今天（3月21日）是二十四节气之一的春分。春分，古时又称为“日中”“日夜分”“仲春之月”。春分的意义，一是指一天时间内，白天与黑夜平分，各为12小时；二是古时以立春至立夏为春季，春分在此期间平分了春季。

那么，你知道“春分”如何用英语表达吗？

（图源：视觉中国）

“春分”这个词有点难度哦，看上去有些陌生：vernal/ spring equinox。

vernal意为春天的；而equinox /ˈekwɪnɑːks,ˈiːkwɪnɑːks/ 意为“一年中白昼和黑夜长度相同的日子”，这样的日子一年只有两次，就是春分和秋分，秋分的英文就是autumnal equinox。

接下来，Yee君就为你总结一下“春分”这个节气的超全英语知识~

春分发生在什么时间？

"Vernal Equinox” arrives around March 21 every year and on this day, the sun is vertically above a point on the equator.

春分发生在每年3月21日前后，在这天太阳正好直射于赤道。

春分节气代表了什么？

 “Vernal Equinox” indicates two meanings. Firstly, on this day, the night and day are approximately equally long with 12 hours each. Secondly, it’s the mid-point for the spring season.“

“春分”代表了两层含义。第一，这一天白天和夜晚时间等长，各12个小时。第二，它是春季的中间点。

形成原因 

Vernal Equinox is the middle of spring and usually on the 20 or 21 of March every year. On this day, the sun directly blazes down the equator, so that day and night is equal  in length.

春分是春季中间的一天，通常在每年的3月20日或者21日。这一天，太阳直射赤道，所以白天、黑夜是一样长的。

气候特征 

After this day, the sun continues to move to the north hemisphere and the temperature continues to rise. Daily average temperature in most areas in China reaches 0 degree Celsius above.

春分过后，太阳继续向北半球移动，气温持续上升。在中国大部分地区，日均气温为0°以上。

春分的寓意  

Humans living thousands of years may not have known the details of this astronomy, but over generations they certainly learnt that the Earth gets warmer and colder in pretty regular cycles, with the spring equinox marking one point when the Northern Hemisphere begins to shrug off winter’s cold.

生活了几千年的人类可能并不清楚这一天文现象的玄机，但是世世代代的人们都知道地球会周期性地降温和回暖，春分是其中的一个时间划分点，届时北半球开始摆脱冬天的寒冷。

Warmer temperatures thaw frozen ground to make it easier for planting crops, increased rainfall waters these and animals that hibernated over winter emerge from their dens. 

气温回暖，土地解冻，适合种植农作物，同时降雨增加，利于灌溉，冬眠越冬的动物也从各自的窝里出来了。

春分饮食小贴士  

Since “Vernal Equinox” equally divides day and night, people should pay more attention on the balance of Yin Qi and Yang Qi in human’s body. 

由于“春分”昼夜平分，人们更应该关注体内阴阳平衡。

Traditional Chinese medical practice shows that to balance Yin and Yang, the human body requires both“supplying” and “releasing”. 

中医表明，为了平衡阴阳，人体需要同时“补给”和“释放”。

For example, when eating food with cold nature such ascrab, fish andprawn, it’s better to cook them with food with warm nature such as ginger, spring onion, wines and vinegar.

比如，想吃生冷寒性食物，如螃蟹、鱼、虾，最好把它们和温性食物，如姜、洋葱、葡萄酒和醋一起烹饪。