Definitions
I found out a few weeks ago that New Zealand defines the first day of spring differently from the US. It had never even occurred to me that different countries would have different first days of spring. The US uses the equinoxes to separate the seasons and I had just assumed everyone did that - after all the equinoxes happen at the same time everywhere... I figured that what we in the US named the start of spring (usually around march 21) would be the beginning of autumn in the southern hemisphere and that the september 23ish equinox would start our fall but their spring, but otherwise - they’d be the same, right?
Turns out there are a couple of options. New Zealand uses the first day of September for the first day of Spring. There are 3 months per season, and they’re whole months. The first day of autumn, then, is going to be the first day in March. But - there’s a bunch of places apparently, where the seasons aren’t necessarily the same lengths. In Ireland Spring starts at the beginning of February on St Brigid’s Day (I can’t imagine that making any sense - February was unforgivably cold and clearly not spring where I grew up). In Sweden, according to wikipedia, they define spring as starting once there are 7 days in a row with daytime temperatures above zero (that’s going to be degrees Celsius) - which seems very sensible, if non-constant.
And now, I’m trying to decide how I would define the start of spring. Last night I cooked asparagus for the first time this season. I think that would have to be a part of my definition - local asparagus being sold in the shops for reasonable prices. And this morning we picked up daylight saving time - again, clearly part of how I have internally defined spring. Although it will mess with another part of my definition - being able to get up with the sun for work - until mid-October when the sun gets back to rising at 6.30. Back home the first crocuses and the pussy-willow and forsythia were the plants to watch for, replaced here with the weeping-willows and the daffodils. But I think I’m never really going to be able to let go of the main definition I grew up with, which was the snow finally melting and the grass starting to turn green. Since we actually did have snow here this year, I’ve been feeling like it’s spring since that week in August. Apparently my definition is a bit hazy.