BOSTON -- Thursday marks the beginning of spring. The vernal equinox occurs “egg-xactly” at 1:48 a.m.

Every year on this date we hear about a magical property that allows eggs to be balanced on end. To be honest, I remember as a kid getting a couple of eggs on this date -- and with my brothers -- spending what seemed like hours trying to balance an egg on its end.

I can still remember the year that I made it work: the wonder in my mother’s eye when on the kitchen table an egg seemed to stand on end. All the Brown brothers (4 of us total) were amazed at not only my ability to balance an egg, but the fact that this could happen on the vernal equinox -- on this one special day.

I remember being told or taught that this could happen because on this one date the sun's equidistant position -- halfway between the poles of the earth -- created a special gravitational force.

My amazement turned to skepticism in May when I tried to do the same thing. It was the morning of my birthday, May 8, and I tried to balance an egg at breakfast. Guess what? It worked.

Then I decided to try this every month on random days to prove not only my balancing prowess, but also the fact that this was fiction and not fact. Even at the age of 9, I realized there were many weather- related and science myths out there. Don't get me started about the myth that during a tornado warning you should run around your house opening windows because of the intense low pressure of the tornado. (I was living in Iowa at the time.)

Balancing an egg on the vernal equinox is fiction. Why is it just an egg? Why can't you balance other objects? What about a pencil, the remote for your TV or even a toothpick?

There is no scientific reason to support that the earth's alignment has any appreciable effect on the force of gravity to balance any object.

The equinox has long held a special importance in different societies. The first day of spring not only marks the end of winter, but the beginning of the season of new life. Flowers bloom, trees shoot out new leaves and animals give birth.

Besides jelly beans and chocolate bunnies, what appears in many Easter baskets? Brightly-colored eggs, of course. The egg, for many cultures, signifies rebirth, fertility and spring.

The Chinese are thought to have originated the practice of standing eggs on end during the equinox. Just as the equinox symbolically restores balance to the world -- balancing the day equally with the night -- the egg is the symbol of spring and a sign that all of nature is balanced and in harmony.

So on this day try balancing an egg. If you have enough patience it may work. But let me suggest hollowing out a little hole in its bottom and top -- blowing out the yoke -- then balancing it on the little hole. It will work!