History of The Spring: What is the Vernal Equinox?

Bill Petro
2 min readMar 21, 2021

In Colorado we have a saying, we begin the first day of Spring in the same way we began the Fall: with snow. This symmetry is relevant as both the beginning of Spring and Fall coincide with the Equinox. This word is made up of two Latin root words aequus and nox meaning “equal night” referring to the fact that daylight and night time are equal in duration.

Date of Spring

This year, the vernal equinox (Spring) occurs on March 20 at 09:37 UTC. This means Temps Universel Coordonne, or Coordinated Universal Time if you don’t speak French, roughly equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time if you’re British, or Zulu Time if you’re a pilot. The Autumnal Equinox occurs 6 months later. Since each equinox occurs at the same time whether in the northern hemisphere as the southern hemisphere, though the seasons are reversed, it is becoming common to call the (northern) vernal equinox the March Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox the September Equinox.

Vernal?

Where do we get the name vernal? It was St. Vernal of Bithynia in the 5th century who… Nah, just kidding. Vernal is from the Latin vernālis, from vernus “of spring.” It refers to the fresh or young part of the year.

Relevance of Spring

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Bill Petro

Writer, historian, technologist. Former Silicon Valley tech exec. Author of fascinating articles on history, tech, pop culture, & travel. https://billpetro.com