24 March, 2024

I’ve been travelling back in time again.

Back to my room in Verbier from 2023. Same place. Same people. Same wonderful lifestyle.

Of course, it was also my birthday this week. Thirty six. Pretty old, as people like to remind me.

I wasn’t excited about turning 36, but then when it arrived I realised it’s a nicer number than 35 and all was good in the world again. Two digits. One twice the other. Both friendly, curvy shapes. 37 could be rough next year though. A real sharp change. Full of indivisible primes. Where’s the joy in that number? I’d rather jump straight to 38.

It was also my father’s birthday yesterday. Only two days apart.

“What a nice present for your father you must have been!” somebody told me.

Debatable, I’m sure.

“Born on the first day of spring” they noticed too.

“Sometimes.” I replied.

They didn’t believe me.

As someone who used to always tell people I was born on the first day of spring, and then later discovered on wall calendars and the internet that it wasn’t true, I was pretty certain I was right. But their arguments came in strong, and I was outnumbered in their confidence. If the winter and summer solstices are always on the 21st, surely the spring solstice is too? Why would that change but not the others?

It made a lot of sense and I had no answer to that.

You know who did though? Google did.

And, in fact, It turns out that all the solstices change. They vary between the 20-22nd each year, because the year is 365.25 days long instead of being a convenient round number.

So there you have it folks. Ian Black. Sometimes born on the first day of spring. Otherwise known as the vernal equinox.

Except, was I actually born on the first day of spring? Back in 1988?

No.

I’ve been living a lie my whole life.

It turns out the day the vernal equinox falls on follows a 200-year-ish cycle. At the start of the cycle, it almost always falls on the 21st. By the end, it almost always falls on the 20th, or even 19th of March. In 1988 it fell on the 20th, and was only falling on the 21st about every four years. We’re now in a cycle of it exclusively falling on the 20th. It won’t get back to the 21st until 2101.