#BROOM STANDING UP EQUINOX TV#

(The linking of egg-balancing with spring celebrations is demonstrated by the fact that the practice is associated primarily with the vernal equinox and far less commonly with the autumnal equinox.) Many, many superstitions involving the breaking, balancing, burying, decorating, reading (for purposes of divination) and hiding of eggs have come to be part of the annual spring celebration. Thus eggs - one of the most ubiquitous symbols of fertility and birth - have long been associated with the beginning of spring, and hence with the equinox. These tangible signs of the world's rebirth were of paramount importance to agricultural societies, and they naturally developed elaborate fertility rites to celebrate the occasion. Flowers blossom, trees shoot out new leaves and branches, and animals give birth (or their eggs hatch).

Particularly the vernal equinox, which marks the first day of spring and the end of winter, the beginning of the season in which daylight again outlasts darkness and life springs anew. The equinoxes, which mark the beginning of spring and autumn, have long held a special importance in human society. Rarely do we see any new stories reporting that this same feat can be achieved every other day of the year as well.

#BROOM STANDING UP EQUINOX TV#

Rarely does a year go by in which a local TV news station doesn't send a reporter out to a neighborhood park to capture images of people delightedly placing eggs on the ground and watching in amazement as the eggs stand on end. You can see the results for yourself.Every year on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes (on or about March 20 and September 22), the two days per year in which the length of day and night are the same, we hear about a magical property of these days that allows eggs to be balanced on end. This story has been repeatedly debunked, but I figured I’d give it a shot myself–making sure not to try it on any of the afore-mentioned magical days–when it should be utterly impossible because Unspecified Reasons. For more on this phenomenon, see my Skeptical Inquiree column “Egging the Equator” in the July/August 2016 issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. The same is of course true for balancing a broom or anything else if you are convinced it can only happen one day a year, you are unlikely to try at other times of the year (and realize it works then as well). If you believe that eggs won’t balance on other days, this belief is transmitted subconsciously to your hands.

If you are convinced that an egg will balance more easily on a certain day you will try a little harder, be more patient, and use steadier hands. Martin Gardner, writing in the May/June 1996 Skeptical Inquirer about the myth that egg balancing can only be done on the first day of Spring (a tradition he traces back to ancient China) explains that “Such self-deception is not hard to understand. The British tabloid The Daily Mirror–a reliable source for unreliable, sensationalized information since 1903–offered a story about goofy beliefs about the equinox including that eggs and brooms can be balanced on that day.įor many it does indeed work, though there’s no scientific reason why it should only work on that day. YouTube videos can be found of many people trying this quirk for themselves, mostly successfully (videos showing the trick not working are of course less popular and interesting). We are just past the 2017 summer solstice (June 20 and 21 were the longest days of the year for anyone living north of the equator), and amid the celebrations, pagan rituals, and Stonehenge treks, there were many who performed a trick seemingly unique to that day.Īccording to some, eggs and brooms can somehow be balanced on their ends on that day (and/or on the vernal equinox, when day and night length are about the same and/or on the first day of Spring, take your pick).

Broom standing up equinox