Purple dream, toronto, and fur elise tulips grow in Central Park during a spring day in New York City, April 30, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
The season of spring is just around the corner. Vernal equinox, or March equinox, marks the first day of the spring in the Northern Hemisphere on Monday, March 20.
The Latin word "vernal" means spring and "nox" means night. Equinox happens twice a year — once in March and once in September. The latter is known as autumnal equinox or fall equinox.
During the equinox, daylight and darkness last for equal duration. However, not every year does this event mark the first day of the spring. Read on the following facts to know more about vernal equinox.
Due to the fact that there 365.242 days in the Gregorian calendar, the vernal equinox can also fall on March 19 or 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, but usually, it falls on March 20.
An equinox takes place when the Earth's axis does not tilt toward or away from the sun.
When the Northern Hemisphere has the vernal equinox, the Southern Hemisphere gets the autumnal equinox because that part of the Earth is tilted away from the sun.
The Northern Hemisphere gets autumnal equinox in September, when the vernal equinox takes place in the Southern Hemisphere.
Equinoxes are the only two times a year when the sun rises due east and sets due west.
Several cultures around the world have festivals to mark both the equinoxes.
You can also celebrate the Vernal equinox with the following quotes about spring.
"You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming." — Pablo Neruda, poet and Chilean diplomat
"In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." — Mark Twain, writer
"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." — Rainer Maria Rilke, poet
"The only thing that could spoil a day was people. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself." — Ernest Hemingway, novelist
"Spring drew on... and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night and left each morning brighter traces of her steps." — Charlotte Bronte, novelist
"The sun was warm, but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day." — Robert Frost, poet
"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" — Robin Williams, actor
