Spring Equinox FAQs Q: Does Spring Begin on March 1 or on the Equinox?Ī: Well, both. The word equinox comes from the Latin words for “equal night”- aequus (equal) and nox (night). On the equinox, the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world. Read more about the reason for the seasons. Here’s an interesting fact: Equinoxes are the only two times yearly that the Sun rises due east and sets due west for all of us on Earth! While the Sun passes overhead, the tilt of the Earth is zero relative to the Sun, which means that the Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun. (Note, however, that the Earth never orbits upright but is always tilted on its axis by about 23.5 degrees.) →See your personalized Sun rise and set calculator. The amount of daylight each day will continue to increase until the summer solstice in June, during which the longest period of daylight occurs.

On the March equinox, the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere receive roughly equal amounts of sunlight neither hemisphere is tilted more toward or away from the Sun than the other.Īlthough in most locations (the North Pole and Equator being exceptions), the amount of daylight had been increasing each day after the winter solstice, after the spring equinox, many places will experience more daylight than darkness in each 24-hour day. Imagine standing on the equator the Sun would pass directly overhead on its way north. It’s called the “celestial” equator because it’s an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (also called the March equinox or vernal equinox across the globe) occurs when the Sun crosses the celestial equator going south to north. The First Day of Winter: Winter Solstice 2023

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