Twice a year day and night are almost the same length. The spring equinox, which in the northern hemisphere falls around 20 or 21 March, is the first of these two points of balance. But it is a dynamic balance: from that moment light overtakes darkness and will keep growing until the summer solstice. So it is not stillness; it is a scale about to tip towards life. This is why the symbols that accompany it speak of beginnings, of sprouting, of potential opening up.
The astronomical meaning in plain words
At the equinox the Sun crosses the celestial equator and, at noon, stands directly above the line of the Earth's equator. It rises almost exactly in the east and sets almost exactly in the west. In tropical astrology this instant marks the Sun's entry into Aries, the first sign of the zodiac: the astrological year begins here, not in January.
This technical fact has a deep symbolic consequence. For much of traditional thought the "true" year begins with spring, when nature itself starts again.
The egg: the world before the world
No symbol is as closely linked to the spring equinox as the egg. In many ancient cosmogonies the world is born from a primordial egg: in the Orphic accounts, for example, Phanes, the luminous principle, emerges from the cosmic egg. The egg is perfect because it contains everything while showing nothing: it is life in potential, the closed form that guards the future.
Decorated eggs in spring belong to a great many European and Mediterranean cultures. Their colouring, often red or gold, turns an everyday object into a small emblem of the cosmos. Breaking the egg, in this reading, means allowing what was hidden to come into the light.
Sowing: entrusting something to the earth
For the farmer, spring is the time when seeds are sown or sowing is completed. The sower's gesture is one of the most trusting acts there is: something precious is put into the ground, covered and left in the dark, knowing that nothing will be seen for days.
Symbolically, sowing teaches three things:
- choice: you do not sow everything, you decide what to grow;
- patience: the seed works in silence before it shows itself;
- care: a seed is not enough; it needs water, light and protection.
In some Italian traditions of the Easter season, plates of wheat or pulses are sprouted in the dark, growing into pale threads. They are a very eloquent image of life pushing forward even where light is missing.
Nowruz: the new day
One of the liveliest examples of an equinox festival is Nowruz, the Persian New Year, whose name means "new day" and which is celebrated precisely at the spring equinox. It is still observed today in Iran and in many countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus. Among its customs is the haft-sin table, with seven items whose names begin with the Persian letter sin, each with an auspicious meaning: sprouts, vinegar, garlic, apple and sumac, among others. Eggs are painted and sprouts are grown in dishes, which at the end of the festival are entrusted to running water.
Easter and the equinox moon
The Christian calendar is also tied to this moment. The traditional rule sets Easter on the Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, which for ecclesiastical reckoning is conventionally fixed on 21 March. The feast of the resurrection is thus anchored both to the Sun, through the equinox, and to the Moon, through the full moon: a meeting of the two luminaries that gives Easter its movable date.
The Anglo-Saxon historian Bede the Venerable also reports that the month of April was called in Old English after a goddess, Eostre, from whom the English word Easter is said to derive. Very little is known about this figure, and many modern reconstructions are conjecture.
A balance exercise
The equinox invites an inner check, similar to the gesture of someone weighing on a scale:
- Write two columns: what is growing in your life and what is still at a standstill.
- Observe whether there is an excess of activity or inertia, of duty or of desire.
- Choose a single seed: a project, a habit or a relationship to cultivate in the coming months.
- Give it a concrete form, however small, within the week of the equinox: a phone call, a first step, a written commitment.
Many of those who follow the calendar of the Officina Ermetica also use a real seed, planted in a pot, as a visible reminder of this choice.
In short
- The spring equinox is a dynamic balance: from here light overtakes darkness.
- In astrology it marks the Sun's entry into Aries and the start of the zodiacal year.
- The egg is the symbol of life in potential and of the world about to be born.
- Nowruz, the Persian "new day", is an equinox festival that is still alive.
- The date of Easter depends on the equinox and on the full moon that follows it.
