The word equinox comes from the Latin words for “equal night”—aequus (equal) and nox (night). The Spring equinox means the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world. 

With the Spring equinox, we enjoy an increasing amount of sunlight hours, with earlier dawns and later sunsets!

What Happens on the March Equinox?

On the March equinox, the Sun crosses the celestial equator going south to north. It’s called the “celestial” equator because it’s an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator.

If you were standing on the equator, the Sun would pass directly overhead on its way north. 

Equinoxes are the only two times each year 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 Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.

After the spring equinox, the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the Sun. Although in most locations 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. The amount of daylight each day will continue to increase until the summer solstice in June, during which the longest period of daylight occurs.

Astronomically speaking about Spring,

The first day of spring is marked by the spring equinox, which falls on March 19, 20, or 21 every year. The equinox happens at the same moment worldwide, although our clock times reflect a different time zone.

Meteorologically speaking, Spring

The official first day of spring is March 1 (and the last is May 31).