

(CNN) — Twice a 12 months, the solar does not play favorites. Everybody on Earth is seemingly on equal standing — not less than in the case of the quantity of sunshine and darkish they get.
Your location on the globe additionally determines whether or not you mark the day this 12 months on Thursday, September 22, or Friday, September 23. Individuals within the Americas will rejoice it on Thursday; time zone variations imply individuals in Africa, Europe and Asia will mark it on their Friday.
Individuals actually near the equator have roughly 12-hour days and 12-hour nights all 12 months lengthy, so they will not actually discover a factor. However hardy of us near the poles, in locations corresponding to Alaska and the northern components of Canada and Scandinavia, undergo wild swings within the day/evening ratio every year. They’ve lengthy, darkish winters after which have summers the place evening barely intrudes.
However throughout equinoxes, everybody from pole to pole will get to take pleasure in a 12-hour cut up of day and evening. Effectively, there’s only one rub — it is not as completely “equal” as you’ll have thought.
There is a good clarification (SCIENCE!) for why you do not get exactly 12 hours of daylight on the equinox. Extra on that farther down.
However first, listed below are the solutions to your different burning equinox questions:
The place does the phrase ‘equinox’ come from?
Exactly when does the autumn equinox occur?

The setting solar is seen wanting west on Randolph Avenue in Chicago simply days earlier than the autumnal equinox in 2019.
Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Getty Photographs
For individuals in locations corresponding to Toronto and Washington, DC, that is 9:03 p.m. native time. It comes at 8:03 p.m in Mexico Metropolis and Chicago. Out West in San Diego and Vancouver, meaning it arrives at 6:03 p.m.
However go within the different path throughout the Atlantic Ocean, and the time change places you into Friday. For residents of Madrid, Berlin and Cairo, it comes at 3:03 a.m. Friday. Going farther east, Dubai marks the precise occasion at 5:03 a.m.
Is the autumn equinox the official first day of fall?
Sure. Fall formally begins on the autumn equinox.
Allison Chinchar, CNN meteorologist, explains the variations:
“Astronomical fall is actually the time interval from the autumnal equinox as much as the winter solstice. These dates can differ by a day or two every year,” she says.
“Meteorological fall is completely different … in that the dates by no means change and are primarily based on climatological seasons fairly than Earth’s angle relative to the solar. These are maybe the seasons that extra individuals are aware of,” Chinchar says.

Fall foliage can come early in high-elevation locations corresponding to Kenosha Move, Colorado. This picture was taken on September 19, 2016, at evening with a protracted publicity, lit by moonlight and passing automotive headlights.
RJ Sangosti/Denver Submit/Getty Photographs
Meteorological seasons are outlined as the next: March 1 to Could 31 is spring; June 1 to August 31 is summer season; September 1 to November 30 is autumn; and December 1 to February 28 is winter.
“This makes some dates tough,” Chinchar says. “For instance, December 10, most individuals would contemplate winter, however if you’re utilizing the astronomical calendar, technically that’s nonetheless thought of autumn as a result of it’s earlier than the winter solstice.”
She mentioned that “meteorologists and climatologists favor to make use of the ‘meteorological calendar’ as a result of not solely do the dates not change — making it straightforward to recollect — but in addition as a result of it falls in line extra with what individuals suppose conventional seasons are.”
Why does fall equinox occur within the first place?

The rising solar tries to interrupt by way of the mist close to the city of Glastonbury in southwest England on fall equinox 2021.
Matt Cardy/Getty Photographs
The Earth rotates alongside an imaginary line that runs from North Pole to South Pole. It is referred to as the axis, and this rotation is what offers us day and evening.
The impact is at its most in late June and late December. These are the solstices, and so they have essentially the most excessive variations between day and evening, particularly close to the poles. (That is why it stays mild for therefore lengthy every day in the course of the summer season in locations corresponding to Scandinavia and Alaska.)
However for the reason that summer season solstice three months in the past in June, you have seen that our days have been progressively changing into shorter within the Northern Hemisphere and the nights longer. And now right here we’re on the fall equinox!
What did our ancestors find out about all this?
Listed below are just some of the websites related to the equinox and the annual passage of the solar:

Mexico’s Chichen Itza is hallowed floor in the course of the spring and fall equinoxes.
Getty Photographs/zxvisua
What are some festivals, myths and rituals nonetheless with us?
All all over the world, the autumn equinox has weaved its means into our cultures and traditions.
Nice Britain’s beloved harvest festivals have their roots in fall equinox since pagan instances.

Rikugien Gardens in Tokyo are ablaza in fall coloration. Fall equinox is a nationwide vacation in Japan.
courtesy Kimon Berlin
Are the Northern Lights actually extra lively on the equinoxes?
Sure — they typically placed on extra of a present this time of 12 months.
It seems the autumnal equinox and spring (or vernal equinox) normally coincide with peak exercise with the aurora borealis.
So why is not the equinox precisely equal?
It seems you truly get just a little extra daylight than darkness on the equinox, relying on the place you’re on the planet. How does that occur? The reply is a bit difficult however fascinating.

The night solar shines by way of the autumn-colored foliage on chestnut bushes on the banks of the Landwehrkanal within the Kreuzberg district of Berlin.
Stefan Jaitner/dpa/picture-alliance/AP
This bending of sunshine rays causes the solar to look above the horizon when the precise place of the solar is beneath the horizon. The day is a bit longer at larger latitudes than on the equator as a result of it takes the solar longer to rise and set the nearer you get to the poles.
So on fall equinox, the size of day will differ just a little relying on the place you’re. Listed below are a number of breakdowns to offer you an approximate concept:
• At or close to the equator: About 12 hours and 6 minutes (Quito, Ecuador; Nairobi, Kenya; and Singapore)
• At or close to 30 levels latitude north: About 12 hours and eight minutes (New Orleans, Louisiana; Cairo, Egypt; and Shanghai, China)
• At or close to 60 levels latitude north: About 12 hours and 16 minutes (Helsinki, Finland, and Anchorage, Alaska)