Spring Equinox Google doodle introduces Quinn, an animated flower fairy & musician

Google has posted its Spring Equinox doodle, a lovely animated image of what appears to be a flower fairy playing music among the colorful first blooms of the season.

“This year’s seasonal Doodle series protagonist, Quinn, is strumming a pleasant tune to coax a mysterious creature out of hiding. With a mild breeze and beautiful flowers, would it be, could it be, spring?” asks Google on the Google Doodle Blog.

Leading to a search for “Spring Equinox,” the doodle was designed by doodler Sophie Diao.

As Google reports, the term “equinox” comes from the Latin combination of equi, meaning equal, and nox, for night. The Spring Equinox marks a 24-hour period on Earth when day and night are almost exactly equal lengths of 12 hours because the earth’s axis is perpendicular to the sun’s rays.

While the countries in the Northern Hemisphere are currently seeing Google’s Spring Equinox doodle, Google home pages in the Southern Hemisphere are seeing a Fall Equinox doodle, marking the first day of autumn for countries below the equator.

This will most likely be the doodle Google shares on the US home page come September 22, when the Fall Equinox hits the Northern Hemisphere.