Spring Equinox 2025

Also known as the ‘vernal equinox’ (from the Latin root ‘ver’ meaning spring; related is the French word for green ‘vert’), the Spring Equinox falls on the 20th of March every year. Astronomically, it is the half-way point of the earth around the sun, commonly celebrated in different cultures as the beginning of Spring. At this time of year, the amount of daylight experienced in the northern and southern hemispheres is the same.

The spring equinox marked the beginning of the new year in ancient Persia, connected to their religion of Zoroastrianism. To this day, Iran, as well as many other Central Asian countries, celebrate the festival of Nowruz (meaning ‘New Day’ in Farsi) annually, where it is a time for family reunions, feasting and song. There are also rituals specific to the holiday: famously, Charshanbeh Suri (‘Scarlet Wednesday’) includes jumping over fire, fortune telling, and a form of trick-or-treating known as ‘spoon-banging’.

In poetry, countless poets have marked the coming of spring in myriad ways – the days grow longer, with more sunshine and better weather (for the most part anyway – here’s looking at you, Scotland). Frank O’Hara memorialised springtime in Paris – ‘it is Spring the ice has melted, the Ricard is being poured, we are all happy and young and toothless’. Even rain feels different, refreshing, emphasising the sense of a new start – in Kenneth Rexroth’s words, ‘a good rain knows its season, it comes at the edge of Spring’.

Leonard Cohen’s ‘Probably Spring’ offers a set of images for the season: ‘It is the passion of our Lord. It is the ladder through her hair. It is a lovely field which you cannot find in the city’.

So heed Mr Cohen’s advice. Take a walk when the sun is out, smell the freshly cut grass, admire the blossoming flora, and lean into the sense of hope that permeates the season.

By Kieran Curran – photos taken by the author in Queen’s Park, Glasgow in the spring of 2024

Photo by Arno Smit