The equinox for 2010 occurred on Saturday at 17:32 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), signaling the official beginning of spring season in the northern hemisphere, is here.You can call it by names like vernal equinox, spring equinox, or March equinox, and it marks the end of winters and the beginning of warmer and longer days ahead.
The vernal equinox that marks the start of spring in the northern hemisphere also signifies the beginning of autumn in the southern hemisphere.
According to Wikipedia : “The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night)”.
Equinox occurs twice a year, March 20 or 21, and Sept. 22 or 23.
On The March equinox, day and night are equally long, that is there are twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness. This is because the sun is exactly vertically above the Equator and hence during this time, the sun spends equal time above and below the horizon at every location on the Earth.
The day today is marked as being midway between the sun’s lowest path across the sky in winter and highest path across the sky in summer. Since the celestial equator intersects the horizon at due east and due west, the sun rises due east and sets due west on the day of the equinox, as seen from everywhere on the globe.
It has been especially welcomed this time around after what has been known as a year of especially harsh weather around the globe and it will be extremely relieving to bid it adieu. In the eastern part of the United States people have endured an especially harsh winter that included several blizzards which dumped many feet of snow on the ground across the part. It also took it toll on power supplies and leaving families to fend for themselves for weeks on end in some cases.
This is celebrated as a holiday by people all around the world, especially by those who live in the harshest of climates on the planet and has certain cultural connotations to it since ancient times. The day also marks the start of several calendars, like the Iranian calendar and the Bahá’í calendar.
The spring equinox Is important for the Christians across the world too, as the churches calculate Easter as the first Sunday that falls after the full moon on or after the equinox.
In Japan during this time people clean the graves of their ancestors and leave gifts of fruit on the gravesides, they believe this makes the passage to their afterlife easier.
And how can we forget the socks burning tradition? On this day the locals at Annapolis city in Maryland specifically boatyard employees and sailboat owners, burn their socks, which they wear only in winters, this they believe will bring them more customers and work.
This day also has a legend associated with it. It is said that during the March equinox there is a special gravitational pull on the Earth that enables anyone to balance the egg on its point. Even though this myth has been busted by researchers it still add to the magic of this day.
Not only on earth this day has relevance in other planets too. Saturn, for instance, experiences an equinox once every 15 years, compared with six-month intervals on Earth.
So now lets all be ready to put the troubles of winter behind us and welcome spring in all its glory…………