Like last year theequinox of spring it arrives a day earlier than one would expect: March 20 and not March 21. The first day of spring changes every year. In 2022 it is Sunday 20th. The equinox is only a moment but it falls on a different day almost every year. The sky decides differently depending on the rotation of the Earth.
Also this year, spring arrives earlier than convection, the afternoon of the previous day and in a climate that is not spring-like due to temperatures, at least at night. Meteorologically it has already been spring for about twenty days, from the first day of March.
The equinox
Spring officially begins at 16.33, Italian time, on Sunday 20 March. It is the time of the equinox, the astronomical spring. There is a difference of 20 days between the start of all meteorological and astronomical seasons, which follow the succession of solstices and equinoxes. From a meteorological point of view, summer and winter are considered to be the three hottest months and the coldest ones, while spring and autumn cover the other months as intermediate periods.
The meaning
Equinox, in Latin, literally means same night and indicates that moment (an instant, not an entire day) in which night and day, that is, a period of light and a period of darkness, have the same duration. Indeed, the period of light is always a little longer than that of darkness because the sun is a disk and between sunrise and sunset it steals a few seconds by adding light.
Sun
The moment of the equinox is that of the revolution of the Earth around the Sun in which the Sun is at the zenith of the equator. The rays of the Sun are perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the Earth. On the day of the equinox, in autumn as well as in spring, the sunrise is almost exactly in the east and the sunset in the west. In the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn its maximum altitude is 66 ° 33 ′. From this moment on, the night takes over the South Pole, the North Pole is up to six months of light.
Precession of the equinoxes
Each year the spring equinox is slightly different from the previous one due to a phenomenon called precession of the equinoxes. The Earth is not perfectly spherical and it changes its axis of rotation in an infinitesimal way, for this reason the moment in which night and day have the same length varies constantly. Since the beginning of the millennium only in 2003 and 2007 was March 21st the first day of spring.
Autumn and spring
If in the northern hemisphere, the one above the equator, we go towards spring, in the southern hemisphere this equinox marks the beginning of autumn. The vernal equinox is also called the vernal point, Aries point or gamma point like the letter of the Greek alphabet that resembles the head of a ram.
Persephone
There is also an ancient myth linked to the changing of the seasons. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess who controlled the rhythms of the earth. Kidnapped by her uncle Hades and taken to her underworld, she spent 6 months of the year here, autumn and winter, in the other 6 of her the great joy of her mother in having her next to her led to the flowering of the earth.
The ancients
The New Year holiday in Mesopotamia was the vernal equinox. The date coincides with the zodiac sign of Aries, symbol of the God Marduk. The Sham El Nessim festival in Egypt has the same date. The March equinox marks the first day of the year for many calendars including the Iranian one. According to mythology Jamshid, the mythical king of Persia, ascended the throne on this day and every year this event was commemorated with feasts for two weeks. It is also a day of celebration for Azarbaijan, Afghanistan, India, Turkey, Zanzibar, Albania and several Central Asian countries. In Japan, it is an official national holiday that is spent visiting family graves.
Daylight savings time
With the arrival of spring, daylight saving time does not return. For the time change you have to wait a few more days. Summer time arrives on the last Sunday of March, this year on the night between Saturday 26 and Sunday 27.
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Source: Vanity Fair
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