Today is the First Day of Spring

 

Today is the first day of Spring, the Vernal Equinox. The word equinox is derived from two Latin words - aequus (equal) and nox (night). At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on the equinox, and that usually happens between March 19 to 21.

There are however countries that have Spring during different times of the year. In Australia and New Zealand, spring begins on 1 September and ends on 30 November. In Ireland, following the Gaelic calendar, spring is often defined as February, March, and April. In Sweden, meteorologists define the beginning of spring as the first occasion on which the average 24 hours temperature exceeds zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days, thus the date varies with latitude and elevation. In Brazil, spring months are September, October, November, and December. In Iceland, the first day of summer, a national holiday, falls on the first Thursday after April 18.

The Vikings had only two seasons: Winter and Summer. In fact, many countries don't have the 4 seasons that we do, because they lie between Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.