With the vernal equinox occurring at 7:44 a.m. ET, today, March 20, 2009 is the first day of spring.

You don’t have to look far to see signs of spring.  From the budding of the trees and the warming of the temperatures to the animals coming out of their winter hideouts, there seems to be a promise of new birth and color in the springtime air.

Has anyone ever told you that you can balance a raw egg on end on the first day of spring?  They think that somehow the pull of gravity is more equal on this day because the sun is more directly overhead. There is no scientific support for this.  The egg legend apparently got its start in 1945 when a reporter for Life Magazine wrote a story about a Chinese ritual in which people stood eggs on end on the first day of spring.  But the Chinese recognized the first day of spring in early February, or about six weeks before the spring equinox!  Later, in 1983, one hundred New Yorkers got together on March 20 to balance eggs, and an article about the event appeared in the New Yorker magazine. A year later, five thousand New Yorkers repeated the tradition on the first day of spring, and the egg legend grew.

The truth is that if you can get a raw egg to balance upright on the spring equinox, you can get it to balance any other day of the year. The pull of gravity or the position of the sun in the sky has nothing to do with it.  So don’t spread this unscientific rumor, or you’ll end up with egg on your face!

Celebrate the first day of spring by planting new life, new ideas and new goals. Spring is a time for hope, fertile ground and planning ahead. It’s especially important to celebrate the first day of spring with young children and to give them an appreciation for the little things that they can do to effect change in their lives.

Spring brings hope and as Clay Aiken fans, we have many hopes.

First, we hope that Clay is enjoying spring with his family and friends and that life is full of love and laughs.

Secondly, we hope that we will know some of the new adventures in Clay’s professional life “soon.”

And lastly, we hope that “soon” we will be back on the road with our friends, traveling to see Clay.  Everybody needs to experience Clay in person and see the magic first-hand.