By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Equinox
“Equinox” is from the Latin words meaning “equal night.” The equinox is the time of year when day and night are nearly equal length. The equinox occurs twice a year, in March and September, and marks the start of the spring and fall seasons. During the equinox, the sun crosses the equator, making nighttime and daytime roughly equal length all over the world. In the northern hemisphere, the vernal equinox marks the first day of spring and occurs when the sun moves north across the equator around March 21. The spring equinox is called the vernal equinox from the Latin word vernus, pertaining to spring. The autumnal equinox occurs in the northern hemisphere around Sept. 22 or 23, when the sun crosses the equator going south.
The spring equinox plays an important part in determining the date of Easter. The holiday occurs on the Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Easter can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. A March 22 Easter is rare and last happened in 1818. It won’t happen again until 2285.
In contrast, a solstice is when the sun’s path is farthest from the equator, resulting in the longest and shortest days of the year. It occurs twice a year, marking the start of winter and summer. Solstice is from the Latin for “sun” and “stand” or “stop.” The days have been getting longer since the December solstice. By mid-February the amount of daylight increases by about 3 minutes per day and lasts until late April to early May when it slows down to around two minutes more a day until the summer solstice.
Folklore says that eggs can be balanced upright on their end during the spring equinox due to the Earth’s relative position to the sun affecting a gravitational change. There is no gravitational change during the equinox, but the myth persists. If you want to balance an egg, it can be done at any time with a little practice, a lot of patience and the right egg.
