What Is The Equinox?

The equinox is the point at which the sun is loctated right over the equator, or more over, when the sun is at one of the two points where its path (the ecliptic) is meet by the the celestial equator (the line which shares the same plane as the Earth's equator). This happens twice every year, once around 20th March, and once around 23 September. During the period of the equinox the Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth. The word equinox is derived from the latin words 'aequus' meaning equal and 'nox' meaning night, although in practice the days are usually slightly longer than the nights by approximately 14 minuets.

The equinox has significance in may cultures including;
Christianity - where it is used to calculate Easter (it being the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the equinox)
Iranian - where the March equinox marks the first day of their calendar
Japan - where the March equinox is national holiday and is spent visiting family graves or holding family reunions.