According to the Meteorological Office today, 1 March, is the First Day of Spring. Hurrah!

The Met Office divides the year into four handy divisions with spring as March, April, May, summer comprising June, July, August, autumn as September October and November, and the December, January and February months making up winter.

However, traditionally the First Day of Spring is said to fall on the day of the vernal equinox, usually 20 or 21 March.

An equinox is a time when the nights are as long as the days and the vernal equinox is recognised throughout the world as the start of the new astrological cycle – with ‘vernal’ stemming from the Latin for ‘bloom’ to represent the transition from winter to spring.

The Met Office points out that if spring starts on 20 or 21 March – and with it falling this year on Saturday 20 March – then spring would include the first three weeks of June, which are traditionally thought of as ‘summer’ with images of strawberries and the run-up to Wimbledon (in fact Wimbledon fortnight begins this year on 21 June).

And with Midsummer’s Day, which falls after the summer solstice, on 24 June – by that reckoning midsummer is only three days after the start of summer!

So is today the First Day of Spring for the people of Hedge End, or are you waiting until 20 March to throw off winter?

My daffodils and snowdrops have started to make an appearance – traditionally a sign that spring has arrived – but I also woke to a lawn white with a heavy frost and as my calendar puts the First Day of Spring as 20 March and the First Day of Summer as 21 June I think I’m going with that.

However, today 1 March is definitely St David’s Day. Since the 12th century St David has been the patron saint of Wales, with his patronal day 1 March in remembrance of the day on which he died in 589.

So happy St David’s Day to all those in Hedge End with Welsh connections.