Translated literally, equinox means equal night. Because the sun is positioned above the equator. day and night are about equal in length all over the world during the equinoxes.
Today, March 20, at 5:48 a.m. (universal time), we mark the spring or Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere for 2008. The Autumnal Equinox will occur on September 22 at 15:44 (U.T.] this year. Some years the equinoxes happen on March 21 and September 23.
People in the Southern Hemisphere experience the opposite Equinox of the those of us in the northern hemisphere.
We experience the equinoxes because of the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth's axis. Because of the tilt we receive the sun's rays more directly in the summer while in the winter the rays of the sun pass through the atmosphere at a greater slant making it colder.
If the earth rotated on an axis perpendicular to the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun, we would not have seasons and there would be no variation in the of our days.
People have recognized the Vernal Equinox for thousands of years. Early people celebrated because their food supplies would soon be restored.
The date is significant in Christianity because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.
The early Egyptians built the great sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising sun on the day of the Vernal Equinox. The first day of spring also marks the beginning the Persian new year.
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