When is the First Day of Spring 2020? (Updated)
Spring, a time to celebrate birth, growth, and life. Many cultures celebrate spring and have done since ancient times, something we know from ancient festivals or religious structures. Spring marks the end of winter which means a step away from the dark and cold conditions that winter usually brings. But what is the first day of Spring 2020? The first day of Spring 2020 depends on which approach you take. The date differs between the meteorological start of spring and the astronomical start of spring. In this article, we’re going to look at the difference between these two dates as well as exploring the Spring equinox, all while considering how Spring matters to our spirituality!
When Does Spring Begin?
So, as we already mentioned, there are arguably two starting dates for spring. Why? Well, we have two different approaches to considering the seasons: the meteorological approach and the astronomical approach.
Meteorological Spring
The first is based on the Gregorian calendar, which is the dating system that was put into place by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, replacing the Julian calendar which had been in place since 46BCE. The new calendar was necessary because the Julian calendar miscalculated the length of a year by 11 minutes, which had added up and fallen out of sync with the seasons.
The Gregorian calendar divides the 12 months of the year into 4 quarters, with each 3-month section representing one season. So, every year Spring starts on March 1st and ends on May 31st. The next season, Summer, starts the following day on June 1st.
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[OG_FORM birthhour=”0″]So, when is the first day of Spring in 2020? If you take the meteorological approach, it’s on March 1st, the same day it is every single year. Of course, you could look at the start of spring from the astronomical side of things.
First Day of Spring 2020 – Astronomical Spring
The first day Spring 2020 does differ slightly when taking astronomy into consideration. After all, the Gregorian calendar isn’t perfect either and is still 27 seconds too long. This only adds a single day every 3236 years, so it isn’t really something we have to worry about now, but there are other methods for determining when the first day of Spring 2020is.
The astronomical approach takes the Spring equinox into consideration when determining the first day of Spring. There is four seasonal astronomical phenomena that we can discuss: the summer solstice, the winter solstice, the Spring equinox, and the fall/autumn equinox. The solstices mark the point when the days are longest/shortest, while the equinoxes mark the points where the day and night are equal in length. Each season starts with one of these events and ends with the next one. The term equinox is literally Latin for “equal night”.
The confusion of the first day of Spring 2020 most likely stems from the fact that when taking the astronomical approach, the first day of each season can vary slightly from year to year. This year, Spring starts on Wednesday, March 20th but can vary between the 19th and 21st. This year, Spring ends on Friday, June 21st which is when the summer solstice happens.
Spiritual Benefits
Knowing the first day of Spring 2020 can be important if you’re going to make the most of the energy shift. Spring marks the transition from the cold darkness to the warm lightness and so it can be an important step on any spiritual journey. There are some things you can consider doing to really make the most of this energy shift. We’re going to look at just a couple of these practices that can help shape the rest of your year.
Rebirth
The first day of Spring 2020 brings in new life all around us: flowers blossom, chicks sit in their nests in trees, and lambs can be seen prancing around fields. Spring is quite literally nature’s time for life to be born or reborn. Many people use all this positive energy to their advantage by allowing themselves to be reborn. You may be familiar with setting a New Year’s resolution, but another step is spring-cleaning, not of your house but of your mind, body, and soul.
You should make two lists: one list for areas of your life that can use improvement and another list for areas of your life that need to be reduced or removed altogether. This first list might include things like helping others more often, spending more time per week meditating, communicating with your angels more often, spending more time in nature, or exercising more frequently.
Your second list will involve being critical of your own behaviors and habits. This can be hard, but don’t forget that you can ask for guidance: either from angels or your friends/family members. To give you some examples, you might wish to spend less time watching movies or TV shows, stop smoking, remove toxic people from your life, or any other behavior that might be having a negative effect on your life.
Find Balance
The first day of Spring, at least from an astrological perspective, starts with the Spring equinox which as we discussed marks the point where the day and night our balanced. This balance is symbolic of aspects of our own lives which may need to be balanced. During Winter, it’s particularly easy to lose track of who we are due to long nights, cold weather, less social gatherings, and the various celebrations that take place.
Try to look at your life from an outsider’s perspective and consider whether you’re balanced. You might find that your spiritual and material worlds our imbalanced, perhaps because you’ve devoted too much time to material pursuits, maybe neglecting your spiritual journey in the process. Similarly, you might find that you’re neglecting your body in search of mental challenges. Reading is great but if you spend all day doing it without exercising at all then you will find that your mind, body, and spirit suffer the consequences.