Brooms and Eggs and Spring

Today is one of my favorite days — spring (astronomically speaking) arrived — at 6:38 a.m. EDT to exact. Even though meteorological spring begins on March 1 (and continues through May 31) today is the real deal. And boy am I ready for it… someone (sorry I don’t know who) expressed my feelings exactly when they wrote

I hate winter in the springtime
I hate winter in the fall
I hate winter in the summer, but
I hate winter in the winter most of all.

But anyhow, back to today — and the Vernal Equinox. At the Vernal Equinox, the sun crosses the celestial equator on its way north along the ecliptic. What this means is that all over the world, days and nights are (approximately) equal. The name equinox comes from Latin words that mean “equal night” — aequus (equal) and nox (night.)

On the equinox, earth’s two hemispheres are receiving the sun’s rays just about equally because the tilt of the earth is zero relative to the sun, so the earth’s axis doesn’t point toward or away from the sun.

Some people believe that you can stand a raw egg on its end on the equinox. I remember trying this a number of years ago — I’m not sure but I think it was possible, but maybe it would be possible other times, too. Maybe I’ll try it again this year… or maybe not.

I’ve also heard that during the equinox brooms will stand by themselves — straight up. I’ve never tried it, but I plan to later today… if it does work, I can assure you I’ll report on it here — maybe even with pictures.

Honestly, I’m skeptical about both brooms and eggs… I think they’re both a lot like people — unbalanced. Happy Vernal Equinox!!
— 30 —

UPDATE:
I tried the broom experiment… and it worked!
I’m not sure it wouldn’t work any other time, so I’ll wait a few weeks and try it again….
The picture at right was taken after the broom had been “standing” for about twenty minutes.
Amazing, or creepy or spooky or……