March Equinox 2026

What this countdown tracks

The clock counts down to the March (vernal) equinox of 2026, which occurs at 14:46 UTC on Friday, March 20, 2026. At that instant the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward, day and night are roughly equal across the globe, and astronomical spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere.

About this celestial event

An equinox happens twice a year — in March and September — at the moments when the Sun is directly above the equator. The exact UTC instant shifts slightly from year to year because Earth's orbital period (365.2422 days) is not a whole number of days. The 2026 March equinox at 14:46 UTC works out to 10:46 in New York, 14:46 in London, 15:46 in Paris and Berlin, 18:46 in Moscow, 20:16 in New Delhi, and 23:46 in Tokyo on March 20.

At an equinox the terminator (the line between Earth's lit and dark hemispheres) runs from pole to pole, and every place on Earth gets very nearly twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness — the word equinox comes from the Latin for "equal night." The Sun rises due east and sets due west on this day everywhere on Earth except the poles, a useful trick for orienting yourself if you have a compass-free horizon.

The March equinox marks the start of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere and astronomical autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also the anchor for many cultural calendars: Iranian Nowruz begins at this instant; the Western Christian date of Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after the equinox; and the Hindu solar calendar begins around the same time.

What to expect

At mid-northern latitudes the equinox marks the moment when the daily increase in daylight is fastest — roughly three minutes per day at 40°N, slowing to zero at the June solstice. From the equinox onward the Sun rises further north of east each day until the June solstice, and the noon Sun climbs higher. In the Arctic, the equinox is the moment the Sun finally rises above the horizon after the polar night; in the Antarctic, it sets for the polar winter.

There is no special viewing required — the equinox is a calendar moment more than an observable event — but the alignment does produce one famous spectacle: at El Castillo (Chichén Itzá) in Mexico, the play of late-afternoon shadow on the pyramid's north stairway creates a serpent-shaped shadow on the equinox afternoon, and tens of thousands of visitors gather to see it.

Past equinoxes

• March 20, 2025 — equinox at 09:01 UTC
• March 20, 2024 — equinox at 03:06 UTC
• March 20, 2023 — equinox at 21:25 UTC
• March 20, 2022 — equinox at 15:33 UTC
• March 20, 2021 — equinox at 09:37 UTC
• March 20, 2020 — equinox at 03:50 UTC

How to observe

The US Naval Observatory, the UK Met Office, and timeanddate.com publish exact equinox times. Stellarium and SkySafari let you visualise the Sun's path through the celestial sphere. The closest observable phenomena are the dawn-and-dusk alignment of the Sun with due east/west and the equal day–night length, both of which are easiest to verify with a phone compass and a sunset/sunrise app.

Related countdowns

The March equinox sits in the year between June solstice 2026, September equinox 2026 and December solstice 2026. Pair with the Lyrid meteor shower 2026 and Comet 3I/ATLAS spring 2026 visibility for the broader spring sky calendar.

FAQ

When is the March equinox 2026? Friday, March 20, 2026 at 14:46 UTC. Is the equinox the same date everywhere? Yes globally, but local clock dates can shift by a day depending on your time zone — the equinox lands on March 21 only east of the dateline in 2026. Why are day and night equal at the equinox? Because the Sun's centre is on the celestial equator, so the terminator runs pole-to-pole and every latitude on Earth gets ~12 hours of daylight. What festivals fall on the March equinox? Nowruz (Iranian New Year) begins at this instant; the date also anchors Easter and Holi-related observances.