Spring equinox. What the equal day means for family rhythm.

The spring equinox arrives on March 20th this year — the moment when day and night are again equal, and from which the days will grow longer until June. My daughter has learned to notice this. Not as a classroom fact, but as something she checks for herself each year: the specific sunrise and sunset times on the day itself, the felt quality of the light on the walk to school, the particular angle of the afternoon sun through the kitchen window.

I didn't teach her to track this. What I did was name it, once, several years ago. We were outside at dusk on the equinox evening and I said: today the day and night are exactly equal. From tomorrow, the days will be longer. She was quiet for a moment and then asked: how do you know? I showed her on my phone — the specific times, the astronomical explanation in two sentences. She looked at the sky. Then she went back inside.

The following September she reminded me about the autumn equinox before I had mentioned it. She had been tracking it on her own. She has done this every equinox since. The noting is now hers, not mine.