Today is spring equinox - so can you really balance an egg on its end?

Today is the spring or ‘vernal’ equinox, which some see as marking the ‘official’ start of spring – where day and night are of equal length.

The sun passes over the equator, and the days become longer – well, until the autumn equinox, at least.

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.

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.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

• British woman Anna Campbell killed after fighting Isis in Syria with all-female Kurdish group YPJ

• Putin’s opponents slam ‘dirtiest’ election as shocking ‘ballot-rigging’ videos emerge before Russian leader’s landslide win

• Vladimir Putin dismisses ‘nonsense’ British accusations of Russian involvement in spy poisoning

• How the Cold War led the world to the brink of nuclear apocalypse in 1983

• Toilet water is actually tastier than tap water, and we should all drink it, say scientists

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.’