First day of spring is cause for celebration

It’s official (as of tonight): It’s finally spring.

The new season officially arrives at 8:06 p.m. Tuesday, March 19. That’s when the Earth’s axis is tipped just right so night and day in the Northern Hemisphere are (nearly) equal in length. The first day of spring is an equinox, which means “equal night” in Latin.

The spring equinox can fall anywhere between March 19 and 21. (The fall equinox hits somewhere between Sept. 21 and 24 each year. In 2024, it hits its mark at 5:43 a.m. Sept. 22.)

In many cultures, spring represents renewal and rebirth, and this first day is celebrated with festivals and ceremonies, often incorporating eggs, flowers and sunshine.

According to folklore, eggs can be balanced on end during the equinox. (Actually, eggs – with a little practice – can be balanced on any day.) Bosnia celebrates the first day of spring with “the festival of scrambled eggs.”

In the U.S., we roll out the eggs for Easter celebrations. Marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter falls on the first Sunday following the full moon after the equinox. (That’s March 31 this year.) Dyeing and hiding “Easter eggs” are spring traditions dating back long before Christ.

Pagans celebrated the start of spring with lots of eggs and the festival of Eostre, the goddess of fertility and spring. Her spirit animal was a rabbit (another symbol of fertility). Over the millennia, Eostre’s rabbit morphed into our Easter Bunny.

Other spring commemorations center on flowers and sunshine. In Japan, cherry blossoms herald the new season and a time of reflection. At England’s Stonehenge, crowds celebrate the sun’s rays at dawn (while following ancient Druid traditions) and sip dandelion tea to cleanse their blood. In Mexico, celebrants wearing white climb the ancient Teotihuacán Pyramid to get closer to the sun’s warmth.

In Sacramento, spring arrives with plenty of that warmth and high temperatures in the mid 70s – about 10 degrees above average for this week.

Which means the best way to celebrate the start of spring in Sacramento: Get outdoors and enjoy this weather! Your garden is waiting.

Or just take a walk. Cherry and pear trees are flowering all over town. So are more daffodils, tulips and other spring blooms.

But keep those sweaters and umbrellas handy for the weekend. According to the National Weather Service, rain is forecast Friday through Monday with below normal temperatures. Sacramento’s predicted high for Monday, March 25, is only 60 degrees – five degrees below average.

What kind of spring weather can we expect? According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, Northern California’s long-range forecast for April and May “will be warmer and drier than normal” followed by a heat spike in early June.