Bashkiria people celebrate Vernal Equinox and World Earth Day

UFA, 20 March 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Galiya Nabieva/. The World Earth Day is held on the day of the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the vernal equinox falls on March 20. It starts at 15.28, local time. Today, the length of the day and night is almost the same throughout the world.

The spring equinox comes when the Sun passes from the southern hemisphere of the celestial sphere to the northern one. Even the ancient scientists of China, India and Egypt knew about the days of the spring equinox. In ancient times, the day of the spring equinox was considered a great holiday.

The tradition of celebrating the Earth Day on the vernal equinox was set up by John McConnell, the American businessman and publisher, creator of the Earth's flag, RIA Novosti reports. On this day, the Peace Bell sounds every year at the UN headquarters in New York. It starts ringing precisely at the beginning of the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and autumnal in the Southern Hemisphere. The first time the Peace Bell was sounded on the day of the spring equinox on March 21, 1971.

In Russia, the ceremony "Peace Bell on Earth Day" has been held since 1998 in the International Centre of the Roerichs (Moscow) on the initiative of the USSR pilot-cosmonaut Anatoly Berezovoy.