It’s the autumn equinox - so can you really balance an egg on its end today?

Today is the autumnal equinox, which signals the end of summer and the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere – and when day and night are equal in many places.

But does that mean that you can balance an egg on its end?

People genuinely believe this – thinking that there’s something to do with gravity which means that (for just one day) you can balance an egg at the equinox in spring or autumn.

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It’s thought to have come from rituals involving eggs – but while it’s true you can balance an egg on its end today, you could actually do the same on any other day of the year.

Hoax-busting site Snopes says, ‘The equinox brings no special egg-balancing properties with it.

‘Standing an egg on its end is something just about anyone can do any day of the year; the feat simply takes the right egg and a little trial and practice.

‘Since the vast majority of people never see or try balancing eggs on their ends on any day other than the equinox, though, many of them come away from the experience believing that something special must have occurred.’