Vernal Equinox 2021: Facts, Quotes To Celebrate First Day Of Spring

The vernal equinox, or March equinox, marks the first day of the spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the phenomenon falls Saturday, March 20.

The Latin word “vernal” means spring and “nox” means night. An equinox happens twice a year — once in March and another in September. The one in September is known as the autumnal equinox or fall equinox. An equinox takes place when the Earth’s axis does not tilt toward or away from the sun, according to Britannica. Many cultures around the world mark both the equinoxes with festivities.

Below are some quotes to celebrate the season of rebirth and new beginnings, courtesy of Good Reads.

1. “You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.” — Pablo Neruda.

2. “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

3. “In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.” — Mark Twain

4. “Spring is a true reconstructionist.” — Henry Timrod

5. “The only thing that could spoil a day was people. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.” — Ernest Hemingway

6. “No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” — Samuel Johnson

7. “The spring wakes us, nurtures us and revitalizes us. How often does your spring come? If you are a prisoner of the calendar, it comes once a year. If you are creating authentic power, it comes frequently, or very frequently.” — Gary Zukav

8. “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” — William Shakespeare

9. “Because the birdsong might be pretty, But it's not for you they sing, And if you think my winter is too cold, You don't deserve my spring.” — Erin Hanson

10. “If people did not love one another, I really don't see what use there would be in having any spring.” — Victor Hugo

11. “Yes, I deserve a spring–I owe nobody nothing.” — Virginia Woolf

12. Spring drew on... and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night and left each morning brighter traces of her steps." — Charlotte Bronte