of new seasons. Occurring around the 21st in June and December, they mark the longest and shortest days of the year based on sunlight, and are inverted above and below the equator, like the equinoxes. Early civilizations found the spring equinox and these other celestial events to be a reliable way to keep track of the seasons, and many of today’s cultures continue to pay tribute to them, as do their ancestors.
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At the famous British site of Stonehenge, as many as 1,000 druids and pagans congregate every year during the spring equinox to watch the dawn break over the prehistoric monument. In Mexico’s El Castillo, among the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, more converge on the same date to watch the sun create shadows that resemble a snake sliding down the pyramid stairs. And the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, is still celebrated by millions during the spring equinox.
It seems that while humanity now has modern calendars to keep track of our seasons in the sun, where our planet rotates in relation to that large, bright star in the sky, remains a method worth remembering.
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