March Equinox · March 20, 2026 · 14:46 UTC
At the March equinox, the center of the Sun crosses Earth’s equatorial plane moving north. Neither hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun. Astronomical spring begins north of the equator, while astronomical autumn begins to the south.
At many mid-latitudes, the amount of daylight changes more rapidly around an equinox than around a solstice. The season can seem to accelerate because it does: sunrise, sunset, and the Sun’s path shift noticeably from one week to the next.
In the past: calendars made from living things
The sky provides a global rhythm, but people have also read seasonal time in local life: first leaves, flowering, insect emergence, bird movement, animal births, fruiting, and leaf fall. This study of recurring biological events is now called phenology.
Such observations were never merely decorative. They helped people relate weather and light to food, water, travel, and work. A useful seasonal calendar joined astronomy overhead with evidence underfoot.
In the present: the calendar and the place may disagree
An equinox is calculated from Earth’s position. Spring on the ground has no single start time. Elevation, latitude, water, soil, urban heat, and recent weather all affect what living things do.
That difference makes observation valuable. A printed date tells you where Earth is in its orbit. A swelling bud or returning insect tells you what this particular place is experiencing. Both are true; they answer different questions.
Phenology is also an important indicator of climate change. When flowering, migration, or insect emergence shifts at different rates, relationships built around shared timing can be disrupted. The future of a place is partly visible in when its familiar events occur.
For the future: create a record worth inheriting
Memory is generous but imprecise. Written observations allow comparison. A note made today can become useful next month, next year, or much later—even if it never becomes formal scientific data.
The goal is not to monitor everything. Repeated attention to one ordinary living thing can show variation that a hurried glance misses.
A practice for one person
Choose one perennial plant you pass regularly. It can be a street tree, shrub, garden plant, or weed growing in a consistent place. Record:
- the date and approximate time;
- whether buds, leaves, flowers, fruit, or seeds are present;
- one recent weather condition;
- one detail you would not have noticed from a distance.
Return once a week until the June solstice. Use the same four lines each time. Photographs are useful, but a few words force the eye to name what changed.
Carry forward
Attention is not passive. It is how a place stops being scenery and becomes somewhere you know well enough to care for.
From the Codex
The Practice of Place extends repeated observation into a longer relationship with local water, species, histories, access, and care.
Walk gently,
Earthsong