Finally spring! How the equinox is related to a dead goat in Kyrgyzstan

Do you hear the birds chirping again in the morning and are you starting to feel like being outside again? Spring has arrived and March 20 – the equinox – marks the official beginning. Today day and night are about the same length, so each 12 hours.

But the beginning of spring is like that: it depends on how you look at it, it falls on different dates. The meteorological start of spring is on March 1 – the weather researchers need fixed periods for their observations and divide the seasons into three months each. At the equinox, the so-called equinox, which takes place between March 19 and 21, one speaks of the astrological beginning of spring – this is based more on the human internal clock.

The complicated name suggests an even more complicated explanation, but it’s actually quite simple: twice a year, day and night are roughly equal in length all over the world (with the exception of the two poles) – until day or night can be postponed again at the expense of others. expand. From an astronomical point of view, this means that the sun is vertically above the equator twice a year. This year it will take place on March 20, just before 10:30 p.m.

However, day and night are not exactly 12 hours each – Earth’s atmosphere is not included in this calculation. This causes the sunlight to be refracted and the sun to appear slightly higher than it actually is just above the horizon. And because it’s already – or still – light shortly before the sun rises and shortly after it sets, the bright part of the day lasts at least a few minutes longer.

The word equinox is also composed of the Latin words aequus (=equal) and nox (=night).

In Bali, for example, the Hindus celebrate the beginning of spring by fasting all day, meditating and doing without light and fire. In Kyrgyzstan, on the other hand, they play a kind of polo called buzkashi, but with a dead goat instead of a ball.

And Switzerland also has traditions at the beginning of spring – with carnival, for example, winter is to be driven away and spring is ushered in. The same applies to the Böög burning on the Sechseläuten on the square of the same name in Zurich.