Spring be Sprung, Eggs be stood on end!

Tonight (March 20, 2007,) at precisely 7:07 P.M. Spring arrives! This is known as the Vernal Equinox. On the equinox, either spring or fall, the sun rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west. These are the only two days of the year this happens. The sun also crosses our daytime sky along the equator of the earth as seen in space. I love the longer daylight hours, and the increase in the sun’s intensity.

This year is also the very last time the equinox will fall on March 21st in our lifetimes. Astronomical events are measured in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which is 5 hours ahead of us. With President Bush's advancement of Daylight Saving, time there will not be another spring starting on the 21 in this century. It will be either the 19th or 20th of March for a very long time.

Modern astronomy aside, people have recognized the vernal equinox for thousands of years. There is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the coming of spring. Many early peoples celebrated for the basic reason that 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. It's no coincidence that early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox.

The egg is one of the most literal and obvious of all fertility symbols, ancient eggish customs survive not only in the form of Easter eggs, but also in the belief that you can stand a raw egg on end during the equinox. This comes from the notion that, due to the sun's equidistant position between the poles of the earth on the first day of spring, special gravitational forces apply.
It can be done (on any day of the year,) with lots of patience (it also helps to secretly shaking the egg, so the yolk breaks, lowering the center of gravity, but that's cheating.)